deception — Bunk History

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Painting of man finding woman seated at table writing

A Kind of Historical Faith

On the history of literature masquerading as primary source.

by Emma Garman via HNN on May 21, 2024

Man laughing.

The Most Hated Sound on Television

For half a century, viewers scorned the laugh track while adoring shows that used it. Now it has all but disappeared.

by Jacob Stern via The Atlantic on April 15, 2024

American Exchanges: Third Reich’s Elite Schools

How the Nazi government used exchange student programs to foster sympathy for Nazism in the United States.

by Helen Roche via OUPblog on March 26, 2024

Orange cider booth at the World's Fair.

The Hottest Drink of the 1893 World's Fair Was an Artificial Orange 'Cider'

"You're drinking something that some guy just cobbled together out of Lake Michigan water and food dye.”

by Anne Ewbank via Atlas Obscura on March 25, 2024

Rose Mackenberg.

The Ghost-Busting 'Girl Detective' Who Awed Houdini

As an undercover investigator, Rose Mackenberg unmasked hundreds of America’s fake psychics.

by Nina Strochlic via Atlas Obscura on March 14, 2024

Woman and man looking at the fiji mermaid

Nineteenth-Century Clickbait

The exhibition “Mermaids and Monsters” explores hoaxes of yore.

by Deb Lucke via The New Yorker on January 20, 2024

A participant in the Tuskegee syphilis study sits on steps in front of a house in Tuskegee.

The US Once Withheld Syphilis Treatment From Hundreds of Black Men in the Name of Science

The archival trove chronicles the extreme measures administrators took to ensure Black sharecroppers did not receive treatment for the venereal disease.

by Caitjan Gainty via The Conversation on January 12, 2024

A baby awaiting adoption near Guatemala City.

Guatemala’s Baby Brokers: How Thousands of Children Were Stolen For Adoption

Baby brokers often tricked Indigenous Mayan women into giving up newborns; kidnappers took others. International adoption is now seen as a cover for war crimes.

by Rachel Nolan via The Guardian on January 4, 2024

A few people are gathered at the Atoms For Peace bus, a mobile exhibit about nuclear power operated for a time by the Atomic Energy Commission. c. 1947.

‘Atoms for Peace’ Was Never All That Peaceful—And the World Is Still Living With the Consequences

The U.S. sought to rebrand nuclear power as a source of peace, but this message helped mask a violent history.

by Tommy Song via Made By History on December 8, 2023

Henry Kissinger in the table in the White House situation room.

Kissinger, Me, and the Lies of the Master

‘Off off the record’ with the man who secretly taped our telephone calls.

by Seymour M. Hersh via seymourhersh.substack on December 6, 2023

Photographer shooting Henry Kissinger on Air Force One.

Notes From the Front

Henry Kissinger’s Vietnam diary shows that he knew the war was lost a decade before it ended.

by Thomas A. Bass via The American Scholar on December 4, 2023

Henry Kissinger in his office, standing behind a desk and reading a folder

The People Who Didn’t Matter to Henry Kissinger

Lauded for his strategic insights, the former secretary of state is better remembered for his callousness toward the victims of global conflict.

by Gary J. Bass via The Atlantic on November 29, 2023

“All the Consent That’s Fit to Manufacture”

An interrogation of The New York Times’ archive reveals a sordid record of support for American wars, right-wing dictatorships and U.S.-backed regime-change.

by Writers Against the War on Gaza via The New York War Crimes on November 29, 2023

US Marines marching in Da Nang, Vietnam, 1965.

How Israel Is Borrowing From the US Playbook in Vietnam

Justifying civilian casualties has a long history.

by Branko Marcetic via The Nation on November 14, 2023

From left: snow, three men, and several vehicles with large tires.

The U.S. Army Tried to Build a Secret Nuclear City under Greenland’s Ice

Long before Greenland’s shifting ice threatened sea level rise, it doomed one of the military’s most audacious Cold War projects.

by George Bass via Washington Post on November 13, 2023

Photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald and of George Joannides.

