In Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Phonies,
Plagiarists, Post-Facts, and Fake News, author Kevin Young dives headfirst into the rich tradition of American fascination with everything fake. Covering
200 years of history, from Barnum to Trump, Dolezal to The Bearded Lady, forged works to forged “reality”,
Young’s thoughtful, candid research into the history of
carnival-barking phonies and fraudsters is a fascinating read.
Not
getting into too much detail, Bunk
provides a candid timeline of the weaving of race, class, gender, and
occasional criminality of several case examples. Given our current environment in politics,
news, and entertainment, Young delivers a reminder that America’s “been
here, done that” many times before when it comes to putting show before
substance, hype above honesty, and chicanery in front of correctness.
Young’s
perspective and African American roots are woven effectively for context at key
moments throughout the book and provide additional sources of perspective for
students of history and of current events. I found myself captivated, yet
shaking my head at the number of examples throughout history where we the
people have truly been duped by sensationalism and outright
fraudsters. My only wish is for Young to have crafted some sort of argument for
us to get out of our sucker mentality; however, there’s enough history there
for us to be able to realize that it may ultimately be on all of us to be more
effective filters of “bunk” in the future.
