winners include david mccullough, joan did i havion and gore vidale. the winners of this year's national book award willen announced november 15th in nom city. next on book tv one of the finalists for nonfiction, shomberg center who in his book "bunk a history of plagiarism and hoaxes in america". >> we want to introduce you kevin young. ...

we want to be part of the cultural life there. we're really happy to have those materials and those essences come back to harlan. the focus is african-american, or pro-life from history to art, everything. we have worldwide black culture related events. we started in 1925 in the library fiscal standing on we

got named a national historic landmark in january. we are really coming full circle with these recent acquisitions that point the long history starting in the harlem renaissance of documenting black life in our culture. both. [inaudible] to see that arc and have them come home has been really great. >> prior to schaumburg, what were you doing. >> i was a professor for 20 years. 20 at emory university. i got into the archive business but i'm also a poet and a writer. i had one previous nonfiction book called the great album. from that i started getting interested in the subject of bunks and hoaxes and liars.

>> where does the word punk come from. >> it's a great word. it comes from politics, arguing over the misery compromise. some someone from buncombe county said i need to talk more to the people buncombe. people then started using the word bunk as political bs. >> so the current term fake news is not anything new in our culture. >> it's not. i really traced it in the 1830s and it's really two centuries thinking about how did this come about. is it particularly american, what does it have to do with race and what does that have to do it now. a lot of it in the 1830s starting with pt barnum is where i begin the book, it

really comes about from new media which sounds familiar and that sort of the penny press. they are pretty scandalous, and it was filled with fakery. there's a famous hotel where someone pretended there was sea life on the moon. that hoax spurred on to a lot of what were seeing now is take news as old as 1835. >> you write that the transformative advent most rea resembles the current change demonstrated if not caused by the internet. >> i think the internet, it's taking the penny press to its

extreme. often they are getting reflected back, the penny press is very competitive and you see a lot of proliferation and there's some more things on the internet. it's also similar to the bunk these things. they circulate and circulate. that's what's happening to me about how hard it can be to untangle ourselves from some of these shared notions. >> why do you start with barnum. >> i think he's a fascinating figure because he's at the center of american culture. he is helping to invent what we think of pop culture. he invented our notion of the circus and took the sideshow which was always a thing but

made it kind of professional and people would pay money and go to elegant places to see these figures of dubious origin that he would kind of concoct and many of them are centered around race. he was one of the most famous early folks as a successful showman and he had a character named joy half and he pretended she was george washington to the black woman and said he was hundred 61 years old and took her around the northeast and said come see george washington's nursemaid. it was his way of connecting to george washington, the father of our country and people physically examined her. it's very troubling, mostly because she dies and then he has a medical theater where he dissects her.

then he reveals she wasn't battled. that's also part of the hoax, the revelation. it's this idea of not only what you can say and make it only patriotic to believe in this but also questioning the hoax or wondering about it is part of the hoax. the accusations are just as important as the revelation. that kind of circle and circuits as part of the legacy. >> he features a troubling mindset in which the truth isn't absent or contested as it doesn't matter. >> i don't know if i'm alone in saying that were at an interesting time. those almost predate our

current situation of conspiracy theory as news but it's almost hard to eradicate and debunk this. what's about this birth controversy that happen. why we even have that at all. they're about race, citizenry, who belongs, all the kind of big cosmic things that are part of our fabrications. it's even hard now, even candidate trump, it's very hard to unsettle that.

i'm concerned with why we do that and why we deceive. some of it depends on who the wii is, but as people we are sort of wanting to believe, we are almost program too. in the absence of an answer that's complicated and maybe troubling, we sometimes settle for the easy answer. it would be easy to believe that it comes from some fact that's being hidden. there was a notion that i am an expert and he would look for fake experts. he gave the power to the people to decide i'm an expert. he had a famous fake mermaid.

now there's kind of an assertion there is no expert. there's a fascinating denial of expertise at all and it becomes troubling and more of a difficult position to be in. >> bunked is the name of the book. it's coming out in november. kevin young is the author. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. it's great to see you. >> each year since 1950, the national book foundation has selected what they considered to be the best books and poetry, young people's literature, fiction and nonfiction. the winners of the award will be announced on november 15 in new york city. be