Historians/History

An Atheist Sees Bias in a Texas Textbook

by Laura Sargent

Although I am an atheist, born and raised, I attended a private, religious school from nursery school through the 12th grade. I always felt that I received an excellent education and I still feel that way--with one glaring exception, the education I got in history class. I blame the textbooks we used. After reading about the Texas textbook controversy, I decided to examine one of the books myself: The American Nation, Beginnings through 1877, published

Fall From Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal (Part 3)

by James Lindgren

 

Fall From Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal (Part 2)

by James Lindgren

 

Response to My Critics

by Michael Bellesiles

On December 18, 2003 Soft Skull Press is publishing a revised and corrected edition of Michael Bellesiles's Arming America. In advance of publication the publisher released to the media a pamphlet by Bellesiles which summarizes his response to his critics. The title of the pamphlet, Weighed in an Even

In Texas It's Social Studies that's the Enemy of Good Textbooks

by Chris Patterson

During the past 20 years, history has been removed from public schools and replaced with social studies. This new subject crams geography, psychology, sociology, religion, culture, government, and history into the 55 minutes that schools once devoted daily to teaching the past of our state, nation and world. The National Council for Social Studies says the multi-disciplinary subject helps students "construct" the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required

A New Trinity for Historians

by Keith Miller

Let me tell you a story. Every summer of my youth my grandfather Frank D. Borah took me to the harness races at the Wayne County fair in southern Illinois. He knew much about the horses and their equipment. Regarding the latter, he spelled out the importance of blinders, which many of the horses wore, to keep them from seeing another horse approaching from the side. Were that to happen (without the blinders on), the horse might shy away and thus break stride, which would be a grea

Journalists Are Rushing to Judgment About Michael Bellesiles

by Ralph Luker

Recent criticism of our academic institutions in the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard miss the boat in the Michael Bellesiles affair and they miss it by concurrently reaching it too early and getting there too late.Kimberley Strassel in the Journal and David Skinner in th

"Pulped" Fiction: Michael Bellesiles and His Yellow Note Pads

by Jerome Sternstein

One of the fascinating subplots in the controversy over whether Michael Bellesiles committed scholarly fraud in his book, Arming America, is what he claims happened to some of his research notes. Bellesiles asserts that water damage from a broken sprinkler pipe in Bowden Hall, where the Emory University History Department's offices are housed, flooded the building and"pulped" and"destroyed" the yellow legal pads on which he says he recorded in penciled

Robert L. Zangrando’s Response to Stephen Oates

In his piece, Stephen Oates correctly identifies me as co-author with John Higham of the 1986"Statement on Plagiarism" published by the American Historical Association. To inform readers of my connections with the Association and with its Professional Division (that reviews complaints about plagiarism and misuse of sources, among other professional questions), let me note the following. I joined the AHA in 1960; served as its Assistant Executive Secretary (now titled Deputy Executive Dire

How Long Will It Take Stephen Ambrose to Correct His Mistakes?

by Randy Hils

"The pilots were afraid. For most of the pilots of  Troop Carrier Command this was their first combat mission. They had not been trained for night flying, or for flak or bad weather." Stephen Ambrose, D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (page 198)In the winter of 1999 I undertook to document the WWII service of my

What's the Difference?: Freedom is Not Simply Nothing Left to Lose

by Keith Miller

In this the modern age (with all its material wealth, built in large part upon the wonders of science and technology, not to mention the benefits of what almost amount to the"miracles" of medicine these days), we all are in danger of rejecting truths that come to us from what I would call, for lack of a better word, the spirit. Instead, we put our faith (and it is no more than that, if the truth be know) in knowledge based upon (in the last analysis) empirical ways of examining what w

Marching to a Different Drummer: One Life Lived

by Keith Miller

No one should take life too seriously. So, perhaps, even Spiro Agnew, had he ever heard a joke about himself, would not have taken offense. Not known for his intellect, a story was told that his library had burnt. The fire destroyed both comic books! Well, even if true, let me make a plea for such light reading material. As a boy I much enjoyed hours upon hours over a period of years perusing them. In the 1950s comic books (at only a dime an issue) often told good stories. And

Strain at a Gnat, but Swallow a Camel: With Ambrose and Goodwin in Mind

by Keith Miller

Not unlike Ivanhoe, I am going to enter the lists so far as the furor is concerned at present over the alleged (or actual) plagiarism of Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin. There is a good discussion of the issues involved by John R. Dichtl, Deputy Director of the Organization of American Historians (OAH). But, with the imagery of knight-errantry uppermost in mind, let me at least hope in what follows

What the Newberry Knew and When It Knew It

by Charles T. Cullen

The National Endowment for the Humanities has revoked the NEH name from Michael Bellesiles' Newberry Library/NEH Fellowship and instructed the Newberry Library to remove this designation from all Newberry materials. The Newberry, which has responded to all NEH requests during this process in a collegial and cooperative manner, has complied with this instruction. We cannot, however, agree with the NEH's assessment of the Newberry's fellowships review process or its criticism of the

Michael Burlingame’s Response to Stephen Oates

Professor Oates's description of me as a"historian who's made the destruction of my books his raison d'etre" is a bit misleading. I have published eleven books on Abraham Lincoln and am currently writing a multi-volume biography of the sixteenth president for the Johns Hopkins University Press. Professor Oates writes that"After carefully reviewing the allegations 23 nationally prominent historians, including 5 Pulitzer Prize winners, issued a public statement rejecting the allegati

Bob Bray’s Response to Stephen Oates

Having read Stephen Oates's article for HNN,"I Stood Accused of Plagiarism," I think it proper to comment on several of the points he makes regarding my role in the controversy. The quoted passages come from an unpublished book manuscript,"Dishonest Abe Scholarship: the Lincoln Biography Plagiarism Scandal," written by myself and Michael Burlingame. Oates's assertion-Instead of sending me their allegations and asking for a response, my original challengers, literary critic Robert B

Hirohito's Ghost and the Falsification of History

by Herbert P. Bix

For nearly 60 years many Japanese have been struggling honorably to come to terms with the China War and the Pacific War, and indeed their entire imperialist past. But their struggles never take place in a vacuum. Trends in history, politics, international relations, and even culture, shape them. During the occupation years (1945 to 1952) neonationalists who rejected the Tokyo Trial, and justified the lost war seldom spoke out. At that time, Japanese who sought to grasp

Why Did the Japanese Delay Surrendering?

by Herbert P. Bix

A producer for the Korean Broadcasting System, which is doing a special program commemorating August 15, 1945, recently asked me why Japan's ruling elites rejected the Potsdam Declaration."What issue most impeded their decision to surrender?" he inquired."Shouldn't they have cared more for the safety of their own people after the war had long been irrevocably lost? Wasn't the U.S. nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the real reason they finally surrendered?" What the Japa

When Do Apologies for Past Crimes Make Sense?

by Richard Francis

Late last year, an American company selling jeans in France sewed an unusual instruction label into the seats of their pants. Along with advice to ‘laver à la main à l’eau tiède’ and so forth, was this statement: Nous so

Will We Still Remember Hiroshima After the Last Victims Die?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

In late July 2004, as I opened the window curtains of my posh room in the Rihga Royal Hotel and looked out at the city of Hiroshima, I was struck by how marvelously it had been restored. Fifty-nine years ago, Hiroshima had been nearly obliterated by the fire and blast of the U.S. atomic bombing, which killed 140,000 people by the end of 1945 and left tens of thousands of others dying slowly and painfully from radiation poisoning. Now the city had been thoroughly rebuilt, with its sea of mode