How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor: A Smart, Irreverent Guide to Biography, History, Journalism, Blogs, and Everything in Between

Foster begins with the claim that “[w]e live in an age of deliberate deception” (ix), a troubling reality that undermines the capacity to discern truth. He compares the modern information environment to a drugstore filled with medicine bottles, two of which contain poison pills; not knowing which to avoid, people fear all. This demonstrates how deliberate falsehoods erode collective trust, creating a culture in which skepticism replaces reason.

From the earliest days of US democracy, Foster notes, political factions have relied on libel, propaganda, and distortion. He traces this lineage through several eras, including the partisan press of the 18th and 19th centuries, the sensationalism of “yellow journalism” led by publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, and the modern era of corporate misinformation campaigns. Examples include big tobacco’s suppression of research on the dangers of smoking and ExxonMobil’s concealment of its internal findings on climate change.

Foster turns to the 21st century, where misinformation has become more pervasive through cable news and social media. He cites the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry as a modern instance of character defamation presented as fact, and he explores how partisanship and digital echo chambers have amplified division.