Historians/History

Select Errors in Michael Bellesiles's Arming America

by James Lindgren

 

Shooting the Messenger: Jon Wiener on Arming America

by Jerome Sternstein

Jon Wiener's recent brief for the defense of Arming America, "Fire at Will", in the Nation, fits into a larger pattern originally pioneered in this case by the subject of the inquiry himself, Michael Bellesiles. It's called "Shooting the Messenger," a tactic invariably employed by politicians who find themselves under indictment for fraud or corruption. Rather than confront the evidence of their wrongdoing, they lash out, claiming that t

Fall From Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal (Part 1)

by James Lindgren

 

Deep Throat: Was What He Did Unprecedented?

by Athan Theoharis

The revelation that Bob Woodward's source, "Deep Throat," was former FBI Acting Associate Director W. Mark Felt raises at least two questions. First, why would a senior FBI official leak critical information to a Washington Post reporter given its potential to affect a presidential election? This action appears contradictory to Felt's willingness in 1972 and 1973 (at the very time he was acting as Woodward's source) to authorize "clearly illegal

Review of Thomas E. Hall's The Rotten Fruits of Economic Controls and the Rise from the Ashes, 1965-1989 (University Press of America, 2003)

by J. Pete Ferderer

What caused the United States economy to be so unstable between 1965 and 1982 and why did it stabilize after 1982? For Thomas E. Hall, Professor of Economics at Miami University, the answer is clear: "an unprecedented number of policy errors" (p. 1) caused the pre-1983 instability. Once policy became more enlightened -- i.e., relied more on market forces and embraced monetarist principles -- inflation was wrung out of the system, the economy stabilized and the stage was set for the &

It's Not PC to Remember the Soviets Lost More Soldiers Breaking the Back of the Nazi Army than We Did

by Mike Davis

The decisive battle for the liberation of Europe began sixty years ago this month when a Soviet guerrilla army emerged from the forests and swamps of Belorussia to launch a bold surprise attack on the mighty Wehrmacht's rear. The partisan brigades, including thousands of Jewish fighters and concentration-camp escapees, devastated the rail lines linking the German Army Group Center to its bases in Poland and Eastern Prussia. Three days later, on 22 June -- the third anniversary of Hit

Why Are There Now 2 Journals Devoted to Labor History?

by Joseph A. McCartin

A potentially momentous event with far-reaching implications unfolded at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians on March 27, 2004, in Boston. On that date, Duke University Press officially inaugurated a new journal, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History in the Americas. But this event, held not far from the site of the Boston Tea Party, was more than the launching of merely another academic publication. It marked a rebellion against the commercialization

Historian's Diary: The State Department's Conference on the Six Day War

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Following is Ms. Klinghoffer's report on the recent conference by the State Department concerning the Six Day War. Pre-conference – I noticed on H- diplo a call for papers on the Six Day War. I offered to present one. I was busy, hated to regurgitate as I have not done any new research on the topic so I procrastinated. Luckily the organizer suggested I serve as a commentator or chair. Thr

Turning Reagan into a Monument Is Only Going to Hurt the Conservative Cause

by Phillip Payne

Recently there has been a public flap, first reported in the New York Times but subsequently receiving a great deal of attention, over the CBS "biopic" called "The Reagans" that portrays the lives of the former president and first lady. Conservatives protest that the made-for-television movie is unfairly biased against Reagan. In the face of these protests CBS decided air the movie on cable rather than on its primary channel, causing liberals to denounce CB

The Holocaust Few Remember

by Ruth Rosen

IMAGINE IF a producer from National Public Radio invited a scholar to speak about his new book on the Jewish Holocaust and then, to provide "balance," included another guest known for denying that the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews. Inconceivable, right? Yet this is analogous to what happened to Peter Balakian, a professor of American Studies at Colgate University and author of The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response (HarperColli

