deception — Bunk History

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John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.

How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.

by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024

Lieutenant William Calley leaving court with his attorney George Latimer.

Tracking Down Lieutenant Calley

How I learned the story of the My Lai Massacre.

by Seymour M. Hersh via seymourhersh.substack on August 1, 2024

Eugene V. Debs giving a speech on an American flag themed stage.

Did ‘Churchianity’ Sink American Socialism?

A new book blames institutional Protestantism for undermining a vibrant strain of Christian radicalism that swirled through the Gilded Age.

by Heath W. Carter via Commonweal on July 26, 2024

Still from Midnight Cowboy of a man with a gun in Times Square.

How the Movies Captured Times Square’s Grimy Golden Age

Times Square’s decline can be dated to the Depression, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the bottom fell out.

by Nathaniel Rich via Current [The Criterion Collection] on July 25, 2024

Cover of "Excited Delirium," left, and author Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, right.

The Racist, Xenophobic History of "Excited Delirium"

A new book takes on a diagnosis invented to cover up police killings: that men of color are “combusting as a result of their aggressiveness.”

by Julia Métraux, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús via Mother Jones on July 23, 2024

A photograph of TJ Hicks running in the 1904 Olympics with his two coaches holding him upright.

How the 1904 Marathon Became One of the Weirdest Olympic Events of All Time

Athletes drank poison, dodged traffic, stole peaches and even hitchhiked during the 24.85-mile race in St. Louis.

by Ellen Wexler, Karen Abbott via Smithsonian on June 27, 2024

A poster for "The Gay Deceivers" of a naked man holding a pillow, with the tagline "Is he? Or isn't he? Only his draftboard and his girlfriend know for sure."

The Gay Deceivers Was an Early Landmark for Queer Cinema

This 1969 film offers a compelling context for queer cinema and culture prior to the 1970s.

by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on June 11, 2024

Star-Herb Medicines and Teas for all Diseases, 1923.

How Government Helped Birth the Advertising Industry

Advertising went from being an embarrassing activity to a legitimate part of every company’s business plans—despite scant evidence that it worked.

by Livia Gershon, Daniel Navon via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2024

Séance with spirit manifestation, 1872, by John Beattie.

Immortalizing Words

Henry James, spiritualism, and the afterlife.

by Ashley C. Barnes via The Hedgehog Review on April 30, 2024

Alexandria Park School in Sydney, Australia, is built on Aboriginal land.

Overlooking the Past

Land acknowledgments amount to the hollow incantations of hollow people.

by David Eisenberg via Law & Liberty on April 15, 2024

A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.

by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 12, 2024

A photograph of two Guatemalan women infected with syphillis in U.S. experiements, their eyes covered by black bars.

The Hidden U.S. Experiments in Guatemala

The U.S. purposefully infected thousands of Guatemalans with sexually-transmitted diseases in the 40s and 50s. Their grandchildren still carry the trauma.

by Lydia Crafts via Process: A Blog for American History on April 9, 2024

Three men fight on a rooftop, above a large city on a river.

The Golden Age of the Paranoid Political Thriller

On the grand tradition of movies reflecting a deep distrust of those in charge.

by Keith Roysdon via CrimeReads on March 25, 2024

A racist political cartoon depicting Uncle Sam as an educator teaching racialized colonial subjects in areas recently conquered by the U.S. during the War of 1898, the year of the white supremacist coup and massacre in Wilmington, N.C. and the mass disenfranchisement of Black Americans by the Supreme Court.

Heather Cox Richardson Shows the Importance of Holding Right-Wing Criminals and Frauds Accountable

Richardson’s work is as much about the contradictions of our shared past as it is an urgent call to action around the current authoritarian crisis.

by William Horne via Bucks County Beacon on March 7, 2024

U.S. Army soldiers stand guard near a portrait of Saddam Hussein while others search an Iraqi police station in March 2003.

Steve Coll’s Latest Shows Saddam Hussein’s Practical Side

‘The Achilles Trap’ reexamines the relationship between Hussein and four U.S. administrations.

by Spencer Ackerman via Washington Post on February 27, 2024

Robert Millikan and Albert Einstein standing side by side.

