historical amnesia — Bunk History

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Drawing of Josiah Henson

The Man Who Became Uncle Tom

Harriet Beecher Stowe said that Josiah Henson’s life had inspired her most famous character. But Henson longed to be recognized by his own name.

by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on September 8, 2023

Painting of the english surgeon Edward Jenner inoculating a child.

How Far Back Were Africans Inoculating Against Smallpox? Really Far Back.

When I looked at the archives, I found a history hidden in plain sight.

by Elise A. Mitchell via Slate on September 4, 2023

Engraving of Christopher Columbus and a friar on their knees in prayer on the shore of the New World

The Roots of Christian Nationalism Go Back Further Than You Think

To fully understand the deep roots of today’s white Christian nationalism, we need to go back at least to 1493.

by Robert P. Jones via TIME on August 31, 2023

Marker at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.

Nolan’s Oppenheimer Treats New Mexico as a Blank Canvas

There is no acknowledgement in the film of the existence of downwinders from the test, in New Mexico or elsewhere.

by Kelsey D. Atherton via Source New Mexico on July 28, 2023

Boys at Kamloops Indian Residential School, probably before the 1920s.

We Must Not Forget What Happened to the World’s Indigenous Children

Thousands of Indigenous children suffered and died in residential ‘schools’ around the world. Their stories must be heard.

by Steve Minton via Aeon on July 21, 2023

Map Green Lawn Cemetery.

An Indianapolis Archivist’s Curiosity Revives Historical Truths

A Black cemetery by the site of the former Greenlawn Cemetery in Indianapolis is now a point of contention as the city plans to develop the area.

by Mary Lee Pappas via Arts Midwest on June 29, 2023

The 1622 Hessel Gerritsz map of the Pacific Ocean.

Asians In Early America

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru.

by Diego Javier Luis via Aeon on June 13, 2023

Empty, dimly lit interior of shopping mall.

Nostalgia's Empire

We should interrogate nostalgia’s primacy without advocating for its eradication.

by Grafton Tanner, Johny Pitts via Public Books on June 8, 2023

Mural depicting Charlotta Bass and victims of Zoot Suit Riots.

The Untold Story of the Zoot Suit Riots: How Black L.A. Defended Mexican Americans

The unity of two long-neglected communities during trying times is a reminder of what we desperately need in Los Angeles.

by Gustavo Arellano via Los Angeles Times on June 2, 2023

California assemblyman and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe James Ramos, Governor Gavin Newsom, and tribal leaders.

Reclaiming Native Identity in California

The genocide of Native Americans was nowhere more methodically savage than in California. A new state initiative seeks to reckon with this history.

by Ed Vulliamy via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023

Two Pueblo people hold an American flag at the Ceremonial Cave of the Frijoles Canyon in New Mexico.

Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

It is impossible to understand the U.S. without understanding its Indigenous history, writes Ned Blackhawk.

by Ned Blackhawk via TIME on April 26, 2023

Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

Staten Island, Forgotten Borough

Staten Island gets a lot of disrespect from other New Yorkers, some of it fair. But it has its own fascinating people’s history.

by James Bosco via Current Affairs on April 3, 2023

64 East 7th Street, New York City, 2022.

The Parsonage

An unprepossessing townhouse in the East Village has been central to a series of distinctive events in New York City history.

by David Hajdu via Places Journal on April 1, 2023

Iraq and the Pathologies of Primacy

The flawed logic that produced the war is alive and well.

by Stephen Wertheim via Foreign Affairs on March 17, 2023

Two African American boys working in the Freedom Press Office in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in July 1964.

Florida’s Stop Woke Act is Latest in a Long History of Censoring Black Scholarship

America has been declaring war on Black education since this country’s beginnings. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act seeks to continue this tradition.

by Darryl Robertson via Andscape on February 23, 2023

A crowd gathers in the Florida Capitol with “Stop the Black Attack” signs.

