ahistoricism — Bunk History

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How We Learned to Love the Bill the Rights

A new book argues that the fetishization of the first ten amendments is a recent thing – and that it comes at a cost.

by Sara Mayeux on February 8, 2018

Again with the History

Were the founders really warning us about Trump, or were they just playing politics, too?

by William Hogeland via William Hogeland blog on February 6, 2018

A crowd of Vietnamese civilians stare at fires burning in the distance.

I Guess I’m About to Do a Highly Immoral Thing

On "The Vietnam War."

by Richard Beck via n+1 on December 1, 2017

The Unintended Consequences of Veterans' Day

In hindsight: A day created to commemorate peace has been transformed into one that perpetuates war.

by Paul Steege via Hindsights on November 10, 2017

Indian bicycle troops at the battle of the Somme in 1916.

How Colonial Violence Came Home: The Ugly Truth of the First World War

We remember WWI as an unexpected catastrophe. But for the millions living under imperialist rule, terror and degradation were nothing new.

by Pankaj Mishra via The Guardian on November 10, 2017

The Mythical Whiteness of Trump Country

"Hillbilly Elegy" has been used to explain the 2016 election, but its logic is rooted in a dangerous myth about race in Appalachia.

by Elizabeth Catte via Boston Review on November 7, 2017

Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Keeping the Faith

Ta-Nehisi Coates' latest book preaches political fatalism. But black activism has always believed in the possibility of change.

by Melvin L. Rogers via Boston Review on November 1, 2017

The Problem with "Reagan Democrats"

Does the trope obscure more than it illuminates about the 2016 election?

by Leah Wright Rigueur, Brent Cebul on October 19, 2017

Reagan signing the bill establishing Martin Luther King Day.

The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.

by Jeanne Theoharis, Jeremy Scahill via The Intercept on October 8, 2017

The Rage of White Folk

How the silent majority became a loud and angry minority.

by Steven Hahn via The Nation on September 27, 2017

Forrest the Butcher

Memphis wants to remove a statue honoring first grand wizard of the KKK.

by Liliana Segura via The Intercept on September 2, 2017

Old West Theme Parks Paint a False Picture of Pioneer California

As the nation debates monuments and public memory, it’s important to understand how other cultural sites help people learn (false) history.

by Amanda Tewes via The Conversation on August 30, 2017

Where Donald Trump Learned His Tough Love for History

He professes admiration for "statues and monuments" but his family has a record of tearing down rather than preserving.

by Michael Kruse via Politico Magazine on August 24, 2017

Racism, Medievalism, and the White Supremacists of Charlottesville

The weekend's demonstrators were the latest in a long line of American racists to ally themselves with an imagined Middle Ages.

by Josephine Livingstone via The New Republic on August 15, 2017

Wild Thing: A New Biography of Thoreau

Freeing Thoreau from layers of caricature that have long distorted his legacy.

by Daegan Miller via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 16, 2017

America’s Dangerously Shallow Understanding of the Holocaust

It’s treated as an all-purpose symbol of evil, not a series of historical events to be reckoned with.

by Andrea Pitzer via Vox on May 4, 2017

A Devastating Mississippi River Flood That Uprooted America's Faith in Progress

The 1927 disaster exposed a country divided by stereotypes, united by modernity.

by Susan Scott Parrish via Zócalo Public Square on April 14, 2017

The Supreme Court building.

Knowing How vs. Knowing That: Navigating the Past

How should we interpret the United States Constitution?

by Jonathan Gienapp via Process: A Blog for American History on April 4, 2017

Constitutional Originalism and History

Does the most historically minded school of constitutional law push history aside?

by Jonathan Gienapp via Process: A Blog for American History on March 20, 2017

Horrible Histories

The perils of comparing Trump to twentieth-century dictators.

by Jeet Heer via The New Republic on March 13, 2017

Ronald Reagan signing MLK Day legislation on November 2, 1983 / Courtesy the U.S. National Archives.

Reagan Used MLK Day to Undermine Racial Justice

Reagan never really believed that Martin Luther King, Jr., deserved a holiday.

by Justin Gomer, Christopher F. Petrella via Boston Review on January 15, 2017

What Happens When Children's Books Fail to Confront the Complexity of Slavery

We need literature that wrestles with the evils of slavery while confronting its complexity – especially when it’s written for children

by Michael W. Twitty via The Guardian on January 19, 2016

A Historian’s Revealing Research on Race and Gun Laws

The notion that gun control has racist origins is popular in gun rights circles. Here's what's wrong with the claim.

by Saul Cornell, Mike Spies via The Trace on November 24, 2015

President John F. Kennedy, his wife, Jackie, and their son John Jr. on his Christening day, Dec. 8, 1960.

Snapshots of History

Wildly popular accounts like @HistoryInPics are bad for history, bad for Twitter, and bad for you.

by Rebecca Onion via Slate on February 5, 2014

Drawings of George Washington

His Highness

George Washington scales new heights.

by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on September 20, 2010

American Pastoral

Reflections on the ahistorical, aristocratic, and romanticist approach to "nature" elevated by John Muir, and by his admirer, Ken Burns.

by Charles Petersen via n+1 on February 26, 2010

The Truth About Thanksgiving Is that the Debunkers Are Wrong

A response to claims that the First Thanksgiving was not a "thanksgiving" as the Pilgrims understood it.

by Jeremy Bangs via HNN on September 1, 2005

University of Ohio

The Late Unpleasantness in Idaho: Southern Slavery and the Culture Wars

Culture warriors envision a future in which the educational power of universities will be harnessed to the propagation of a “biblical worldview” nationwide.

by William L. Ramsey via HNN on December 19, 2004

Cover of Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

Howard Zinn's History Lessons

"A People’s History" is bad history, albeit gilded with virtuous intentions.

by Michael Kazin via Dissent on April 3, 2004

Against Presentism

An argument against looking at our past through the lens of today.

by Lynn A. Hunt via Perspectives on History on May 1, 2002

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