History Q & A

When Did the U.S. Adopt the Policy of Stopping All Forest Fires?

by Gabriel Griffin

As forest fires blaze across many of the Western states this summer, the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies are confronted with the task of combating them. To date this year fire has consumed more than 3 million acres of forest - an increase of 2 million acres in the same period in 2001. The cost of suppression of these fires by year's end will easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.The methods currently used to protect us from wildfire we

How Did Iraq and the United States Become Enemies?

by Robert Buzzanco

While relations with Iraq have virtually dominated American foreign policy considerations for the past decade, and serve as the current casus belli of the Bush administration, the United States has a much longer history of involvement with that nation, a background which provides essential perspective on today’s crisis and Washington’s role in Iraqi politics over the past half-century. America’s interest in the Middle East grew exponentially after World War

Just How Bad is 6% Unemployment?

by HNN Staff

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced that the unemployment rate in April rose to 6 percent, the highest level since August 1994 (6.1 percent). Below is a list of each of the years since 1890 when United States unemployment reached 6 percent or higher. (Statistics before 1890 are unavailable or unreliable.) In individual years the unemployment rate per month often exceeded the yearly averages.

So What Does Jihad Really Mean?

by HNN Staff

Whose definition of Jihad is the right one? Zayed M. Yasin, the Harvard"American Jihad" speechmaker, says he wants to rescue the word from the Muslim extremists who have hijacked his religion. Jihad, he insists, is “the determination to do right and justice even against your personal i

How Did India and Pakistan End Up on the Brink of Nuclear War?

by Rick Shenkman

The Pentagon estimates that 12 million people will die immediately if the conflict between India and Pakistan goes nuclear. This is a shocking statistic, but that these two South Asian countries find themselves on the brink of nuclear war is not shocking. They have been here before.The story of their rivalry is best told in George Perkovich 's India's Nuclear Bomb

Firsts: Presidents Who Made History Because They Were the First to Do Something

by HNN Staff

President Bush, Sunday, in anticipation of his planned visit to Normandy on Memorial Day:"For the first time ever, if I'm not mistaken, the president of the United States will not be in the United States on Memorial Day." Turns out, as the NYT reported Monday, President Bush was mistaken. His own father as president was absent from the United States on Memorial Day thirteen years before. Condoleezza Rice took the fall."It was my

How Did Israel Get Its Current Borders?

by Matitiahu Mayzel

Three factors shaped the borders of present-day Israel: the British mandate on Palestine; the outcome of the Israeli War of Independence of 1948-1949 (the first of the Arab-Israeli wars of the 20th Century); and the consequence of the Six Day War of 1967 (the third Arab-Israeli war). The oldest of the borders of Israel is the one with Egypt. This was established in 1906, when the Ottoman Empires ruled almost the whole area of the Middle East (as distinct from the Near East) on whic

Recess Appointments: Questions and Answers

by HNN Staff

 The Constitution (Article II, Section 2) "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."The Historical DebateThe provision for recess appointments was included in the Cons

What Did the Federalist Papers Say About Supreme Court Appointments?

by Ed Pompeian

Note: The source for the quotations used in this article come from the Library of Congress website.Federalist #76: Alexander Hamilton in the New York Packet Tuesday, April 1, 1788Hamilton rejects giving power to appoint in hands of the electorate or their legislatureThe exercise of it [appointment] by the people at large will be readily admitted to be impracticable; as waiving every other consideration, it would leave them little time to do anything else… The people collectively, from their number and from their dispersed situation, cannot be regulated in their movements by that systematic spirit of cabal and intrigue, which will be urged as the chief objections to reposing the power in question in a body of men.Appointment is the responsibility of the president ... there would always be great probability of having the place [the presidency] supplied by a man of abilities, at least respectable. Premising this, I proceed to lay it down as a rule, that one man of discernment is better fitted to analyze and estimate the peculiar qualities adapted to particular offices, than a body of men of equal or perhaps even of superior discernment.

