★ In the US, our history books tell us we invented almost everything. Do other countries recognize the US as inventing the car, light bulb, phone, computer, refrigerator, plane, steam engine, and the Internet? Or do they claim any of them too?

None of those things are singular, out of the blue, inventions. They were all built upon many smaller, earlier inventions.

The bigger issue (for me) is that we’ve rewritten the history books about (for example) the discovery of this continent, the treatment of native peoples, the slave trade, women’s rights and so, so much more.

Churchill’s “History is written by the victors” quote is dead on.

A lot of high tech inventions come out of Israel and we never know it.

USB flash drives were invented In Israel for example.

Err…. The US didn’t exist when the steam engine was invented.

What @Darth_Algar said.

The development of new technology almost always rests on some prior technology. It is almost always a collaborate effort, spanning generations and many people across many nations.

I think of the things listed there, only the internet could be argued to have been invented solely within the USA, although I’m not entirely certain about that.

This idea that inventions are the work of sole individuals is a narrative derived from a naively individualistic perspective. In a similar vein, the idea of a nation being responsible for an invention smacks of simplistic jingoism. In this regard, it is no surprise that US text books attribute various inventions to the “USA”.

Peanut butter, telephones, zipper, instant replay, Walkie-Talkies, insulin, IMAX, pagers, Java, SONAR, basketball, 5 pin bowling, electron microscope, Wonderbra, pacemakers, egg cartons, wood pulp paper were invented by Canadians, invented in Canada, or both

Nannycams for keeping an eye on babies and preventing early crib death were invent in Israel

What history books have you been reading? The U.S. does not claim to have invented all of those things:
Light bulb, yes.
Telephone, yes.
Steam engine: The Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont patented in 1606 the first steam engine.
Car year 1886 is regarded the year of birth of the modern automobile – with the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, by German inventor Karl Benz.
Refrigerator history of artificial refrigeration began when Scottish professor William Cullen designed a small refrigerating machine in 1755.

I could go on but you can look them up for yourself.

Plus the internet was a French invention, if I’m not mistaken.

And the telephone is open to debate.

Actually, Elisha Grey may have been American as well, so ignore the post above.

I thought the English invented a lot of things, like steam engines, cars, what have you. (or at least revolutionized them)
I also know that the very first voice recorder, called a ’‘phonautograph’’ was invented by a Frenchman. Truth be told, it was a device used to study acoustics, and wasn’t intended as a voice recorder, even though it had that function.
And if I’m not mistaken, wasn’t the first dirigible invented in Germany?

Also, wasn’t a whole lot of shit invented long before America was even colonized?

car: Carl Benz, German
light bulb, 1820 – Warren De la Rue, British
phone, 1860 – Johann Philipp Reis, German
computer, mechanical, 1822 Charles Babbage, British
computer, electronic, 1936, the Z1, Konrad Zuse, German
refrigerator, 1755 William Cullen, Scottish
aeroplane, August through November 1903, Karl Jatho, German
steam engine, 1st century CE, Heron of Alexandria
Internet (world wide web), 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, British

@AstroChuck British

@marinelife You’d be surprised what is in kid’s “history” books or what they are taught by teachers.

I’m fairly certain that Elisha Gray was American and developed his telephone whilst living in Chicago.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WfAco1Vs_p8
Further proof of the inventive nature of your average British eccentric.

@Darth_Algar Antonio Meucci, Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray

“Meucci set up a form of voice-communication link in his Staten Island, N.Y., home that connected its second-floor bedroom to his laboratory.[5] He submitted a patent caveat for his telephonic device to the U.S. Patent Office in 1871, but there was no mention of electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound in his caveat. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci

Elisha Gray and his patent application

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Gray#The_telephone

Yes?

Intel Israel changed the face of the computing world with the 8088 processor (the “brain” of the first PC), MMX and Centrino mobile technology. Israeli engineers at Intel in the 1990s had to convince skeptical bosses to take a chance on MMX technology, an innovation designed to improve computer processing. It’s now considered a milestone…

http://israel21c.org/technology/israels-top-45-greatest-inventions-of-all-time-2/.

I reject the premise of the question. None of my history books ever claimed that we invented all of those things, and you haven’t cited any history textbooks that do. I remember quite plainly that the steam engine was discussed as part of the industrial revolution, which was taught as starting in England.

Furthermore, we have to remember that—in addition to @Darth_Algar‘s point about it being a cumulative process—innovation is most often a race between competitors. Any claim to be the inventor of something (as opposed to being an inventor of it) is bound to be debatable. And that’s without complicating issues like inventors sharing their notes or outright stealing from one another.

I should have written, “most Americans believe” but I’ve also seen some bizarre fallacies in my kid’s school books over the years. I had to sit down and go over the book and make sure they knew the actual facts.

Sorry I don’t have the book titles to provide you with. My oldest is in his 40’s.

Try to just roll with the question and ignore the reference to books. I can’t provide the books. The idea is that if you ask any kid where (not who – god forbid) invented anything, any technology, they would answer “we did.” Americans are a tad jingoist.

@MadMadMax Fallacies are bad patterns of reasoning. Did you mean to say “falsehoods”?

In any case, I think a lot of Americans—including myself—would answer “I don’t know” if you asked them who invented the refrigerator. The same would probably go for a number of other inventions that you have mentioned. As such, I still reject the premise of the question (i.e., that Americans as a group overwhelmingly assume we all invented everything).

Moreover, you seem to have gone so far into the realm of self-flagellation that you are attributing things that were actually invented by Americans to others. SONAR, for example, was the name for an American military project. The Canadians invented ASDIC, which was an equivalent project. But in the case of military technologies, you’ll find that they are often invented simultaneously by multiple countries at once and without knowledge of the other’s efforts (as sharing that information would typically go against the whole point of having a secret military program).

Can’t we just attribute everything to Nikola Tesla?

My history books never gave us credit….what book are you reading?