Historical Myths

Beyond Mythbusting, What Should Historians Tell the Public?

by Steven Mintz

The success of the new "Myth America" collection shows a public appetite for confronting historical myths, but historians have to offer the public more than debunking. 

Mythmaking in Manhattan: 1776 and Santa Claus

by Benjamin L. Carp

Contemporary New York elites downplayed the possibility that rebellious colonists set the Great Fire of New York in 1776; the same people were responsible for the modern myth of Santa Clause. The connections between the two are surprising.