mythology — Bunk History

Viewing 31–60 of 512 results. Go to first page

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

Walt Disney Presents Manifest Destiny

On the St. Louis theme park that never made it past the drawing board.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on April 30, 2024

A drawing of Magneto wearing a kippah over his helmet.

The Judgment Of Magneto

From villain to antihero, nationalist to freedom fighter, the comic book character has always been a reflection of the Jewish cultural identity.

by Asher Elbein via Defector on April 24, 2024

Side-by-side photographs of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism

Examining how William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass interpreted the nation's relationship with the Constitution.

by Maggie Blackhawk via LPE Project on April 22, 2024

Collage of security camera image and newspaper articles from the Columbine shooting.

The Columbine-Killers Fan Club

A quarter century on, the school shooters’ mythology has propagated a sprawling subculture that idolizes murder and mayhem.

by Dave Cullen via The Atlantic on April 19, 2024

Blue-print style sketch of a suburban home, with sidewalk, driveway, and garage

How the Suburbs Became a Trap

Neighborhoods that once promised prosperity now offer crumbling infrastructure, aged housing stock, and social animus.

by Caitlin Zaloom via The New Republic on April 18, 2024

A gun shop in Dunedin, Florida.

America Fell for Guns Recently, and for Reasons You Will Not Guess

The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history.

by Megan Kang via Aeon on April 9, 2024

Statute of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, with construction hook ready to remove it.

History Shows the Danger of Comparing Trump to Jesus

It’s important to remember why analogies to Jesus should stay out of the political realm. The results are always ugly.

by Laura Brodie via Made by History on March 29, 2024

John Thorn photographed in front of baseball memorabilia.

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Smithsonian on March 28, 2024

Tunnel Vision

When you dig beyond all purpose, digging becomes the purpose.

by Daniel Lavery via HNN on March 26, 2024

A photograph of an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, and a knife in camoflage print, as well as bullets and a pair of gloves.

Give Your Mom a Gun

America’s favorite gun.

by Geoff Mann via London Review of Books on March 1, 2024

A photograph of George Washington Cable with Mark Twain.

The Dying Pelican

Romanticism, local color, and nostalgic New Orleans.

by Eleanor Stern via 64 Parishes on February 29, 2024

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators holding signs

A ‘Black-Jewish Alliance’ in the US? Israel-Gaza War Shows It’s More Myth Than Special Relationship

It has been an article of faith that Jews and Black Americans have a natural bond, but a ‘Black-Jewish alliance’ is not, or at least not reliably, a thing.

by Jeff Melnick via The Guardian on February 27, 2024

Statue of Sojourner Truth.

The Remarkable Untold Story of Sojourner Truth

Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon's life and faith is finally coming to light.

by Cynthia R. Greenlee via Smithsonian on February 12, 2024

A illustration depicts the Hopkinsville Goblins incident from 1955, when a group claims they were assaulted by aliens of some sort.

The Long, Surprising Legacy of the Hopkinsville Goblins

Or, why families under siege make for great movies.

by Colin Dickey via Atlas Obscura on February 8, 2024

Collage of African Americans' faces.

Specters of the Mythic South

How plantation fiction fixed ghost stories to Black Americans.

by Alena Pirok via Southern Cultures on January 24, 2024

Space Isn’t the Final Frontier

Mars fantasists still cling to dreams of the Old West.

by Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith via Foreign Policy on January 21, 2024

‘View of Grave Creek Mound’; engraving by Ebenezer Mathers, 1839.

The Plunder and the Pity

Alicia Puglionesi explores the damage white supremacy did to Native Americans and their land.

by Ian Frazier via New York Review of Books on January 18, 2024

Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech.

The Problem With Comparing Today's Activists to MLK

Media coverage of the civil rights movement is a reminder that the deification of King has skewed public memory.

by Hajar Yazdiha via Made by History on January 15, 2024

Cars on an interstate highway at sunset.

Interstate Lovesong

How popular and official narratives have obscured the damaging impact of the interstate highway system.

by Ryan Reft via The Metropole on January 4, 2024

Statue of Pocahontas.

Pocahontas, Remembered

After 400 years, reality has begun to replace the lies.

by Victoria Sutton via Unintended Consequences on December 24, 2023

Farmers on a tractor harvesting grain.

Rural America Has Lost Its Soul

Jefferson's vision of the family farm is a myth that won't die.

by Steven Conn via UnHerd on November 27, 2023

Two American soldiers and farmer Olof Öhman posing with a supposed Viking runestone.

Why Americans Simply Love to Forge Viking Artifacts

No, roving bands of medieval Scandinavians did not visit West Virginia. (So far as we know.)

by Martyn Whittock via Slate on November 11, 2023

Members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' Turns 30

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.

by Marcus Evans via The Conversation on October 31, 2023

Gremlins climbing on a World War II warplane.

How Gremlins Went From Fairy Stories to Warplanes to Hollywood Legend

Meet these slippery, mischievous reflections of our anxieties about technology.

by Hadley Meares via Atlas Obscura on October 24, 2023

Greek style illustration of Edith Hamilton and mythical figures.

The Latin School Teacher Who Made Classics Popular

A new biography of Edith Hamilton tells the story of how and why ancient literature became widely read in the United States.

by Emily Wilson via The Nation on October 17, 2023

Grant Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Byron McKeeby, stand by the painting for which they had posed, “American Gothic.”

Beyond the Myth of Rural America

Its inhabitants are as much creatures of state power and industrial capitalism as their city-dwelling counterparts.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on October 16, 2023

Drawn picture of the tidal channel known as Hell Gate, in New York, circa 1775

Is There Sunken Treasure Beneath the Treacherous Currents of Hell Gate?

In the heart of New York City, a centuries-long hunt for Revolutionary War–era gold.

by Joaquim Salles via Atlas Obscura on September 27, 2023

Design drawing for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition, 1947.

A Gateway to the Past

The Arch in St. Louis stands as a monument to contradictory histories.

by Ed Ayers on September 13, 2023

Oppenheimer and other scientists at the site of the Trinity Test.

What “Oppenheimer” Misses About The Decision to Drop the Bomb

The Truman administration launched a PR campaign to inflate casualty numbers to justify the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

by John R. Emery, Anna Pluff via Inkstick on August 10, 2023

Black worker holding a bundle of metal rods.

'Working Class' Does Not Equal 'White'

What it means to be a Black worker in the time since slavery.

by Ibram X. Kendi, Blair L. M. Kelley via The Atlantic on August 7, 2023

brought to you by

© Bunk History