This lame Netflix thing on George Washington is particularly weak on the young Washington's disingenuousness in reporting to superiors after Jumonville's Glen and throughout and after the battle at Fort Necessity. Blaming the translator? That's GW, not objective truth.

The expression is "dive," not "dive bar."

Feee preview on HOGELAND'S BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/aoc-the-am...

I'm having a discussion with the Thomas Paine Historical Association regarding Paine's startling role in 1776--way beyond Common Sense--in bringing about American independence. On Zoom, and free, Saturday 5/9 at 4PM ET: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I find that the misconceptions that Aaron Burr murdered Hamilton and committed treason are even more prevalent on BlueSky than on Twitter.

Become a paying subscriber to BAD HISTORY and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bicentennial with Robert Altman's "Nashville." williamhogeland.substack.com/p/the-50th-a...

If you were a paying BAD HISTORY subscriber ($5/mo. or $50/yr.), you'd be reading about how Patrick Henry's 1775 "liberty or death" speech was made up forty years after the fact. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/patrick-he...

Since it's time to talk about blackface again (and then no doubt forget about it again) three of my essays locating that pervasive impulse in places that aren't as strange as they seem: 1. On "Dixie": williamhogeland.substack.com/p/whistlin-d-

Evidently Whitey is soon to be on the moon.

Free preview on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/yes-king

Time-honored presidential move

On my list of settings for movies that will never get made.

No paywall. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/sinners-an...

No paywall. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/sinners-an...

Since Sinners wanted to bring in the Choctaw, it might have done something interesting with their Jim Crow practices, following the emancipation of the African-descended people whom, as members of the Five "Civilized" Tribes that allied with the Confederacy, they'd held in slavery.

Startled to find in Sinners the all too familiar essentializing of Delta and Chicago blues. That phenomenon reflects musical and racial fantasies invented long ago by nerdy white boys--the very kind of white people the movie tries (I think; it's chaotic) to cast as vampires.

NY Times on Sinners: "Sammie all but burns the place down with his resonant voice and twangy dobro [sic], a guitar with a provenance as devilish as that of the bluesman Robert Johnson." WTF

If you know you know.

If we need real founding-era parallels to demonizing an opposition party as insurrectionist (we don't): "You could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a professed Democrat...he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country." -- G. Washington

Two posts, on failures in this crisis of appeals to our nation's founding that are interesting in part because "the writers are by no means stupid; they’re just bedazzled by sentiment." On Ted Widmer: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/lame-and-u... ...

Free preview: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/hi-william

Get rid of the State pf the Union Address. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

The State of the Union Address is a very bad institution. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

Get rid of the State pf the Union Address. williamhogeland.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

Free preview: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/hi-william

It doesn't seem to occur to anybody, liberal or conservative, that the founders--and many of the rest of the important historical leaders--were as full of shit as any of the rest of us.

Hamilton's most effective piece of writing was the sleazebag letter from beyond the grave where he pretended he was going to waste his shot in the duel with Burr.

Two posts, on failures in this crisis of appeals to our nation's founding that are interesting in part because "the writers are by no means stupid; they’re just bedazzled by sentiment." On Ted Widmer: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/lame-and-u... ...

Here I criticize Tyler Austin Harper's Second Amendment analysis of ICE's killing of Alex Pretti. open.substack.com/pub/williamh...

If we need real founding-era parallels to demonizing an opposition party as insurrectionist (we don't): "You could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a professed Democrat...he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country." -- G. Washington

Updated the post to note that if we do need founding-era parallels to what's going on in MN--I think we don't--the real one would be the Federalist period, not 1770's Boston.

Here I criticize Ted Widmer's recent attempt to link ICE, a lawless federal paramilitary, with the 1770s British Army in Boston and the MN protesters w. the likes of Samuel Adams (free preview): open.substack.com/pub/williamh...

Free preview on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/lame-and-u...

Free preview on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/on-america...

A public post: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/did-the-ir...

This one has a paywall. 5/mo. or 60/yr. gets you two BAD HISTORY posts per month and access to the archive, which has gotten big. "The Taking of Fort Ticonderoga: A Comedy" williamhogeland.substack.com/p/the-taking...

Free preview on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/john-adams...

Free preview on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/john-adams...

Want to read a great artist, read Charlotte Bronte. Want to read a great artist ripping apart a lesser artist, read Charlotte Bronte on Jane Austen.

New prize for 2025: Best Article about Alice Monroe.

"This is a work of nonfiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

What made thirteen clocks strike at once? As John Adams knew, they didn't--and the process that made them seem to, which he had a big hand in, was secretive, bullying, illegal, and had nothing to do with persuasion. For the 250th,read about it: www.amazon.com/Declaration-...

In the context of an article in the Times by Alissa Wilkinson, on whether AI will make documentary films untrustworthy, I think the answer is No, since they're not trustworthy anyway--unlocking this, on that: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/down-the-m...

Part Two, a free post on BAD HISTORY: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/did-the-ir...

The real question is why we'd want to blame the Iroquois for Franklin's loony-tune 1754 plan of union.

If you write books, or engage in any other art form, it's likely that you'll also need to have a job of some kind.

For your Thanksgiving fighting pleasure, no paywall: williamhogeland.substack.com/p/did-the-ir...

People argue about what finally brought the people of the thirteen colonies together, but my conclusion, from the story I tell in Declaration, is that nothing did. "A union of former colonies entered history in confusion about the nature and purpose of its independence."