01/13/2020
Cortada, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota, and Asprey, an information science professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, illuminate fake facts and falsehoods throughout American history in this informative survey. The authors discuss falsehoods in advertising, most specifically, in medicine, and list patent medicines (those not backed by scientific research) that claimed cures for tuberculosis (“Piso’s Cure for Consumption”) and diabetes (“Kaadt’s cures”) and were advertised in newspapers throughout the 19th century. They also explore how misinformation shaped political events, such as the freewheeling presidential election in 1828 of Andrew Jackson, who was accused in the press of “wife-stealing,” and they devote time to the many conspiracy theories surrounding the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln (“Confederate public officials arranged the assassination”) and John F. Kennedy (perpetrated by, depending on who one is listening to, the Russians, FBI, CIA, Castro, the Mob, or Vice President Lyndon Johnson). The authors conclude that “Americans have always lived in a parallel information-rich universe.” This fascinating narrative of lies, half-truths, and fabricated theories serves as a timely history. (Nov.)
Highly Recommended: This book offers a sweeping and powerful historical corrective to those who claim we are in a new "post-truth" era. [Cortada and Aspray] thoroughly document how deliberate lies, half-truths, and misinformation have long been part and parcel of American democracy. Through a set of carefully constructed historical case studies, the authors show how misinformation is often a strategic tool for both individual and institutional political actors, and that it takes on different casts in harmony with the contemporary expressive styles of its day. By finding such analogues in the past, from scenarios of assassination to those of war, Cortada and Aspray leave us clear-eyed about the challenges of the present while providing a set of historical cases that those looking to correct misinformation can learn from, precisely because they arose in a radically different media era. In the end, this text reveals that we are not in a new era at all, and that the problem of misinformation, and its at times far-reaching consequences, has been ever-present during American self-rule.
For those of us who might believe that we are living in a unique period of history where the emergence of fake news and alternative truths is confounding political and public life, this outstanding volume sheds light on the common use of misinformation across the history of the United States. The authors tell us the story of how lies, fake facts, misinformation, myth-making, and conspiracies have affected American public discourse, political life, business and science policy. They take the reader on a fascinating journey through eight carefully chosen case studies of events from our countries political, business, and science policy history. These events include the election and assassination of presidents, U.S. participation in wars, the long-lasting popularity of patent medicines, the use of misleading science in defense of the tobacco industry, and the politics of climate change. With these case studies we learn how information has been used and misused. The authors reveal how we experience truth, certainty and knowledge and where this is undermined by untruth, uncertainty and ignorance. Through these historical accounts the reader will learn that facts and lies are socially constructed; that information has been weaponized by individuals and organizations to achieve their goals; that facts have been linguistically reconstructed through exaggerations, misrepresentations, conspiracies, and myth-making to create and disseminate fake facts; that support for participation in the Spanish-American War was generated by fake facts published in the media; that the public relations industry has convinced us of alternative versions of truth; that rumors evolve to become facts; and how the current debate over the scientific evidence of climate change has developed, and where this might lead us in the common interest of preserving our planet. I highly recommend this superbly written and researched book. It makes a very important contribution to our understanding of the nature of information, and the role it plays in our daily lives, and a strong argument for the conscientious development of high-level information, technology, and data literacy skills for all people as a necessary foundation for engaged civic life.
Using the 2016 United States presidential election as a touchstone, this book looks at how information has long been weaponized in American public life. Grounded in more than two centuries of historical examples, and replete with details, Cortada and Aspray tell a tale of fake facts and fake news and all types of information prevarications in-between. Unafraid to call a lie a lie, the authors take us on a journey through history to show how information has been yielded in the political, business, and policy realm in the pursuit of specific, often nefarious, goals. In the process the book reveals patterns, insights, and understandings to help the reader navigate a past, present, and future in which people behave badly and lies and misrepresentations are unfortunately the norm.
This book provides a context for qualifying our current national angst about fake news. It does not promise speculative solutions but situates the reader in a long history of information use and misuse and urges us to think critically and reflectively about a fundamentally human-information phenomenon rather than a contemporarily unique condition.
While smart phones and social networking have brought "fake news" to the forefront of today's politics and discourse, Cortada and Aspray brilliantly examine the much longer political, cultural, and technological history of misinformation and false facts through elegant cases on elections, climate science, advertising, and in other realms.
Cortada and Aspray’s brilliantly selected and crafted case studies are must reads, which bring historical insight to issues of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories of our digital age.
This volume makes a useful contribution to the literature on disinformatics. Deceit has always been a constant companion to the tyrant, propagandist and missioner. What is new to our post-truth era is the digital weaponization of deceit, particularly under the rubric of social media.
Highly Recommended: This book offers a sweeping and powerful historical corrective to those who claim we are in a new "post-truth" era. [Cortada and Aspray] thoroughly document how deliberate lies, half-truths, and misinformation have long been part and parcel of American democracy. Through a set of carefully constructed historical case studies, the authors show how misinformation is often a strategic tool for both individual and institutional political actors, and that it takes on different casts in harmony with the contemporary expressive styles of its day. By finding such analogues in the past, from scenarios of assassination to those of war, Cortada and Aspray leave us clear-eyed about the challenges of the present while providing a set of historical cases that those looking to correct misinformation can learn from, precisely because they arose in a radically different media era. In the end, this text reveals that we are not in a new era at all, and that the problem of misinformation, and its at times far-reaching consequences, has been ever-present during American self-rule.
Highly Recommended: This book offers a sweeping and powerful historical corrective to those who claim we are in a new "post-truth" era. [Cortada and Aspray] thoroughly document how deliberate lies, half-truths, and misinformation have long been part and parcel of American democracy. Through a set of carefully constructed historical case studies, the authors show how misinformation is often a strategic tool for both individual and institutional political actors, and that it takes on different casts in harmony with the contemporary expressive styles of its day. By finding such analogues in the past, from scenarios of assassination to those of war, Cortada and Aspray leave us clear-eyed about the challenges of the present while providing a set of historical cases that those looking to correct misinformation can learn from, precisely because they arose in a radically different media era. In the end, this text reveals that we are not in a new era at all, and that the problem of misinformation, and its at times far-reaching consequences, has been ever-present during American self-rule.