What Really Happened to JFK?

One thing’s for sure: The CIA doesn’t want you to know.

by Scott Sayare via Intelligencer on November 9, 2023

Neil Sheehan at New York Times office

How Neil Sheehan Really Got the Pentagon Papers

Exclusive interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and a long-buried memo reveal new details about one of the 20th century's biggest scoops.

by James Risen via The Intercept on October 7, 2023

Women's Care Center.

(Still Being) Sent Away: Post-Roe Anti-Abortion Maternity Homes

In the years before Roe v. Wade, maternity homes in the United States housed residents who, upon giving birth, often relinquished their children for adoption.

by Isobel Bloom via Nursing Clio on August 23, 2023

Forest of redwoods.

The Greatest Act of Greenwashing in American History

A new chronicle of redwood logging exposes how a cadre of wealthy industrialists reaped a fortune in the name of environmentalism.

by Robert Moor via The Atlantic on August 14, 2023

Major General Groves and J. R. Oppenheimer view the base of the steel tower used for the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1945.

A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public

Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.

by Fred Kaplan via Slate on August 8, 2023

Survivors walk among the smoldering ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Hiroshima's Anniversary Marks an Injustice Done to Blast Survivors

On this date 78 years ago, the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Survivors involuntarily provided key medical data for years, without receiving any help.

by Arthur Caplan via Scientific American on August 6, 2023

A drawing of the outside of colorful windows at night.

Upper West Side Cult

In 1950, the Sullivinian Institute was created to push the boundaries of psychoanalysis. By 1980, its therapists and patients had become a small paramilitary.

by James Lasdun via London Review of Books on July 27, 2023

Family photo.

In the Long Fight to Protect Native American Families, a Law Stands Guard

For generations, Native American children were removed from their homes and placed with white families.

via Retro Report on July 13, 2023

M. Roland Nachman Jr., William P. Rogers and Herbert Wechsler, the lawyers in "New York Times v. Sullivan."

Keeping Speech Robust and Free

Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News' coverage of claims that the company had rigged the 2020 election may soon become an artifact of a vanished era.

by Jeffrey Toobin via New York Review of Books on July 7, 2023

Tweet by Josh Hawley of a quotation he falsely attributes to Patrick Henry.

Senator Josh Hawley Tweeted a Christian Nationalist Quote Falsely Attributed to Patrick Henry

It was actually from a 1950s antisemitic and white supremacist magazine. Who cares?

by Seth Cotlar via Rightlandia on July 6, 2023

"Boss" Tweed

The Corrupt N.Y. Congressman Who Was Sentenced To Prison — And Escaped

William Magear “Boss” Tweed, who became a political force in New York as leader of the “Tweed Ring,” was found guilty in 1873 of 102 separate crimes.

by George Bass via Retropolis on July 2, 2023

Daniel Ellsberg at podium with group in front of U.S. Court House

Daniel Ellsberg Leaked His Vietnam Secrets To Senators First. They Balked.

Before going to the press, Ellsberg spent a year and a half quietly leaking the Pentagon Papers to leading antiwar lawmakers. They all declined to speak out.

by Erick Trickey via Retropolis on June 23, 2023

Daniel Ellsberg speaking at a press conference, 1972.

Daniel in the Lion's Den

On the moral courage of Daniel Ellsberg.

by Erik Baker via The Baffler on June 17, 2023

A photograph of John William Boucher superimposed over a collage of newspaper headlines about him being the oldest soldier in WWI.

The 72-Year-Old Who Lied About His Age to Fight in World War I

A Civil War veteran, John William Boucher was one of the oldest men on the ground during the Great War.

by Nick Yetto via Smithsonian on June 2, 2023

Portrait of Jane Stanford, circa 1855.

A Poisonous Legacy

Two new books reveal the story of Stanford University’s early years to be rife with corruption, autocracy, incompetence, white supremacy, and murder.

by Jessica Riskin via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023

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