Fake News in Revolutionary America

Recorded November 15, 2023. Jordan E. Taylor, author of Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America, led a fascinating virtual talk about “fake news” in the Revolutionary era. America’s Founding Fathers are often praised for their wisdom and discernment. But like Americans today, they faced a mountain of misinformation. Their political choices, from resisting British authority to declaring independence to forming a new nation, depended in part on their understanding of what was happening in places like London, Paris, and Port-au-Prince. Lacking modern tools to verify news, the information they encountered about events abroad was often contradictory, confusing, and outright false. How did they navigate this challenge? Did misinformation help to spark the American Revolution?