paranoia — Bunk History

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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

Vapor trails from airplanes.

Leftovers / Vapor Trails

Clouds and conspiracies.

by D. Graham Burnett via Cabinet on February 28, 2017

Lessons From A Japanese Internment Camp

Trump ally Carl Higbie recently cited Japanese internment camps during World War II as a “precedent” for a proposed registry of Muslims in the U.S.

by Livia Gershon, Hui Wu via JSTOR Daily on December 5, 2016

The inmates during a negotiating session on September 10, 1971. An uprising born of panic and confusion triggered a cascade of paranoia that extended to the Nixon White House.

Learning from the Slaughter in Attica

What the 1971 uprising and massacre reveal about our prison system and the liberal democratic state.

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on August 22, 2016

Anti-Syrian Muslim Refugee Rhetoric Mirrors Calls to Reject Jews During Nazi Era

The fears that were conjured by nativists 80 years ago are chillingly similar to what we're hearing today.

by Lee Fang via The Intercept on November 18, 2015

Photograph of Boston Corbett

The Insane Story of the Guy Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln

Meet Boston Corbett, the self-castrated hatmaker who was John Wilkes Booth's Jack Ruby.

by Bill Jensen via Washingtonian on April 13, 2015

Cartoon depictinf a man pouring a bowl of sugar babies in front of a group of onlookers.

Birchismo

Culture-shocked Americans in the 1960s were all too happy to take directions from the John Birch Society: take an extreme right and drive forever.

by Dan Kelly via The Baffler on December 16, 1999

Stokely Carmichael talking to members of the press at the House Rules Committee (1966).

Watching the Watchers

Confessions of an FBI special agent.

by Robert Wall via New York Review of Books on January 27, 1972

Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, standing next to a portrait of the group's namesake, Captain John Morrison Birch.

December 9, 1958: The John Birch Society Is Founded

“Together with other ‘know nothing’ organizations scattered through the country, it represents a basic, continuing phenomenon in American society.”

by Richard Kreitner, Hans Engh via The Nation on December 9, 1958

A crowd of Iranian protesters burns photos.

The Islamic Republic Was Never Inevitable

With Iran’s theocracy under strain, a new history shows that its rise was mainly a stroke of bad luck.

by Arash Azizi via The Atlantic on August 5, 2025

The shark approaches the boat in a scene from the film Jaws.

The Undeniable Greatness of Jaws

Jaws is a landmark hit, but also a sharp 1970s film shaped by political ire, social critique, and realist cinema’s lasting influence.

by Eileen Jones via Jacobin on July 24, 2025

Leonard Peltier adjusts the black bandana around his head.

Leonard Peltier’s Story Isn’t Over Yet

The Native activist spent nearly fifty years in prison for the killing of two F.B.I. agents. In January, Joe Biden commuted his sentence, and he went home.

by Nick Estes, Leonard Peltier via The New Yorker on June 26, 2025

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Acey Harper/Getty Images.

The Angry Death of Kimberly Bergalis

A dark mystery shocked America in the early 1990s, from prime-time shows to Congress. It’s largely been forgotten. It shouldn’t be.

by Josh Levin via Slate on June 25, 2025

Elon Musk holds a chain saw as he shakes hands with Argentine president Javier Milei at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Method in the Far Right’s Madness

How today’s far right manages to combine the call for economic freedom with pseudoscience about natural hierarchies of race and IQ.

by Quinn Slobodian, Bartolomeo Sala via Jacobin on April 13, 2025

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn at a press conference.

Donald Trump’s Long Con

Trump’s “Art of” trilogy may be full of willful exaggeration, but the books also reveal how the 1980s and 90s formed his dog-eat-dog worldview.

by John Ganz via The Nation on April 7, 2025

Woodrow Wilson delivering his second innaugural address in front of a large crowd.

America Was at Its Trumpiest 100 Years Ago. Here’s How to Prevent the Worst.

During World War I, America lurched toward autocracy. Resistance was minimal.

by Adam Hochschild via Washington Post on April 3, 2025

Donald Trump and the presidential seal in an empty theater.

The Hoax that Spawned an Age of American Conspiracism

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are just the latest populists to weaponise fears of a sinister “deep state”.

by Phil Tinline via New Statesman on April 2, 2025

Shulamith Firestone, 1997.

When the Battle's Lost and Won

Shulamith Firestone and the burdens of prophecy.

by Audrey Wollen via Harper’s on March 28, 2025

Frank Wisner's photo covered with official seals.

The Making of a Cold War Spy

The life and work of Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founding officers, offers us a portrait of American intelligence’s excesses.

by Adam Hochschild via The Nation on March 11, 2025

A woman with a rifle, superimposed on an American flag.

From Philly to Derry: On the Americans Who Armed the IRA During The Troubles

Vincent Conlon’s secret life in the United States as an operative and gun-running Irish rebel.

by Ali Watkins via Literary Hub on March 11, 2025

A hand made into a fist is camouflaged against the American flag.

The Dark Parallels Between 1920s America and Today’s Political Climate

The early 1920s in the US offers historical lessons on how current pessimism about the state of the country can manifest in dangerous, discriminatory ways.

by Alex Green via The Conversation on March 10, 2025

Dark, distorted painting of the American Revolution.

Tracing America’s Obsession With Conspiracy Theories Back to Its Founding

The revolutionary roots of a corrosive national pastime.

by Andrew Lawler via Literary Hub on February 25, 2025

Knight Club

Were the Knights of the Golden Circle responsible for Lincoln’s assassination? No one knows, but far-right secret societies always draw power from speculation.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on January 14, 2025

Rod Serling giving his opening monologue on "The Twilight Zone."

Rod Serling on Doomsday

Marking the centenary of the creator of “The Twilight Zone,” who knew that dystopia was always over the nearest ridge.

by Carly Mattox via Mubi on December 25, 2024

Call of Duty: Pentagon Ops

Inside the weird synergies that launched the videogaming industry—and made the Pentagon fantasies in Call of Duty its stock in trade.

by Jesse Robertson via The Nation on October 24, 2024

Henry Kissinger

Who Wanted to Kill Henry Kissinger?

Newly-released FBI files show a lot of strange threats against the former secretary of state’s safety—and say a lot about 1970s America.

by Matthew Petti via Reason on September 18, 2024

Twin towers missing; twin towers visible with surroundings missing.

How the War on Terror Warped the American Left

A new book on how 9/11 altered the national psyche also demonstrates how it stunted progressive politics.

by Gal Beckerman via The Atlantic on September 10, 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

Two women protesting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

Disposable Heroes

Christine Blasey Ford’s memoir captures the hazards of “coming forward.”

by Moira Donegan via Bookforum on July 2, 2024

How America’s Rich Legacy of Fear and Hatred Fuels the Conspiracy Theories of Today

Panic about Catholics, Freemasons, and, later, Jews, is deeply woven into American history, and forms the basis of our fertile culture of conspiracy theorizing.

by Arthur Goldwag via Talking Points Memo on June 21, 2024

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