Increasing numbers of people have become wary of the dangers of Fake News. But what about the more subtle scourge of Fake History? Although far harder to expose than Fake News—requiring familiarity not merely with history, but with primary source texts—Fake History is arguably even more dangerous.
Unlike the “news,” which is ephemeral, causing its mischief in the present before quickly dissipating, the presumed lessons of history are concrete and long-lasting. People interpret current events through the prism of history; and if that history is fundamentally flawed, then everything they believe about the present will also be flawed.