On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews PhD student and JAR contributor Jonathan Bayer on his discovery of an account of the surrender of Quebec to American forces in 1776 that was not only not true but labeled in the Pennsylvania Evening Post as “Fake news.” New episodes of Dispatches are available for free […]
In 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post printed a letter, allegedly from Paris, which reported that American commander Benedict Arnold had captured the last major British stronghold in Canada, Quebec City.[1] While almost certainly not the first of its kind, this letter from the Post is one of the earliest examples of fake news during the Revolutionary […]
Historians have long praised newspapers for the role they played during the American Revolution, but they don’t always zero in on specific papers that were particularly important during this time. Rather, they give deserving praise to all of the press for the help they gave in winning independence. But there are particular newspapers that should […]
Each year, more than a million people walk through the cold, dark Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington DC to glimpse the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Called the engrossed copy, the text of the Declaration is handwritten in large letters on parchment that is encased in a frame of pure titanium with gold plating. […]
