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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
Soldiers carrying a wounded soldier to a helicopter for evacuation.

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.
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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
Photos of the eight Black Sox players charged with throwing the game.

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

After the Financial Crisis, Wall Street Turned to Charity—and Avoided Justice

Giving in millions has a way of erasing harm done in billions.
by Anand Giridharadas via The New Yorker on September 15, 2018

The Counterfeit Queen of Soul

A strange and bittersweet ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity and unlikely stardom.
by Jeff Maysh via Smithsonian Magazine on June 28, 2018
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Edward S. Curtis: Romance vs. Reality

In a famous 1910 photograph "In a Piegan Lodge," a small clock appears between two seated Native American men.
by Allison C. Meier via JSTOR Daily on May 18, 2018
Colin Powell holding a vial of anthrax.

How Torture-Produced Intelligence Deceived Us Into Iraq

A first-hand account of how intel gleaned from 'enhanced interrogation' was used to make the case for the 2003 invasion.
by Lawrence Wilkerson via The American Conservative on May 9, 2018

Trump Lied to Me About His Wealth to Get Onto the Forbes 400

Posing as ‘John Barron,’ he claimed he owned most of his father’s real estate empire.
by Jonathan Greenberg via Washington Post on April 20, 2018

A “Malicious Fabrication” by a “Mendacious Scribbler for the ‘New York Times’”

The Times, as a “venomous Abolition Journal” could not be trusted to provide the truth for a white, slave-owning southerner.
by Mandy Cooper, Kate Collins via The Devil's Tale on March 12, 2018
Protestors for ACT UP lying on the ground, holding hands, as police arrest them.
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The Russian ‘Fake News’ Campaign That Damaged the United States — in the 1980s

The 2016 election wasn't the first time that a disinformation campaign was used against America.
by Alexander Poster via Made By History on March 12, 2018

Did you know the CIA _____?

Errol Morris and the hot cold war.
by Malcolm Harris via n+1 on March 7, 2018

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

How a farcical series of events in the 1880s produced an enduring and controversial legal precedent.
by Adam Winkler via The Atlantic on March 5, 2018
Lyndon Johnson with advisors including Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk.
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It’s Time for Congress to Wrest Its War-Making Authority Back From the President

If the U.S. government is going to wage unending war, it should at least get the public on its side.
by Marc J. Selverstone via Made By History on February 23, 2018
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