ahistoricism — Bunk History

Exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

A Truly Patriotic Education Tells Many Stories

Trump’s executive orders can’t define diversity out of history.

by David M. Perry via Foreign Policy on March 31, 2025

Entrance to the Texas State Cemetery.

It's Time to Defend the History of All Texans

The way we learn about our collective past is under attack thanks to new leadership at the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA).

by John R. Lundberg via The Texas Observer on June 21, 2023

Daryl Michael Scott.

"Bad History and Worse Social Science Have Replaced Truth"

Daryl Michael Scott on propaganda and myth from ‘The 1619 Project’ to Trumpism.

by Daryl Michael Scott, Len Gutkin via The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 10, 2021

Billboard for "Gateway to the Canyons" featuring a painting of Plains Indians meeting Spanish Catholic monks.

The Black Legend Lives

A review of "Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest."

by Jeremy Beer via Commonweal on July 1, 2020

Artistic photo for black history

The Trouble With Uplift

A curiously inflexible brand of race-first neoliberalism has taken root in American political discourse.

by Adolph Reed Jr. via The Baffler on September 4, 2018

McKinley poster that reads "Prosperity at home, prestige abroad."

Trump, Historians, and the Lessons of U.S. Tariff History

The omissions in Trump's historical narratives reveal how he views national wealth: only the people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder matter.

by Elizabeth McKillen via LaborOnline on May 1, 2025

Gothic cathedral

On What Americans Know About Medieval History

A public opinion poll suggests that people really have strong opinions about a period that they don't really know anything about.

by Eleanor Janega via Going Medieval on April 30, 2025

Clark Mills’s statue of Andrew Jackson, Lafayette Park, Washington D.C., circa 1910–1925

Vance’s Junk History

When Donald Trump and his followers go in search of historical forerunners to justify their regime, they turn with striking regularity to the presidency.

by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on April 25, 2025

General Ulysses S. Grant receiving Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Appomattox Exposes the Dangers of Myths Replacing History

Historians have revealed that the story Americans long learned about the end of the Civil War was a myth.

by Elizabeth R. Varon via Made By History on April 9, 2025

Queer Activists and the Struggle for AIDS Education

Queer resistance to state-sponsored oppression campaigns, from Reagan to Trump.

by Lucy Kelly via History Workshop on March 6, 2025

Trump May Wish to Abolish the Past. We Historians Will Not.

Commentary from the heads of two prominent historical associations on Trump’s recent executive order on “radical indoctrination” in schools.

by David W. Blight, James Grossman, Beth English via The New Republic on February 6, 2025

A flag depicting a hand pulling back the American flag to reveal a Confederate flag.

Patriotic Education and the End of History

Or, a brief history of today's erasure of history.

by Jeff Sharlet via Scenes from a Slow Civil War on January 30, 2025

Painting from 1784 of Romans doing a straight-armed salute.

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.

by Sarah E. Bond, Stephanie Wong via Hyperallergic on January 22, 2025

Trad wife dresses in six different colors.

My Babies Are Richer Than Yours: On the Lie of the Online Tradwife

A new theory of the leisure class influencer.

by Lauren Carroll Harris via Literary Hub on January 10, 2025

A hallway inside of an old prison with wooden cell doors and brick walls.

The Supreme Court Is Using History to Disenfranchise Unhoused People

The court’s ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson involves highly selective readings of the historiography and a willful misrepresentation of history.

by Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan via The Panorama on September 17, 2024

How 'The Campus' Captured Our Imaginations—And Our Politics

At least since the 1960s, a warped vision of college life has shaped U.S. culture and politics.

by Adrian Daub via Made By History on September 3, 2024

Person sitting on couch watching the news.

Is the Age of the Resistance Historian Coming to an End?

People who study the past don’t always have special insight into politics. Recent events have made that crystal clear.

by William Hogeland via Slate on July 11, 2024

Chief Justice John Roberts at the State of the Union on March 7.

The Supreme Court Turns the President Into a King

The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.

by Holly Brewer via The New Republic on July 1, 2024

Edward Blum superimposed on the Supreme Court building.

The People Who Dismantled Affirmative Action Have a New Strategy to Crush Racial Justice

In throwing up new roadblocks to the use of private money to redress racial and economic inequality, the Fearless Fund ruling is antihistorical.

by David H. Gans via Slate on June 11, 2024

The Electoral College and Slavery

It's easy to get this one wrong.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on May 24, 2024

Stanford Law School.

Why the Right’s Mythical Version of the Past Dominates When It Comes to Legal “History”

They’re invested in legal education, creating an originalist industrial complex with outsize influence.

by Saul Cornell via Slate on May 14, 2024

Police gather to clear a Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on May 1st.

Anatomy of a Moral Panic

The repressive machine currently arrayed against campus protests follows a familiar pattern.

by Adam Haber, Matylda Figlerowicz via Jewish Currents on May 2, 2024

A photograph of Andrew Johnson.

Tennessee Johnson Reel vs. Real

The real Andrew Johnson compared with the only film made about his life.

by Tom Elmore via Emerging Civil War on February 16, 2024

Space Isn’t the Final Frontier

Mars fantasists still cling to dreams of the Old West.

by Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith via Foreign Policy on January 21, 2024

Henry Grady’s Vision of a “New South.”

Civil War Memory, Reconciliation, and Social Media: A Cautionary Tale

The importance of contextualization and critical evaluation in historical analysis.

by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on December 26, 2023

Old City Hall, Wall St., New York City.

Originalism and the Nature of Rights

When we try to recover the “original meaning” of constitutional amendments, we begin with deeply engrained premises about the nature of what we're looking for.

by Jud Campbell via The Panorama on November 27, 2023

Gen. Robt. E. Lee, 1886.

After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee Couldn't Run for President, but Trump Can?

Despite Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, a Colorado state judge stretches the word “officer,” permitting him to remain on the state’s ballot.

by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on November 20, 2023

Collage of Samuel Huntington, his essay "The Clash of Civilizations," and 21st-century political figure.

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong

His “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs turned 30 this year. It was provocative, influential, manna for the modern right—and completely and utterly not true.

by Jordan Michael Smith via The New Republic on October 19, 2023

Grant Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Byron McKeeby, stand by the painting for which they had posed, “American Gothic.”

Beyond the Myth of Rural America

Its inhabitants are as much creatures of state power and industrial capitalism as their city-dwelling counterparts.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on October 16, 2023

Greek philosopher sitting at a desk and looking at a laptop.

History, Fast and Slow

Two new books model radically different ways of studying the past.

by Jacob Mikanowski via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 13, 2023

brought to you by

© Bunk History