Bunk combs the web for new interpretations of American history, and highlights the fascinating connections between them.
Book Review
Farmer George
The connections between the first president’s commitment to agricultural innovation and his evolving attitudes toward his enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon.
Comparison
The Attack on Birthright Citizenship Is a Big Test for the Constitution
Does the text mean what it plainly says?
Antecedent
In 1989, Senators Faced a Pete Hegseth Situation Very Differently
I covered the 1989 fight over George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense nominee. It feels awfully familiar.
Partner
Comment
Trump’s Talk of the Panama Canal Taps Into Old Myths About U.S. Power
By threatening to reclaim the Panama Canal, Trump is evoking false stories about U.S. beneficence.
Comment
Reclaiming Medievalism
Washington Cathedral’s break with Confederate memory.
Comment
Rise and Fall of the ‘Pansy Craze’
On Jazz Age gay culture and its backlash.
Debunk
The Revisionist History of the Nazi Salute
Elon Musk’s defenders were quick to claim that his hand motion was actually an ancient “Roman salute” — but that gesture never existed.