The problem with any attempt to debunk Hamilton, currently America’s most beloved musical, starts with the history of the word debunk. It was coined by the writer W. E. Woodward in his 1923 novel Bunk, whose protagonist was notable for “taking the bunk out of things.” Inspired by a newspaper article he had read about delousing stations for European soldiers, Woodward came up with debunking. As it happens, he almost never used the word again. But just a few years after his novel came out, Woodward published George Washington: The Image and the Man, in which he attempted to correct…
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