How did the Present Alternative Minimum Tax come into Existence?

by Bonnie Goodman

Why are more and more people having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)? And what is it? This controversial tax was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 to target the rich. But because the rates were not adjusted for inflation, it now targets not only the rich but also the middle class, and there seems to be no end to the problems its causes. The New York Times reported that "by 2010, nearly 30 million taxpayers will be hit -- among them, a staggering 94 percent

What Are the Origins of Memorial Day?

by Stephen A. Bowden

The following definition of Decoration Day (aka Memorial Day) appears in Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Bureau of National Literature, 1917). The custom of strewing flowers on the graves of their dead soldiers early in the spring of each year originated among the women of the South before the close of the Civil War. In some parts of the North a similar custom grew up, but its observance was not universal. May 5, 1868, while Gen. John A. Logan was co

How Did Guantanamo Become a Prison?

by Jane Franklin

In August 2004, a special panel set up by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to investigate American abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq reported that"Interrogation techniques intended only for Guantánamo came to be used in Afghanistan and Iraq." (1) By this time, the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib had helped to force the first U.S. concession of any rights at all for the hundreds of"unlawful combatants" confined in zoo-like cages at the U.S. n

What Did Condi Rice's Nomination in the 21st Century Have in Common with Henry Clay's in the 19th?

by Bonnie Goodman

On January 26, 2005 history was made when the Senate confirmed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state by a vote of 85 to 13. No black woman had ever held the post. But the vote also made history in another, less fortunate way. As the Associated Press widely reported, more senators voted against Rice's nomination than against any other secretary of state since 1825, when Henry Clay was up for the position and was confirmed by a vote of 27-14. Even though Rice may have had the largest n

What Is Wikipedia ... And How Does It Treat History?

by Alex Bosworth

History, the old cliché goes, is written by the winners. This is decidedly untrue in the case of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia lets anyone pen an article or edit an existing article from the comfort of their own home. The website offers 198 free encyclopedias, each one in a different language. The largest encyclopedia is the English-language version at 400,000 entries, but twenty encyclopedias have more than 10,000 entries.Authors are free to write whatever they want. Recently however, a discussion board has been set up to discuss entries on politically sensitive issues such as Israel, Palestine, and the Iraq war. Wikipedia requires all entries to be neutral. This stipulation is not always obeyed, but a group of administrators search out and re-edit biased articles.HNN took a look at how Wikipedia covered American politics, historians, historical scandals, and fringe views in its English encyclopedia. HNN also looked at what the Spanish, French, and German encyclopedias had to say about George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

Who Correctly Predicted the Outcome of the Election?: A Report Card

by HNN Staff

On the afternoon of the election it appeared, based on exit polls published by Jack Shafer at Slate.com, that the academics who study elections were about to be proven wrong. The polls showed John Kerry leading. The academics, using sophisticated models, had predicted George Bush would win. But then the election vindicated the academics.Historian Allan Lichtman had predicted

What Are the Arguments Made in Favor--And Against--the Electoral College?

by Nathaniel Bates

1. Why do reformers propose abolishing the Electoral College? Reformers argue that the Electoral College hampers democracy in a manner inconsistent with modern American practices. All votes are not counted equally under the Electoral College. Under our admittedly complex and convoluted system, a single vote for president in the State of Wyoming, for instance, counts for more than a single vote in California. Tiny Wyoming has an inflated number of electoral vo

How Many October Surprises Have There Been?

by Bonnie Goodman

The first election in which an "October Surprise" played a role in the campaign was in 1864. Thereafter it was a central concern in the campaigns of 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1980, 1996, 2000, and 2004. The term "October Surprise" originated in the 1980 campaign, and was coined by then Republican vice presidential candidate, George H. W. Bush. The Reagan campaign was fearful that with the hostages still being held in Iran, that incumbent and Democratic candidate Jimmy Carte

How Many Elections Has Vietnam Played a Role in?

by Bonnie Goodman

The first election in which the Vietnam War played a critical role came in 1964. Thereafter it was a central issue in the elections of 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992, and 2004. (In 1980 and 2000 it briefly became a subject of discussion.) Counting 1980 and 2000, Vietnam has been part of the quadrennial national debate in eight of the last eleven elections. Only the Civil War, of all our conflicts, figured in as many subsequent elections. And at the rate we are going, Vietnam may soon eclipse ev

Do Front-Runners in September Always Win?

by Aaron Burkart

Does President Bush's lead in the polls indicate he will win in November? It is a good indicator, but recent history demonstrates that the polls are highly volatile in some elections. There are at least four documented instances over the past fifty years ('48, '68, '76, and '80) where a candidate enjoyed a strong lead on Labor Day only to see it dissipate toward the end of the race. In two cases--1948 and 1980--the leader in the early fall lost in November. In the other years

Who Played the First Dirty Tricks in American Presidential Politics?

by Rick Shenkman

Until the 1840s dirty tricks had been all but unknown in American politics. The first presidential election in which dirty tricks were played was in 1844.