The Posthumous Trials of Robert A. Millikan

Robert A. Millikan was once a beloved figure in American science. In 2021, his name was removed from buildings and awards. What happened?

by David Kordahl via 3 Quarks Daily on January 1, 2024

Silhouette of Oppenheimer wearing a fedora.

How Do We Know the Motorman Is Not Insane?

Oppenheimer and the demon heart of power.

by James Robins via The Dreadnought on December 20, 2023

Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies

In a demonstration of why he was able to kill so many people and get away with it, the day of his passage will be a solemn one in Congress and newsrooms.

by Spencer Ackerman via Rolling Stone on November 30, 2023

Residents of Icaria, Iowa.

The 19th-Century Novel That Inspired a Communist Utopia on the American Frontier

The Icarians thought they could build a paradise, but their project was marked by failure almost from the start.

by John Last via Smithsonian on November 28, 2023

The crime scene. A woman's body lies in the middle of a clearning next to the river, surrounded by coroners and police

Bad Shot, Mary

The mistress of JFK, there was a lot more than wealth, whiteness, and femininity to make Mary Pinchot Meyer a target of murder.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Apocalypse Confidential on November 22, 2023

President Nixon at the Orlando, Fla. question-and-answer session where he uttered ‘I am not a crook.’

‘Crook’: When Nixon Said He Wasn’t One, There Was Still a Twist to Come

A president’s infamous protestation 50 years ago during Watergate relied on an Old Norse term for things that take a turn.

by Ben Zimmer via The Wall Street Journal on November 17, 2023

Rubble in the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Big Six v. Little Boy: The Unnecessary Bomb

A new book's insistence that the bomb was necessary to bring about Japan’s surrender is largely contradicted by its own evidence.

by Andrew Cockburn via London Review of Books on November 15, 2023

Two American soldiers and farmer Olof Öhman posing with a supposed Viking runestone.

Why Americans Simply Love to Forge Viking Artifacts

No, roving bands of medieval Scandinavians did not visit West Virginia. (So far as we know.)

by Martyn Whittock via Slate on November 11, 2023

Dell O'Dell performing a magic act for live tv with children watching.

Dell O'Dell's Trailblazing Magic Show Cast a Spell on Early Television Audiences

Rare footage of the woman magician's act captures her magnetic stage presence and range of tricks.

by Vanessa Armstrong via Smithsonian on October 24, 2023

Black and white picture of 7 scientists around a table. In the back, a poster of the Saturn Rocket is visible.

The Forgotten History of Nazi Immigration to the U.S.

Canada's politicians accidentally honored a Nazi immigrant. The U.S. has frequently done the same.

by Claire E. Aubin via Made By History on October 12, 2023

Iranian demonstrator dressed as Uncle Sam.

The Secret C.I.A. Operation That Haunts U.S.-Iran Relations

A 1953 C.I.A.-backed coup that ousted Iran’s Cold War leader has colored U.S.-Iran relations for decades.

via Retro Report on September 28, 2023

The American flag on fire.

The Fight for Our America

There have always been two Americas. One based in religious zeal, mythology, and inequality; and one grounded in rule of the people and the pursuit of equality.

by Heather Cox Richardson via The New Republic on September 26, 2023

Smoke coming from Exxon Mobil plant

Inside Exxon's Strategy To Downplay Climate Change

Internal documents show what the oil giant said publicly was very different from how it approached the issue privately in the Tillerson era.

by Christopher Matthews, Collin Eaton via The Wall Street Journal on September 14, 2023

Tom Scully, stethescopes, and money.

Patient Zero

Tom Scully is as responsible as anyone for the way health care in America works today.

by David Dayen via The American Prospect on August 1, 2023

Photo of Joseph Weizenbaum against a collage of antiwar protests and code.

‘A Certain Danger Lurks There’: How the Inventor of the First Chatbot Turned Against AI

Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum was there at the dawn of artificial intelligence– but he was also adamant that we must never confuse computers with humans.

by Ben Tarnoff via The Guardian on July 25, 2023

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