Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman wrote a book titled Time on the Cross, a two-volume series that won them a Nobel Prize in 1993. The thesis of the book was that slaves were economically better off before the Civil War than after it. Book I was the narrative, while book II was the theory and statistics behind the conclusion. My guess is that only us cliometrics grad students read book II.
Fogel came to speak at my university and gave a wonderful talk on the book. After he was done, he fielded questions from the audience. A young black man identified himself as a local reporter, stood up and called Dr. Fogel a racist and a bigot for writing such things. Dr. Fogel asked if he had read either book. The reporter yelled: “I don’t have to read it to know you’re a RACIST!”
At that point, a black lady sitting in the first row stood up and said: “Sit down, Sonny. You have no clue what you’re talking about and I take deep offense about what you are saying about my husband!”
The reporter...crickets.
Haha...THAT WAS good
PS...wonder if those books are now banned