askhistorians

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Obama's name (particularly his middle name Hussein) was the object of xenophobic innuendo questioning his loyalty (especially in the context of US military intervention in the Near East). Was Eisenhower's German surname ever the object of similar distrust (i.e., suspicion he might be a secret Nazi)?	6048
While it now seems fairly tame and innocent in our post-South-Park world, The Simpsons—I recall as a child of the 90s—was genuinely scandalous and shocking to middle-aged and older adults in the 1990s. Why was that? I grasp the generational divide in taste, but not the moral outrage it provoked.	4522
Only about 40% of Mexico's population spoke Spanish in 1820. Today, that number is about 94%. Was a policy of thorough linguistic Hispanicization of the country already planned at the time of independence?	3571
In The Godfather, Vito is uncomfortable with his daughter marrying a Northern Italian, yet seems unconcerned about his son marrying a more obviously ethnically divergent New England WASP. Does this double standard accurately reflect mid-20th-century Sicilian-American views of outmarriage?	3538
The racially charged context in which marijuana was outlawed in the US seems pretty uniquely American, so how and why did it become illegal almost worldwide? (second attempt)	3457
Why do so many English pubs follow the "The ___ Arms" naming convention? What does "Arms" signify in this context?	3162
Why do massive job-creation projects like those of FDR's Works Progress Administration seem to have largely gone away by the late 20th century?	2663
Why have the Kurds been so thoroughly oppressed by seemingly every government they've lived under over the past century?	2556
Why do nearly all national anthems seem to have a similar Western orchestral style in common? Why aren't they more varied according to local culture?	2417
Sensitive, somewhat weepy male characters abound in late 18th c. Gothic novels and are not presented as unmanly or unattractive. Is there any truth in the claim I've occasionally seen that men's crying was more socially acceptable before the Industrial Revolution than it has been ever since?	2290

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