I’m Jordan Taylor. I’m a historian fascinated by how people decided what was true in revolutionary America.
My first book, Misinformation Nation, is about how false news from abroad shaped the politics of the American Revolution (order it here!). Fake news isn’t new. Neither are fears that we are entering a post-truth era.
My next book, Democracy’s Dark Arts, is a study of how America’s founding generation tried to make sense of the problem of truth in representative government. The book tells this story by investigating the lives of about a dozen individuals, from Samuel Adams to Abigail Adams, from Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Jefferson (as well as other non-Adamses and non-Thomases).
Other research
I’m fascinated by the publications that informed the American Revolution. I have written about their contents, but have also completed several side quests to understand how they circulated, who read them, and how they were funded. You can read more about that here.
More about me
I am the Digital Content Manager for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. This website documents my personal scholarship and research, rather than work for my employer.
You can follow me on Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky.
If I can help you in any way, or if you would like to know more about my work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I would love to hear from you!
Jordan E. Taylor 