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Cover of "A Great Disorder."

In Need of a New Myth

Myths to explain American history and chart a path to the future once helped to bind the country together. Today, they are absorbed into the culture wars.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on June 26, 2024
Richard Slotkin.

“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin

"I was always working on a theory of America."
by Kathleen Belew, Richard S. Slotkin via Public Books on April 19, 2024
Democrat and Republican stickers with letters (R or D) indicating the affiliation.

The Story Wars

The conflict between Red and Blue America is a clash of national mythologies.
by Richard S. Slotkin via The Yale Review on March 11, 2024
Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tracing the Evolution of Celebrity Memoirs, from Charles Lindbergh to Will Smith

Creating a personal myth allows celebrities to create just that—a myth.
by Landon Y. Jones via Literary Hub on May 9, 2023
Painting of "The County Election" by George Caleb Bingham.

The Myth of American Individualism

How the utopian notion of the U.S. as a meritocracy became so ingrained in the American psyche.
by Eric C. Miller, Alex Zakaras via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on February 21, 2023
Statue of the "Spirit of Wyoming," a bucking horse with its rider, outside of the Capitol Building in Cheyenne.
partner

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
Man in American themed boxers, carrying a semiautomatic rifle

How Did Guns Get So Powerful?

Decade by decade, firearms have become deadlier—and tightened their grip on our collective imagination.
by Phil Klay via The New Yorker on June 11, 2022
"Napalm Girl" Photo from Vietnam War

Myths Distort the Reality Behind a Horrific Photo of the Vietnam War and Exaggerate Its Impact

The ‘Napalm Girl’ photo is much more than powerful evidence of war’s indiscriminate effects on civilians.
by W. Joseph Campbell via The Conversation on June 2, 2022
Postcard image of a painting of the Mayflower at sea.

Looking for an American Myth

The fevered hunt for basic symbols.
by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on February 6, 2022
An engraving of the American pioneer and folk hero, Daniel Boone.

Daniel Boone: A Frontiersman in Full

The life of Daniel Boone underlines how the North America of the era was a welter of conflict among and between natives and Europeans.
by Rich Lowry via National Review on December 16, 2021
White Sands National Park on a sunny day.

The Lure of the White Sands

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Geronimo, Robert Oppenheimer, Steven Spielberg, and the mysteries of New Mexico's desert.
by Rich Cohen via New York Review of Books on March 29, 2021

The Long Reinvention of the South Bronx

Peter L'Official on the Mythologies Behind Urban Renewal.
by Peter L'Official via Literary Hub on August 3, 2020

The Real Calamity Jane Was Distressingly Unlike Her Legend

A frontier character's life was crafted to be legendary, but was the real person as incredible?
by Sam Leith via The American Spectator on February 6, 2020

The Wild West Meets the Southern Border

At first glance, frontier towns near the U.S.-Mexico border seem oblivious both of history and of the current political reality.
by Valeria Luiselli via The New Yorker on June 3, 2019
Reagan signing the bill establishing Martin Luther King Day.

The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.
by Jeanne Theoharis, Jeremy Scahill via The Intercept on October 8, 2017
The filmmakers discuss the Vietnam miniseries.

Burns and Novick, Masters of False Balancing

In promoting healing instead of a search for truth, “The Vietnam War” offers misleading comforts.
by Jerry Lembcke via Public Books on September 15, 2017

American Sphinx

Civil War monuments erased an emancipated Black population, but the Sphinx looked to an integrated Africa and America.
by Colin Dickey via Longreads on August 31, 2017

The Pernicious Myth of the ‘Loyal Slave’ Lives on in Confederate Memorials

Statues don’t need to venerate military leaders of the Civil War to promulgate false narratives.
by Kevin M. Levin via Smithsonian on August 17, 2017
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The Real Story Behind "Johnny Appleseed"

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.
by Matthew Wills, William Kerrigan via JSTOR Daily on October 22, 2016
Image of a father and child walking on a beach.

Mythologizing Fatherhood

Ralph LaRossa explains the problems with mythologizing modern dads and the stereotypes present within views of fatherhood of the past.
by Ralph LaRossa via National Council On Family Relations on March 1, 2009
Sheriff Joe Arpaio riding in the back of a convertible car painted like an American flag.

Are Sheriffs Above the Law?

Many vignettes of sheriffs in action are dramatic and alarming. But how representative are they?
by Linda Greenhouse via New York Review of Books on September 12, 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
A screenshot from "Red Dead Redemption 2" of cowboy protagonist Arthur Morgan riding a horse in a western landscape.

What Red Dead Redemption II Reveals About Our Myths of the American West

On the making of a centuries-old obsession at the heart of American national identity.
by Tore C. Olsson via Literary Hub on August 28, 2024
NATO leaders in the 1950s sitting together at a conference.

Ill-Suited to Reality: NATO’s Delusions

It has suddenly become popular to cast NATO as the first benign military alliance in history, without concealed politics.
by Tom Stevenson via London Review of Books on July 25, 2024
Nora Kenworthy's book: "Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare".

Crowded Out: The Dark Side Of Crowdfunding Healthcare And Its Historical Precedents

The moral terrain of crowdfunding is fueled by two persistent social ideologies: the dual, and intertwined, myths of meritocracy and the “deserving poor.”
by Nora Kenworthy via HistPhil on July 12, 2024
The Jersey Devil, a winged creature with horns and a goat-like head, amidst trees wrapped with vines.
partner

Birthing the Jersey Devil

A mythical creature that lurks in the pinelands of New Jersey has served as a reminder of the horrors that result when reproductive freedoms are destroyed.
by Katherine Churchill via JSTOR Daily on July 3, 2024
People swimming and standing in water.

On the Time Benjamin Franklin, American Show-Off, Jumped Naked Into the Thames

On our millennia-long love-hate relationship with getting in the water.
by Vicki Valosik via Literary Hub on June 27, 2024
Palestinians inspect the ruins of a building destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, October 8, 2023.

The Desire to Annihilate Gaza Wasn’t Born on 10/7 — It’s Part of a Long Tradition

A long Euro-American tradition of genocide and ethnic cleansing imagined freeing a barren Palestine from Palestinian barbarity and heathenism.
by Adam Yaghi via Religion Dispatches on June 17, 2024

A Modest Proposal

More importantly, our misappropriation of “puritan” has allowed scholars to ignore and the public to misunderstand religion.
by Carla Gardina Pestana via Commonplace on May 21, 2024
A colorful illlustration of Texas Rangers, three Tejano men, guns, and alcohol bottles.

After a Borderland Shootout, a 100-Year-Old Battle for the Truth

A century after three Tejano men were shot to death, the story their family tells is different than the official account. Whose story counts as Texas history?
by Arelis R. Hernández, Frank Hulley-Jones via Washington Post on May 15, 2024
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