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A Century Ago, Progressives Were the Ones Shouting 'Fake News'

The term "fake news" dates back to the end of the 19th century.
by Matthew F. Jordan via The Conversation on February 1, 2018
Lyndon Johnson with advisors including Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk.

How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government

Fifty years ago, the January 1968 battle laid bare the way U.S. leaders had misled the public about the war in Vietnam.
by Julian E. Zelizer via The Atlantic on January 15, 2018

The Strange History of One of the Internet's First Viral Videos

Back when video of Vinny Licciardi smashing a computer zigzagged all over the internet, "viral" wan't even a thing yet.
by Joe Veix via Wired on January 12, 2018

The 19th-Century Swill Milk Scandal That Poisoned Infants With Whiskey Runoff

Vendors hawked the swill as “Pure Country Milk.”
by Tyler Moss via Atlas Obscura on November 27, 2017
Bottle of OxyContin.

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain

The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts.
by Patrick Radden Keefe via The New Yorker on October 30, 2017
19th century illustration of P. T. Barnum's white elephant Toung Taloung

Race and the White Elephant War of 1884

A bizarre episode in circus history became an unlikely forum for discussing 19th-century theories of race.
by Ross Bullen via The Public Domain Review on October 11, 2017
Trump speaking.

How the U.S. Lost Its Mind

Make America reality-based again.
by Kurt Andersen via The Atlantic on August 9, 2017
Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun

The Great Lengths Taken to Make Abraham Lincoln Look Good in Portraits

One famous image of the president features a body that isn't his.
by Michael Waters via Atlas Obscura on July 12, 2017

I Don't Care How Good His Paintings Are, He Still Belongs in Prison

George W. Bush committed an international crime that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on April 19, 2017

Nativism, Violence, and the Origins of the Paranoid Style

How a lurid 19th-century memoir of sexual abuse produced one of the ugliest features of American politics.
by Mike Mariani via Slate on March 22, 2017

American History: Fake News That Never Goes Away — and Empowered the Trumpian Insurrection

Only if we face the painful lies we tell ourselves about the past can we hope to overcome what's happening now.
by Nancy Isenberg, Andrew Burstein via Salon on February 25, 2017

Trump To Display Letter From Nixon In Oval Office: Report

Nixon sent Trump the letter in 1987 after he impressed the former first lady on television.
by Mark Hensch via The Hill on December 12, 2016
Capitol Bombing Damage 1915

Terrorism Hits Home in 1915: U.S. Capitol Bombing

In a span of less than 12 hours a German college professor set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol & assaulted J.P. Morgan Jr. at his home on Long Island.
by Mark Jones via Boundary Stones on June 22, 2015
Crowd with hands up at World Youth Festival

When the C.I.A. Duped College Students

Inside a famous Cold War deception.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on March 16, 2015
Iron Eyes Cody meets Jimmy Carter, who is wearing a Native American headdress

Among the Tribe of the Wannabes

A closer look at non-Native Americans that appropriate, fabricate, and invent Native identities for themselves.
by Russell Cobb via This Land Press on August 26, 2014
Raised scars on the back of a formerly enslaved man.

“A Typical Negro”

Gordon, Peter, Vincent Colyer, and the story behind slavery's most famous photograph.
by David Silkenat via American Nineteenth Century History on August 8, 2014
Lithograph of the reservoir of the Manhattan Water Works in 1825.
partner

Corporations in the Early Republic

An explanation of the Manhattan Company, a bank disguised as a municipal water corporation that helped to transform Early Republican politics.
via BackStory on June 20, 2014
Painting of a mutiny aboard a ship.

Reading Melville in Post-9/11 America

The author's half-forgotten masterpiece, Benito Cereno, provides fascinating insight into issues of slavery, freedom, individualism—and Islamophobia.
by Greg Grandin via The Nation on January 7, 2014
Linda Taylor walks out of a courtroom with her attorney.

The Real Story of Linda Taylor, America’s Original Welfare Queen

In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan villainized a Chicago woman for bilking the government. Her other sins were far worse.
by Josh Levin via Slate on December 19, 2013
National Security Agency headquarters.

They Know Much More Than You Think

US intelligence agencies seem to have adopted Orwell’s idea of doublethink—“to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies.”
by James Bamford via New York Review of Books on August 15, 2013
Illustration of George W. Bush on a missile towards U.S.

Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq

Mushroom clouds, duct tape, Judy Miller, Curveball. Recalling how Americans were sold a bogus case for invasion.
by Tim Dickinson, Jonathan Stein via Mother Jones on December 20, 2011
The President Is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo, book cover

A Yacht, A Mustache: How A President Hid His Tumor

Grover Cleveland believed that if anything happened to his mustache during his surgery at sea, the public would know something was wrong.
by Matthew Algeo via NPR on July 6, 2011
The Northampton Election, December 6, 1830, by J.M.W. Turner, c. 1830. A British election taking place in a town square with people waving banners and standing around.

The Tyranny of the Ballot

A man who wants everyone to know his views explains why he’s against voting in secret.
by Sydney Smith via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 1, 1879
Tori Amos singing, photo of pumpkin spice, and the words "Pumpkin Spice Can Be Used Many Ways."

The Curious, Contentious History of Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Starbucks didn’t invent them. But it’s possible that Tori Amos or a Midwest grandma did.
by Doug Mack via Snack Stack on October 21, 2025
Nurse attends man in iron lung.

The Polio Vaccine Was a Miracle—and We Must Not Forget It

As a polio survivor, I am a dinosaur today. My great hope is that our country’s living memory of the disease ends with my generation.
by Shelley Fraser Mickle via The Bulwark on October 2, 2025
Young mother, St. Ann's Ave at E. 140th St., Bronx, 1977
partner

Life in the Firestorm

The 21st century American city was forged in the embers of the 1970s arson wave.
by Bench Ansfield via HNN on August 19, 2025
Pink maragine smeared on bread.

You Could Go to Jail for Selling This Now-Ubiquitous Food

In the 19th and 20th centuries, margarine defied the odds—surviving federal regulations, industry smear campaigns, and even a bizarre mandate to dye it pink.
by Jess Eng via Serious Eats on August 19, 2025
An apartment building on fire.

Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?

To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signaled rampant crime; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on August 18, 2025
A portrait of Davy Crockett in formal attire is imposed next to an actor in a Davy Crockett costume surrounded by raccoons.

How Davy Crockett, the Rugged Frontiersman Killed at the Alamo, Became an Unlikely American Hero

During his lifetime, Crockett—who went by David, not Davy—shaped his own myth. In the 20th century, his legacy got a boost from none other than Walt Disney.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian Magazine on August 18, 2025
Silhouettes of a family, three wearing shirts showing matching DNA shirts, and one with different DNA.

The Family Fallout of DNA Surprises

Through genetic testing, millions of Americans have discovered family secrets. The news has upended relationships and created a community looking for answers.
by Jennifer Wilson via The New Yorker on August 18, 2025
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