Conservatives Want To Control What Kids Learn, But It May Backfire

Conservatives want to make students patriotic. Instead, they exacerbate historical illiteracy.

by Adam Laats via Made By History on February 7, 2023

Statue of the "Spirit of Wyoming," a bucking horse with its rider, outside of the Capitol Building in Cheyenne.

The Fight for Accurate Western History is about Inclusion Today

Distortions in Western history have long obscured the region’s Black communities.

by Anthony W. Wood via Made By History on February 2, 2023

Illustration of Black fugitives fleeing slavery on the Underground Railroad

How Some Enslaved Black People Found Freedom in Southern Slaveholding States

Instead of using the Underground Railroad as a route north, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to communities in the South.

by Viola Franziska Müller via The Conversation on January 24, 2023

Washington entering New York.

Mythmaking In Manhattan

Stories of 1776 and Santa Claus.

by Benjamin L. Carp via Age of Revolutions on December 5, 2022

Lithograph of Madame Restell's Mansion

Whose Nation? Reconsidering Abortion as an American Tradition

Although originalists fail to see it, abortion has had a long and storied history for American women.

by Brooke Lansing via The Panorama on October 31, 2022

Photo of the Penn and Slavery Project augmented reality tour

A Bare and Open Truth: The Penn and Slavery Project and the Public

When a university denied its legacy, students and faculty stepped in to do the research.

by VanJessica Gladney via Perspectives on History on October 19, 2022

Black and white photo of Saidiya Hartman in a field of flowers

The Enduring Power of “Scenes of Subjection”

Saidiya Hartman’s unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom in the United States first appeared in 1997 and has lost none of its relevance.

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via The New Yorker on October 17, 2022

1928 painting of a girl getting baptized in a pool, surrounded by a crowd on a farm.

Trouble in River City

Two recent books examine the idea of the Midwest as a haven for white supremacy and patriarchy.

by Caroline Fraser via New York Review of Books on September 29, 2022

Actor Tom Hanks and President George W. Bush stand on stage at the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2004.

Destructive Myths

Romanticized stories about the Second World War are at the heart of American exceptionalism.

by Jeff Faux via Dissent on August 30, 2022

Drawing of fighting at the Alamo with large portions of the image blacked out and hidden.

What The 1836 Project Leaves Out in Its Version of Texas History

The legislature established a committee last year to “promote patriotic education.” Drafts of one of its pamphlets reveal an effort to sanitize history.

by Michael Phillips, Leah LaGrone via Texas Monthly on August 25, 2022

Black and white photo of protestors climbing the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ask the ‘Coupologists’: Just What Was Jan. 6 Anyway?

Without a name for it, figuring out why it happened is that much harder.

by Joshua Zeitz, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Scott Althaus, Matt Cleary, Ryan McMaken via Politico Magazine on August 19, 2022

Black and white image of people observing photographs hanging on the wall at an exhibition in Oaxaca in 1999 about magonismo.

The Mexican Revolution as U.S. History

Making the case for why U.S. history only makes sense when told as a binational story.

by Jonna Perrillo via Boston Review on August 4, 2022

Mural featuring Texas Rangers, longhorn cattle, and bluebonnets.

The Real Meaning of Texas Ranger Monuments

In recent years, Seguin has honored the Texas Rangers with memorials. My father agreed to build one—but then started having second thoughts.

by Gabriel Daniel Solis via Texas Monthly on July 21, 2022

People marching with anBi, a bisexual organization, carry a bisexual flag in the 43rd Los Angeles Pride Parade on June 9, 2013.

What People Get Wrong About the History of Bisexuality

Bisexuality introduces nuance, which has always made it easier to discard than accommodate it .

by Julia Shaw via TIME on June 23, 2022

Native Trails

Ed Ayers travels back to his childhood stomping grounds in search of traces of the dispossession that took place there generations earlier.

by Ed Ayers on June 13, 2022

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