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Poster of American flag asking people to pledge allegiance and silence about the war.

World War II’s “Rumor Control” Project

How the federal government enlisted ordinary citizens to spy on each other for the war effort.
by Neely Tucker via Library of Congress Blog on November 2, 2021

Rumor Mill

Watching fake news spread in 1942.
by Tracy Campbell via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 20, 2020
Boston Herald assistant publisher W.G. Gavin at the “Rumor Clinic,” 1942.

During WWII, 'Rumor Clinics' Were Set Up to Dispel Morale-Damaging Gossip

A network of "morale wardens" tracked down the latest scuttlebutt.
by Crystal Ponti via Atlas Obscura on May 17, 2017
African American women factory workers in heavy industry.

Lessons From the Fake News Pandemic of 1942

The South couldn't stop the rumors. Can we?
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on March 12, 2017
A painting of Marie-Louise Coidavid.
partner

The First and Last Queen of Haiti in Exile

Queen Marie-Louise outlived most of her family, yet her story about the revolution and its aftermath was rarely consulted by those writing the era’s history.
by Marlene L. Daut via HNN on January 7, 2025
Haitan commuinty members bowing their heads in prayer.

The Coming Witch Trials

It’s time to care for the community—not cleanse it.
by Adam Jortner via Current (religion and democracy) on October 22, 2024

‘They’re Eating Pets’ – Another Example of US Politicians Smearing Haiti and Haitian Immigrants

Trump’s baseless claims about migrants in Ohio reflect a long history of prejudice against Haitians. In Washington, those falsehoods have driven policy.
by Nathan H. Dize via The Conversation on September 17, 2024
Donald Trump stands in front of a microphone, holding a graph titled "Illegal Immigration into the US."

Trump’s Anti-Haitian Hate Has Deep American Roots

The former president’s grotesque demagoguery is just the latest in a long line of vicious attacks on residents and immigrants from the island nation.
by Jonathan M. Katz via The New Republic on September 16, 2024
Pamela Harriman posing in an expensively decorated bedroom beside a four poster bed.

How a Mid-Century Paramour Became a Democratic Power Broker

Churchill weaponized her powers of seduction—but Pamela Harriman came into her own when she brought her glamour to Washington.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on September 16, 2024
Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun.
partner

Picking a Partner: The V.P. Relationship

The relationship between presidents and vice presidents is unique and often personal. Sometimes, internal divisions spill out into public life.
via Retro Report on September 14, 2024
Trump at the debate in Philadelphia.

Why Republican Politicians Keep Claiming Immigrants Eat Cats and Dogs

"They’re eating the pets of the people that live there," former President Trump claimed — with no basis — at the first presidential debate.
by Bettina Makalintal via Eater on September 11, 2024
A hallway in the Greenbriar bunker, lined with steel and cement walls

The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades

The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort's bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden for 30 years.
by Emily Matchar via Smithsonian on April 9, 2024
John Montgomery Ward and Helen Dauvray.

Before Taylor and Travis, There Was Helen and John

She was an actress. He was a shortstop. What we can learn from the press parade around this 19th-century power couple.
by Scott D. Peterson via Zócalo Public Square on January 11, 2024
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
Destroyed buildings and streets in the aftermath of the Chicago fire.

What Really Started the Great Chicago Fire?

The famous disaster razed a metropolis and spread a pack of colorful lies. To sift through the ashes today is to encounter some uncomfortable truths.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on October 2, 2023
President Warren G. Harding against a background of news clippings related to his death.

Why President Warren G. Harding's Sudden Death Sparked Rumors of Murder and Suicide

The commander in chief's unexpected death in office 100 years ago fueled decades of conspiracy theories but was most likely the result of a heart attack.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on August 1, 2023
Illustration, The Burning of the Convent in 1834.

The Banality of Conspiracy Theories

Moral panics repeat, again and again.
by Colin Dickey via The Atlantic on July 1, 2023
Drawing of a Black man in court pleading with a judge in 1741.

Was the Conspiracy That Gripped New York in 1741 Real?

Rumors that enslaved Black New Yorkers were planning a revolt spread across Manhattan even more quickly than the fires for which they were being blamed.
by Ashawnta Jackson, Andy Doolen, Richard E. Bond, Thomas J. Davis via JSTOR Daily on April 30, 2023
Colonists leaving families to fight the British.

How Fake Foreign News Fed Political Fervor and Led to the American Revolution

Fuel for the revolution came from a source familiar today: distorted news reports used to drum up enthusiasm for overthrowing an illegitimate government.
by Jordan Taylor via The Conversation on December 5, 2022
Line of TV vans on road preparing to broadcast the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
partner

We Learned of The Queen’s Death Instantly. That Wasn’t The Case in 1760.

Back when monarchs had much more power—and news was far from instantaneous—it had major implications in the American colonies.
by Helena Yoo Roth via Made By History on September 19, 2022
Invisible Man book cover with Ralph Ellison on the back

Broke and Blowing Deadlines

How Ralph Ellison got Invisible Man into the canon.
by Anne Trubek via Notes From A Small Press on June 29, 2022
The U.S. Capitol building at night.

A Capital History

Washington has long been a disproportionately gay city—a mecca for clever, ambitious young men who want to escape their hometowns’ prying eyes.
by Bruce Bawer via Commentary on April 12, 2022
Person wearing rainbow mask, in front of signs asking Disney to oppose "Don't Say Gay" law
partner

It’s Nothing New for Florida to Claim Anti-LGBTQ Measures Will Protect Children

How political figures have framed anti-LGBTQ bigotry as being pro-child and pro-parent.
by Julio Capó Jr., Shevrin Jones via Made By History on March 28, 2022
Vintage drawing of a Victorian-era drugstore

Was Edgar Allan Poe a Habitual Opium User?

While Poe was likely using opium, the efforts to keep him quiet suggest that he was also drinking.
by Elizabeth Kelly Gray via Commonplace on February 7, 2022
“Our first camp.” Vado de Piedra, Chihuahua, Mexico. January 26, 1921.

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find my grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured our family patriarch.
by Stacey Ravel Abarbanel via Zócalo Public Square on February 2, 2022
A milk maid shows her cowpoxed hand to a physician, while a farmer or surgeon offers to a young man inoculation with cowpox that he has taken from a cow.

Whack-a-Mole

Vaccine skepticism and misinformation have persisted since the smallpox epidemics. With the internet, it's only gotten worse.
by Rivka Galchen via London Review of Books on January 27, 2022
Clay Shaw and two aides, holding up the newspaper announcing his acquittal. Copyright AP 1969.

The Homophobic Backdrop to Garrison’s Persecution of Clay Shaw

A review of "Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime."
by Martin J. Kelly via Washington Decoded on October 11, 2021
Illustration of men around an old printing press

Benjamin Franklin's Fight Against a Deadly Virus

Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptic.
by Mark Canada, Christian Chauret via The Conversation on July 1, 2021
Victoria Woodhull speaks as the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives receives a group of female suffragists, January 11, 1871

The Scandalous and Pioneering Victoria Woodhull

The first woman to run for president was infamous in her day.
by John Strausbaugh via National Review on February 8, 2020
A drawing of a moose skeleton

America, Where the Dogs Don't Bark and the Birds Don't Sing

The Comte de Buffon's thirty-six volume Natural History claimed that America was a land of degeneracy. That enraged Thomas Jefferson.
by Matthew Wills, Lee Alan Dugatkin via JSTOR Daily on November 27, 2019
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