After the election of Donald Trump as president, people in the United States and across large swaths of Europe, Latin America, and Asia engaged in the most intensive discussion in modern times about falsehoods pronounced by public officials. Fake facts in their various forms have long been present in American life, particularly in its politics, public discourse, and business activities - going back to the time when the country was formed. This book explores the long tradition of fake facts, in their various guises, in American history. It is one of the first historical studies to place the long history of lies and misrepresentation squarely in the middle of American political, business, and science policy rhetoric. In Fake News Nation, James Cortada and William Aspray present a series of case studies that describe how lies and fake facts were used over the past two centuries in important instances in American history. Cortada and Aspray give readers a perspective on fake facts as they appear today and as they are likely to appear in the future. -- Publisher's website.

Introduction -- Political communication in presidential elections and the case of 1828 -- Political communication in the age of television and the presidential election of 1960 -- Ultimate in conspiracies 1: assassination of President Abraham Lincoln -- Ultimate in conspiracies 2: assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- Fake facts and mythmaking in war: Cuba and the Spanish-American War -- Rumors and misleading advertising in business -- Information and misinformation in the tobacco industry -- Misinformation, politics, and climate change -- Conclusions.