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Notes -
Young Europeans will often know who JFK or Reagan were but will draw a blank on Mitterand or Helmut Kohl, unless they come from the country of respective leader. So I am not sure if @jeroboam is wrong here.
Interestingly, I've often found much higher name recognition for someone like Thatcher, but that could also just be an offhand sign of the status of English as the lingua franca.
I mean just being fair here I don’t think not knowing all of the previous leaders of your country is that unusual. Most Americans would struggle to name 15 Presidents of our 46. And of those who could, outside of really important leaders and events could not tell you what happened during the terms of those presidents. For most people, history is trivia, good to know, certainly, but doesn’t affect daily life in any real way.
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Sure, they'll know a bunch of US presidents specifically and not many leaders of other European countries unless there's good reason to (e.g the Irish have always had to pay attention to British politics). Still, while America is the exception to the rule of knowing very little about foreign politics, domestic politics will still take the prime spot.
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