


Some of the nation’s top historians are going after lies and misinformation about U.S. history in a new book.
The book, released this month, seeks to rebut simplistic maxims repeated mainly by the right — that the New Deal was bad, the Reagan revolution was good, and Confederate monuments are nothing more than historical artifacts.
Editors Kevin M. Kruse and Julian Zelizer, both Princeton University historians, say the right has used the conservative media ecosystem to dismiss evidence about real conflicts in favor of a patriotic story of triumph and perseverance.
“The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy.”