Critics Comment on Bellesiles's Defense

by James Lindgren, Jerome Sternstein, Clayton Cramer

Bellesiles’s Weighed in an Even Balance suffers from the same problem that Arming America did: he seems to have a problem reading simple English and understanding it.  Unfortunately, it is Bellesiles’s own writing now that he misreads, not historical documents.  Oddly, Bellesiles repeatedly quotes his critics—but fails to cite where these criticisms appeared

Mr. Hitchens's Revisionism of His Own History

by Sean Wilentz

In his interview with the right-wing web magazine FrontPageMag.com, re-posted on HNN, Christopher Hitchens claims that his moment of truth about Islamic fascism arrived in 1989, and that by September 11, 2001, he had fully come to "[t]he realization that American power could and should be used for the defense of pluralism." He then says that after seeing the World Trade Center atrocities on television, he was exhilarated: "

Airbrushing History in the Ukraine

by Shlomo Avineri

Drohobycz, or Drogobitsh, is a pretty town in western Ukraine, with a population of ca. 100,000. Until 1772 it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; then, until 1918, it was part of the Habsburg Empire. Between 1918-39 it was part of newly independent Poland; in 1939, and again in 1945, it was annexed to the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the USSR in 1990 it became part of

I Was Borked

by Daniel Pipes

In the months since President Bush nominated me to the board of the United States Institute of Peace, confirmation etiquette has obliged me not to talk about my nomination. I thus found myself having to remain mute as opponents said what they would about me. For five months, I quietly endured Sen. Edward Kennedy borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing peace" and a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer&

The Historian Who Sold Out

by Thomas Fleming

With historians heavily involved in either defending or damning the war in Iraq, it might be good time to ponder the case of Viscount James Bryce, the historian who sold out. From the start of World War I, stories of German atrocities filled British and American newspapers. Most emanated from the German march through Belgium to outflank French defenses in their drive on Paris. Eyewitnesses described infantrymen spearing Belgian babies on their bayonets as the

What Is Knopf Waiting For?

by Jerome Sternstein

Early in 2002, Jane Garrett, Michael Bellesiles's editor at Alfred A. Knopf, told Danny Postel of the Chronicle of Higher Education that the publisher "stands behind" Arming America despite everything the book's critics had to say about its scholarly failings. "I realize that he made some errors," Garrett admitted, "but they certainly were not made intentionally. They were the result of some over-quick research," she said,

Bellesiles is Gone--The Problem Lingers

by John G. Fought

In "Shanghai Express," Marlene Dietrich, as Lily, reflects that "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." So it is with scholarly misconduct: Michael Bellesiles didn't make his name by himself. Supported by generous subsidies over recent years, he wrote a work well calculated to appeal to a special audience defined by a particular cluster of beliefs. Now he and Emory University have parted at last, with no admission of guilt from

Bellesiles: Did the Emory Committee Deliberately Try to Avoid Culpability?

by Evan Stephenson

Emory University's specially selected "Investigative Committee in the Matter of Michael Bellesiles" has released its report. Bellesiles has responded. Although much has been made of the report's critical treatment of Bellesiles's work, especially by Bellesiles himself, in truth the committee has effectively sided with Bellesiles on the only issue that really mattered: whether the widely discussed mistakes in Arming American: The Origins of a National Gun Cul

Waiting for Emory

by Jerome Sternstein

To find out about the latest deveopments in the Bellesiles case click here.In early June, a journalist working for a pro-gun organization interviewed an unnamed professor at Emory University who reportedly was closely following the institution's investigation into the allegations of academic fraud and misconduct leveled against Michael Bellesiles's research in his award-winning book Arming America.

Where Do We Go From Here?

by Ralph Luker

Our critics tell us that Martin Luther King's question, asking directions which depend, in part, on where one is, has lately become an important one for historians.I had not meant to write a word on professional ethics and practice until I read a headline, "The Cowards of Academe," in the Weekly Standard. It followed by four days a similar attack on the integrity of our profession in the Wall Street Journal. Undoubtedly, academe has its cowards