Bunk: the rise of hoaxes, humbug, plagiarists, phonies, post-facts, and fake news

Book one: A history of the hoax. One: The American museum : on the madness of crowds. ; The age of imposture ; The freaks of Dame Fortune ; Splitfoot ; Bearded ladies

Two: Neverland : on race & other popular delusions. Cowboys & aliens ; Blood nation ; Lost boys ; The time machine

Three: Mysteria : a sideshow. The heart is deceitful ; Eve Black

Book two: The hoaxing of history. Four: The vampire's mirror : of imposture, forgery & monsters. Butterfly books ; Spruce goose ; Bakelite ; The vampire's wife

Five: Hack heaven : of the journalist & the liar. Glass ceilings ; The gingerbread man ; In bad blood ; Burning down

Six : Unoriginal sin : on plagiary, murder, bad poetry & other crimes. Blacker than thou ; Professor Plum ; Ghostbusters ; Michael Brown's body

Coda: The age of euphemism.

Book one: A history of the hoax. The American museum: on the madness of crowds. The age of imposture. Humbug ; P.T. Barnum ; Matthias the prophet ; The moon hoax ; Poe ; Tales

The freaks of Dame Fortune. Joice Heth ; The mummy ; The mammy ; What is it? ; The Circassian beauty

Splitfoot. Spiritualism ; William H. Mumler ; The Fox sisters ; Spirit photography ; Heaven tourism ; The Cottingley fairy hoax ; Arthur Conan Doyle

Bearded ladies. The Lincoln letters ; The "Dreadnought" hoax ; George Psalmanazar ; Girl wonders ; Opal Whiteley ; Joan Lowell ; Travel liars

Neverland: on race & other popular delusions. Cowboys & aliens. Pornographies ; Imaginary Indians ; Grey Owl ; Nasdijj

Blood nation. Memoir ; James Frey ; Margaret B. Jones ; Little Tree ; Captivity ; Poetic license

Lost boys. Faction ; Forbidden love ; Three cups of tea ; Gay girl in Damascus ; Mutant message down under

The time machine. Lost races ; Professor Agassiz ; Dr. Moreau ; Degeneration ; Miscegenation ; War of the worlds ; Piltdown man ; The Cardiff giant ; The Tasaday

Mysteria: a sideshow. The heart is deceitful. JT LeRoy ; Lance Armstrong ; Laura Albert ; Sybil ; Anthony Godby Johnson ; Hysteria

Eve Black. Eve White ; South Virginia ; Avatar ; Millennialism

Book two: The hoaxing of history. The vampire's mirror: of imposture, forgery & monsters. Butterfly books. Frankensteins ; Frederic Prokosch ; Lily ; Thomas Wise ; Major Byron ; Voices

Spruce Goose. The Hitler diaries ; The autobiography of Howard Hughes ; Can you ever forgive me? ; Fake! ; Elmyr

Bakelite. Han Van Meegeren ; The Hitler diaries ; Jerzy Kosinski

The vampire's wife. The painted bird ; Binjamin Wilkomirski ; Laura Grabowski ; Autofiction

Hack heaven: of the journalist & liar. Glass ceilings. The new narrative ; Ravi Desai ; The New Republic ; Ern Malley ; Ruth Shalit ; Stephen Glass ; The journalist & the murderer

The gingerbread man. Taxis & the meaning of work ; Kae Bang

In bad blood. Susan Smith ; Brutal imagination ; The Washington Post ; Jimmy's world ; Ben's world ; Volunteer slavery

Burning down. The New York Times ; Jayson Blair ; Michael Finkel ; The truth

Unoriginal sin: on plagiary, murder, bad poetry & other crimes. Blacker than thou. Rachel Dolezal

Professor Plum. Plagiary ; Clark Rockefeller ; Gatsby

Ghostbusters. Kaavya Viswanathan ; Opal Mehta ; Adam Wheeler ; William-Henry Ireland

Michael Brown's body. Trumpism ; The ecstasy of influence ; Conceptual poetry ; Lynching ; Christian Ward ; Brad Vice

Coda: The age of euphemism.