Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News Contributor(s): Young, Kevin (Author) |
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ISBN: 155597791X ISBN-13: 9781555977917 Publisher: Graywolf Press OUR PRICE: $27.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - True Crime | Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | United States - 20th Century |
Dewey: 973 |
LCCN: 2017930117 |
Physical Information: 1.9" H x 6.3" W x 9.1" (2.20 lbs) 480 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction Award-winning poet and critic Kevin Young tours us through a rogue's gallery of hoaxers, plagiarists, forgers, and fakers--from the humbug of P. T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe to the unrepentant bunk of JT LeRoy and Donald J. Trump. Bunk traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon, examining what motivates hucksters and makes the rest of us so gullible. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice Heth, a black woman whom he pretended was the 161-year-old nursemaid to George Washington, and What Is It?, an African American man Barnum professed was a newly discovered missing link in evolution. |