The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Your Child Needs to Know

by E. D. Hirsch, Michael Stanford (Editor), William G. Rowland (Editor)

Overview

Fully updated for the twenty-first century, The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy lists essential facts in twenty-one subject areas to promote successful learning in kids.

Child education expert E. D. Hirsch Jr. cuts through the wealth of information available today to highlight terms that a child should be familiar with by the end of sixth grade. With nearly 3,000 concise definitions and including 250 new entries (like Harry Potter, centaurs, northern lights, and World Series), this popular sourcebook makes it easy for children to become literate in mythology, literature, U.S. history, science and technology, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618408535
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	08/30/2004
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.62(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.63(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. is the Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and the author of Cultural Literacy, The First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and The Core Knowledge Series. Dr. Hirsch is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is president of the Core Knowledge Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to educational reform.

Read an Excerpt

Preface to the Third Edition

This new, updated edition reflects important changes that have occurred in the world since 1991, changes in history, science, and the arts that have become part of our common awareness, such as Harry Potter, the Persian Gulf War, El Nino, global warming, DVDs, laptop computers, and the recently named Southern Ocean.
Most of the entries that appeared in the 1989 edition still appear here, illustrating how durable literate culture is and how valid was the idea that gave rise to this book: namely, that we can communicate with one another in our national community only because we continue to share and take for granted the knowledge that we hold in common. To possess this shared knowledge is to be a member of the cultural community — to be an insider. Not to possess it is to be excluded from full communication with other members of the community — to be an outsider. In our democracy we want all children to have the opportunity to be insiders. That is why we have made this book.
That is also why my colleagues and I started the Core Knowledge Foundation (www.coreknowledge.org), whose mission is to bring this knowledge to all children through our schools. The entries in this book overlap with the topics studied in the early grades in Core Knowledge Schools.
The overlap of the topics in this book with the topics studied in good schools is especially important today, when schools, under the influence of the national No Child Left Behind Act, are spending more and more classroom time trying to improve children’s reading abilities. For children to understand writings in textbooks, magazines, books, and newspapers, they must possess the background knowledge that such writings take for granted. Cultural literacy and literacy are intertwined. Knowing the information contained in this book is a big step toward being a good reader and being a full participant in our society.
Good luck!

Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

Table of Contents

Contents Maps vi Preface to the Third Edition vii To Parents and Teachers ix To Young Readers: How to Use This Dictionary xii Pronunciation System xiv Proverbs 1 Idioms 6 English 12 Literature 18 Mythology 44 Music, Art, and Architecture 54 The Bible 75 Religion and Philosophy 87 United States History to 1865 99 United States History Since 1865 117 Politics and Economics 135 World History to 1600 144 World History Since 1600 158 United States Geography 169 World Geography 187 Mathematics 214 Physical Sciences 228 Earth Sciences and Weather 240 Life Sciences 251 Medicine and the Human Body 261 Technology 276 Illustration Credits 287 Index of Entries 289

Maps The Original Thirteen Colonies 114 Roman Empire 155 United States 170 Middle Atlantic States 175 The Midwest 177 New England 178 Pacific Coast States 180 Rocky Mountain States 182 The South 184 The Southwest 185 The World 188 Africa 189 Asia and the Middle East 192 Australia and Oceania 193 Europe 198 North America and the West Indies 206 South America 210