Fawning Critics Don't Say Book Was Fraud

FOX ^ | 4/4/02 | Glenn Harlan Reynolds

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

In the fall of 2000, professor Michael Bellesiles of Emory University published his book Arming America, which purported to establish that the core historical argument behind the Second Amendment was a fraud.

The brave minuteman armed with his trusty rifle, Bellesiles told us, was mostly a myth

[Redleg Duke]

But...(sniffle)...he meant well...and after...(sniffle)...all...(sniffle)...it was for the...(sniffle)...children!

[txzman]

Well is anyone surprised? For the most part we do not have objective journalism anymore in America - merely forums for particular interest groups with political bents to try and sway the sheeple. Reader Beware!

[skeeter]

Liberal advocacy journalists are masters of hit 'n run reporting. Apostles of the Big Lie, they seldom return to the scene of their crimes.

[L.N. Smithee]

Excellent article. Thanks for posting it. It's instantly one of my bookmarks!

[KC Burke]

New York Review of Books has become sooooo leftist its pitiful. I may be dropping it as it is predictible on matters like this.

[KC_Conspirator]

Have they even reviewed "Shakedown"? I know they have been avoiding it. Its Number 4# on their bestseller list for crying out loud.

[M Kehoe]

KABOOM!

5.56mm

[FreeTally]

It doesn't matter if his butt-kissing leftist buddies don't admit it; every person who reviewed it dismissed it as purely fraudulent garbage. Not one person concluded that it was in any way historically accurate, which is not surprising considering his "evidence" were documents destroyed in the San Franciso earthquake/fire.

[freekitty]

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well......

[GSWarrior]

He's a career-suicide bomber.

[FreeTally]

Also, I think there is a question that has not been properly addressed. The author spent a great deal of time writing a book that he knows is a fraud. What is the motivation to do so? I think the proper question is "Who wants Americans disarmed so badly that they would get this guy to spend all this time concocting fake research?". Find out where his funding came from and who specifically authorized/asked him to "research" gun history.

[KC Burke]

I get it a week late...it arrives on Wednesdays. I'll look at it this weekend and tell you. Their take on Shakedown ought to be a real hysterical trip.

[Cicero]

Just a couple of months ago Belisle was awarded a large grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, courtesy of the Newberry Library of Chicago, which had several of these grants at its disposal. The library refused to release the names of the jury of academic peers who decided to give this generous reward to a notorious plagiarist.

The NEH is a sister organization to the better-known NEA, both sponsored by the taxpayers.

[Cicero]

I think the answer to your question is that the road to power, fame, and wealth in academia is to say what the politically correct want to hear, not to speak the truth. Belisle would have known that a book of this kind would be warmly welcomed and rewarded by the academic establishment--as indeed it was, and still is, even after it has been shown to be full of lies. This isn't the only instance. Professors who write bad but politically correct books do better in their careers than professors who write good but politically incorrect books. That is a fact of life, which is obvious to the careerists who infest academia today.

[FreeTally]

You very well may be correct. This instance just seems a little different to me. Its not the same as some environmental wack job writing a book that references questionable "science". Its not the same as some leftist writing about mental health or sexuality. He fabricated himself much of his references and "evidence". Its probably not the first time, but just that this is the first case to become this public. I just thought it was really odd that someone would go so far out of their way to fabricate references and evidence, that he himself knows would be so easily debunked. Maybe he is so arrogant that he thinks we are all that dumb. That could be the answer as it is the case with many leftists.

[krb]

The brave minuteman armed with his trusty rifle, Bellesiles told us, was mostly a myth

Of course it was a myth.

The minutemen used smooth-bore muskets. :-)

[Oztrich Boy]

Also credit where credit is due department

Stranger in a Strange Land: The Scandal of Arming America.
A prizewinning work of history doesn't stand up to examination