I was a history major in college and that ish sounds almost exactly like questions I used to get. History professors are really concerned about their students being able to cram as much info into a small space as possible. It really doesn't leave much room for analysis, and you end up just "mentioning" events in one or two lines that should have at least a couple paragraphs of analysis.

I think the profs are just tired of all the reading they have to do for the course, so they try to make things short. I once had a final paper due, and the prof said "So I want a 10 page paper...", and didn't say anything about going over that amount. I wrote a 23 page paper because I had a great topic, did a lot of research, and was really interested in the material. The prof made me cut the damn thing down to 10 pages after I turned it in. "Too long" he said. :madfawk: Oh well, he still gave me an A, I just ended up doing a bunch of extra work. I was really proud of that paper, too.