askhistorians

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In Back to the Future, Part II, a Western Union man finds and delivers a 70-year-old missive to Marty while Marty is standing in the middle of an empty street in an undeveloped area outside of town. Is this plausible?	63
In 'Unforgiven', Morgan Freeman's character avails himself of the services of a number of prostitutes at various points. Was it common (or even possible) that white prostitutes would sleep with black men in America at this time (1881)?	46
Why did Hong Kong's people, with their long history of republican capitalism under British rule choose to return to the control of China, a communist dictatorship, in 1997?	37
Why are post-slavery race relations so much worse in America than in other New World countries that had Black slavery, such as Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago?	35
To what degree did the McCarthyist anti-communism of 1950's America lead to a positive view of communism in the counterculture?	34
In "Pride of the Yankees," Lou Gehrig is given an unrealistically positive prognosis at the Mayo Clinic, despite doctors' knowing he has only a short time to live. Is this an accurate depiction of practice at the time (1940's)? If so, why were doctors so positive with patients, and what changed?	28
How were the Uighurs (and other non-Han peoples) treated in Qing China? Did their lot improve or decline once the communists took over?	28
At the height of the British Empire (say, 1890s-1920s), was there widespread anti-British feeling in the world similar to anti-Americanism today?	23
Is it true that the U.S. education system was #1 in the world until the inception of the Department of Education in 1979?	22
From the beginning to the middle of the 20th century, there were many U.S. auto manufacturers of significant scale. By the end of the 20th century, there were only three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler). What caused this consolidation?	18

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