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cartoon drawing of street with for sale signs in front of every house

The Steal of the Century

How banks ripped off Americans, destroyed Black wealth, and got away with it.
by Matt Bors, Kazimir Lee via The Nib on October 26, 2020
Free Banking Era five dollar bank note from Michigan.

When the Secret Service Was Only Interested in Money

In certain corners of the internet, you can actually buy money, but these bills are relics of the Free Banking Era that reigned from the 1830s to the 1860s.
by Charlotte Muth via Boundary Stones on October 9, 2020
President Trump wearing a mask
partner

Politics, Not Public Good, Will Guide What We Know About Trump’s Health

That’s the lesson of Dwight Eisenhower’s serious heart attack.
by William I. Hitchcock via Made By History on October 8, 2020
Doctor in white coat giving thumbs up

Presidential Physicians Don’t Always Tell the Public the Full Story

They are beholden only to their patient, not to the American people.
by Matthew Algeo via The Atlantic on October 3, 2020
Ben Cohen giving a presentation

B. R. Cohen on How Food Became “Pure”

On the corrupt, contaminated, deceptive world of 19th-century food adulteration, and how Cohen's own work straddles pure academia and public-facing scholarship.
by David Schleifer, Benjamin R. Cohen via Public Books on September 29, 2020

Born Enslaved, Patrick Francis Healy 'Passed' His Way to Lead Georgetown University

Because the 19th-century college president appeared white, he was able to climb the ladder of the Jesuit community.
by Bryan Greene via Smithsonian on September 8, 2020
Artistic graphic of two newcaster superimposed on the image of protesters in a Guatemalean city

The (Literally) Unbelievable Story of the Original Fake News Network

In Guatemala, the CIA hired an American actor and two radio DJs to oust a president.
by Sylvia Brindis Snow, Shane Snow via Narratively on August 27, 2020

The Forged Letter that Began a Mormon Succession Crisis

Miles Harvey on the life and times of James J. Strang.
by Miles Harvey via Literary Hub on July 15, 2020
NYPD officers in front of an American flag.

There’s Truth in Numbers in Policing – Until There Isn’t

To hold the police accountable for misconduct, data related to police violence must not only become more accessible, it must also become more reliable.
by Carl Suddler via Brookings on June 26, 2020
Black and white photo of The National Negro Business League with founder Booker T. Washington.

Identity Politics and Elite Capture

The Combahee River Collective and E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie agree that the wealthy and powerful will hijack activist energies for their own ends.
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via Boston Review on May 7, 2020
Picture of Lela Mae Williams and seven of her nine children on arrival in Hyannis.

The Cruel Story Behind The 'Reverse Freedom Rides'

In 1962, tricked black Southerners into migrating north and transformed families' lives forever.
by Gabrielle Emanuel via NPR on February 29, 2020

The Intelligence Coup of the Century

For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.
by Greg Miller via Washington Post on February 11, 2020
An image of a mesmerist attempting to cure a subject.

Modernity's Spell

Why debunking mesmerism only made it stronger.
by Clare Coffey via The New Atlantis on December 20, 2019

Confidential Documents Reveal U.S. Officials Failed to Tell the Truth About the War in Afghanistan

For nearly two decades, US leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We're making progress in Afghanistan. They weren't, documents show, and they knew it.
by Craig Whitlock via Washington Post on December 9, 2019
Lithograph of the Fox Sisters.
partner

The Fox Sisters

The story of Kate and Margaret Fox, the small-town girls who triggered the 19th century movement known as Spiritualism.
via BackStory on October 25, 2019
Leland Stanford, oil painting by French artist Ernest Meissonier, 1881. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Was Leland Stanford a ‘Magnanimous’ Philanthropist or a ‘Thief, Liar, and Bigot?’

The railroad baron and governor of California was starkly contradictory and infamously disruptive.
by Roland De Wolk via What It Means to Be American on October 17, 2019
Joe Biden in front of a podium

Joe Biden’s Love Affair With the CIA

Biden’s assistance to William Casey, Reagan’s CIA director, and the rehabilitation of the intelligence service in general has had tragic consequences.
by Daniel Boguslaw via The American Prospect on October 10, 2019

Black Sox Forever

Reflections on the centennial of America’s greatest sports scandal.
by Harry Stein via City Journal on September 26, 2019

“A Most Damnable Fraud?” Public (Mis)conceptions and the Insanity Defense

An upcoming Supreme Court case will test the "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea.
by Steph Chevalier-Crockett via Nursing Clio on September 19, 2019

Is Debunking More About the Truth-Teller than the Truth?

Secular modernity requires the weeding out of all the baloney. Yet it’s not clear that we are any less credulous than before.
by Emily Ogden via Aeon on August 12, 2019

The Credo Company

A shocking story about the biggest company in the US's most profitable industry.
by Steven Brill via Highline on August 1, 2019

What P.T. Barnum Understood About America

Barnum called himself the “Prince of Humbugs,” which left open the possibility that one day there would arise a king.
by Elizabeth Kolbert via The New Yorker on July 29, 2019

The Spectacular P. T. Barnum

The great showman taught us to love hyperbole, fake news, and a good hoax. A century and a half later, the show has escaped the tent.
by James Parker via The Atlantic on July 19, 2019
Horses with ribbons and a man counting his gambling winnings.

History’s Greatest Horse Racing Cheat and His Incredible Painting Trick

In the sport’s post-Depression heyday, one audacious grifter beat the odds with an elaborate scam: disguising fast horses to look like slow ones.
by Josh Nathan-Kazis via Narratively on June 6, 2019

The History Behind Baseball’s Weirdest Pitch

The improbable success of the curveball.
by Tyler Kepner via Literary Hub on April 24, 2019
Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression.

Rewarding Risk

Federal deposit insurance and the 1980s bank crisis.
by Kathleen Day via Perspectives on History on April 3, 2019

Ari Fleischer Lied, and People Died

The former Bush mouthpiece had more to do personally with the Iraq WMD catastrophe than he wants us to believe.
by Scott Ritter via The American Conservative on March 22, 2019

Where Does Truth Fit into Democracy?

In modern democracies, who gets to determine what counts as truth—an elite of experts or the people as a whole?
by David A. Bell via The Nation on January 24, 2019

Literary Hoaxes and the Ethics of Authorship

What happens when we find out writers aren't who they said they were.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on December 10, 2018

Was Gary Hart Set Up?

On his deathbed, GOP strategist Lee Atwater admitted he staged the events that brought down a Democratic presidential candidate.
by James Fallows via The Atlantic on October 16, 2018
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