DEPRECATED! Don't use innerShiv! The HTML5 Shiv now contains patches for the innerHTML issue. Use that instead: https://github.com/afarkas/html5shiv Even with HTML5shim, IE < 9 won't style this: var html = "<section>Baw :(</section>"; $("#el").append(html); ...unless you use innerShiv: var html = "<section>Yay! :)</section>"; $("#el").append(innerShiv(html)); Get innerShiv (~1k .js) What the hell