deception — Bunk History

Photo of a blue bin filled with recyclable garbage.

Petrochemical Companies Have Known for 40 Years that Plastics Recycling Wouldn't Work

Despite knowing that plastic recycling wouldn't work, new documents show how petrochemical companies promoted it anyway.

by Joseph Winters via Grist on February 20, 2024

Digitally altered portrait of a man in a suit with his face pixelated, framed by computer windows.

What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes

Experts have warned that utterly realistic A.I.-generated videos might wreak havoc through deception. What’s happened is troubling in a different way.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on November 13, 2023

Douglas R. Stringfellow reading a statement before the press.

The Congressman Who ‘Embellished’ His Résumé Long Before George Santos

In the 1950's, Rep. Douglas Stringfellow was a promising young congressman with an incredible World War II story. Then the truth came out.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on December 29, 2022

Sacheen Littlefeather at the 45th Academy Awards, wearing Native dress and hairstyle

Sacheen Littlefeather and Ethnic Fraud

Why the truth is crucial, even it it means losing an American Indian hero.

by Dina Gilio-Whitaker via The Conversation on October 28, 2022

Cover of 'The Swamp Peddlers'

How Schemers Built a State

Mark Massaro reviews Jason Vuic’s “The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream.”

by Mark Massaro via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 21, 2021

George Washington Was a Master of Deception

The Founding Fathers relied on deceit in championing American independence—and that has lessons for the present.

by Amy Zegart via The Atlantic on November 25, 2018

Robert Redford in "The Sting."

Why Are All the Con Artists White?

The history of the black con artist has been forgotten.

by Shane White via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on April 23, 2018

New York City (New York, USA), Brooklyn Bridge.

Over Troubled Waters

Looking for an easy buck, con artists in the early 1900s infamously "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge to immigrants fresh off the boat.

via BackStory on October 20, 2016

Fake 1000 dollar bill.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

The story of America's oldest counterfeiters and why the Civil War spurred the Secret Service into hunting them down.

via BackStory on October 20, 2016

George W. Bush at a press conference on Iraq, March 3, 2003.

The First Casualty

The selling of the Iraq war.

by Spencer Ackerman, John B. Judis via The New Republic on June 30, 2003

Cartoon of crooked Oliver Hartzell with his arm around an apprehensive Sir Francis Drake.

The Mythical Fortune That Fuelled America’s Greatest Fraud

Oscar Hartzell convinced thousands of Americans that they could get a piece of the Sir Francis Drake estate—a multibillion-dollar inheritance that didn’t exist.

by Richard Rayner via The New Yorker on April 15, 2002

A young boy peers out from a hole in a fence as his friends play basketball in a court where police officers are gathering for a patrol.

How White-Collar Criminals Plundered a Brooklyn Neighborhood

How East New York was ransacked by the real estate industry and abandoned by the city in the process.

by Kristen Martin via The Nation on March 20, 2025

Clarence Bouldin, a muscular wrestler.

The Curious Case of Clarence Bouldin

Was the pro wrestler known as “the Cuban Wonder” really the first Black world champion?

by Ian Douglass via The Ringer on February 28, 2025

Sign along empty road reading "Private Road No Entry" in Hebrew and English.

How Israel Deceived the U.S. and Built the Bomb

Newly declassified documents reveal how Israel operated under the noses of U.S. inspectors.

by William Burr, Avner Cohen via Foreign Policy on February 7, 2025

Chinese workers standing in the streets.

The Long Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act

The true cost of the immigration policy can be measured in the generations of Chinese Americans who were never born.

by Jane C. Hu via The New Yorker on January 23, 2025

Drawings of Sadie James and Charles Page over a map of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The True Story of Tulsa’s Forgotten Antihero, Sadie James

And a walk downtown in search of her saloon, the Bucket of Blood.

by Russell Cobb via The Pickup on January 23, 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

Burglar sneaking into the bedroom of a sleeping woman.

True Crime: Allan Pinkerton’s “Thirty Years a Detective”

Am 1884 guide to vice and crime by the founder of the world’s largest private detective agency.

by Sasha Archibald via The Public Domain Review on December 5, 2024

Haitan commuinty members bowing their heads in prayer.

The Coming Witch Trials

It’s time to care for the community—not cleanse it.

by Adam Jortner via Current (religion and democracy) on October 22, 2024

Letter from Wong Gin Fu to Wong Kim

Sadness of the Paper Son: The Travails of Asian Immigration to the U.S.

Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act, about 300,000 Chinese gained admission to the U.S. between 1882 and 1943. How did they do it?

by Ryan Reft via Tropics of Meta on October 3, 2024

A homesteader woman feeding chickens.

Some Country for Some Women

As women stretch themselves thin, homesteader influencers sell them an image of containment.

by Kim Hew-Low via The New Inquiry on September 26, 2024

A newspaper headline that reads "Ask Congress' Ban on Fake Pictures: White Slaver's Photograph Taken Apparently with President Taft Arouses Senator.""

The 1912 War on Fake Photos

Fake photographs of the US president sparked calls for regulation of analog photo editing.

by Louis Anslow via Pessimists Archive on September 24, 2024

Reflections in a store window of people watching the 9/11 attack on television.

The World That September 11 Made

Richard Beck’s “Homeland” traces the far-reaching aftereffects of the attacks and tries to recover the events of the day, as they happened.

by Ed Burmila via The New Republic on September 9, 2024

Seymour Hersh, Henry Kissinger, and Hersh's newspaper article about the CIA scandal.

The CIA-in-Chile Scandal at 50

Documents show Henry Kissinger misled President Gerald Ford about clandestine U.S. efforts to undermine the elected government of Salvador Allende.

by Peter Kornbluh via National Security Archive on September 9, 2024

Parade of U.S. Olympic team members, 1960.

At the 1960 Olympics, American Athletes Recruited by the CIA Tried to Convince Soviets to Defect

Al Cantello, a star of the U.S. track and field team, arranged a covert meeting between a government agent and a Ukrainian long jumper.

by Erik Ofgang via Smithsonian on August 1, 2024

How “The Real World” Created Modern Reality TV

The rules governing everything from “Big Brother” to “The Real Housewives” started three decades ago, with a radical experiment on MTV.

by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on June 15, 2024

Then-Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton speaks at the Human Rights Campaign forum in Washington, July 15, 2003.

Remembrance of Ratf**ks Past

As Cornel West is receiving ballot access help from Republicans, 20 years ago Al Sharpton’s campaign for president was largely orchestrated by Roger Stone.

by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on June 12, 2024

The recycling symbol.

How the Recycling Symbol Got America Addicted to Plastic

Corporations sold Americans on the chasing arrows — while stripping the logo of its worth.

by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 12, 2024

An aerial view of the International Bridge over the in Rio Grande, Laredo, Texas.

The Image of Control

Following the careers of a family of especially corrupt border control officials.

by John Weber via HNN on June 11, 2024

Victorian telegraph operator.

What Mark Zuckerberg Should Learn From 19th-Century Telegraph Operators

by Megan Ward via Slate on May 27, 2024

brought to you by

© Bunk History