On My Honor

The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America

By: Kim Christensen

Narrated by: Victor Warren

Pulitzer Prize winner Kim Christensen charts the dramatic rise and fall of an American institution.

Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has been the nation’s premier youth organization, espousing self-reliance and honor. More than 100 million Americans have been Boy Scouts, from Bill Gates to Martin Luther King Jr. Today, however, Scouting faces an existential threat of its own making: more than 82,000 former Scouts have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused—seven times the number of similar allegations that rocked the Catholic Church two decades ago.

The Scouts’ indefensible practices remained all but hidden until 2012, when Kim Christensen and his colleague published a series of explosive articles for the LA Times, blowing up a century of secrecy. Now, continuing his decades-long investigation, On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America’s changing understanding of what it means to “make men.”

This riveting story of power and abuse, religion and politics, scandal and justice is brought to life by groundbreaking research and an unforgettable cast of characters.

©2025 Kim Christensen (P)2025 Grand Central Publishing

Critic reviews

“Christensen’s powerful and troubling On My Honor chronicles how the Boy Scouts of America for generations portrayed itself as a hallowed institution that transformed boys into men—even as it secretly let child molesters operate unchecked within its ranks, damaging tens of thousands of children it claimed to be helping.”—Cameron McWhirter, co-author of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15

“Kim Christensen helped bring accountability to the Boy Scouts of America for its decades-long cover-up of sexual predators within its ranks. In On My Honor, Christensen deploys the exceptional investigative and narrative skills that won him multiple Pulitzer Prizes, delivering an absorbing, dismaying and meticulously researched account of how what was once a revered American institution betrayed tens of thousands of boys in its care.”—Martin Baron, retired top editor at the Washington Post and the Boston Globe

“Christensen’s masterful reporting leads to a disturbing but unavoidable conclusion—the Boy Scouts of America must take its place in the Hall of Shame alongside tobacco companies, the Catholic Church, Purdue Pharma, and the NFL for burying a dangerous truth just to protect its brand. On My Honor is a devastating indictment.”—Martin J. Smith, author of The Wild Duck Chase and Going to Trinidad