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Does Disgraced “Historian” Michael Bellesiles Deserve A Second Chance?
Reason ^ | August 5, 2010 | Damon W. Root

Posted on 08/05/2010 1:54:30 PM PDT by neverdem

In his 2000 book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, then-Emory University historian Michael Bellesiles asserted that guns were actually rare in early America, and that the idea of widespread gun ownership before the Civil War was an "invented tradition." This provocative thesis charmed the academic world and netted Bellesiles the prestigious Bancroft Prize from Columbia University. But as it turned out, Bellesiles was the one doing the inventing. As Bentley College historian Joyce Lee Malcolm wrote in her definitive account of the Bellesiles affair for Reason:

The evidence he had presented for his groundbreaking theory was investigated first by experts from a range of disciplines and political viewpoints; then by a special symposium in a learned journal; and finally, as a result of the disturbing findings, by the professor's university and an outside panel of scholars that it appointed. The results are now in: Bellesiles' arguments are based on wholesale misuse of evidence and, in some cases, no evidence at all. The "invented tradition" is fact, the professor's version a folk tale.

The results were swift and severe: Bellesiles' publisher dropped the book and Columbia rescinded the prize, the first time that it had ever retracted a prize in the Bancroft's 50-year history. Bellesiles also lost his tenured job at Emory and basically disappeared from public life. But now he's back with a new book (from a new publisher) called 1877: America's Year of Living Violently. Does this discredited and disgraced author deserve a second chance?

The Chronicle of Higher Education seems to think so. Bellesiles is the subject of a new and mostly sympathetic portrait by Chronicle writer Tom Barlett, who concludes his piece like this:

In a sense, Michael Bellesiles will never get a second chance. The odds of his once more securing a tenure-track position are vanishingly small. He will never completely outrun the controversy over Arming America. He is aware of that, and his goals are more modest: "I would like to think that the scholarship I am producing will demonstrate that I am a competent, capable historian and I always have been."

He doesn't want to talk about Arming America. He doesn't want to talk about guns. He doesn't want to talk about Emory. Instead the historian wants to look forward. "Let's talk about the new book," he says. "And the book after that. And the book after that."

Of course Bellesiles doesn't want to talk about the fraudulent book that cost him his job and his reputation, but why should we pretend like it doesn't exist? Bellesiles' so-called scholarship has already demonstrated that he is an incompetent, incapable historian. What more is there to say?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: academicbias; banglist; bellesiles; cultureofcorruption; michaelbellesiles; pravdamedia; revisionisthistory
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To: neverdem
I would say his first book revealed him to be an incompetent charlatan. How many chances does he get?

Go ahead and publish your book, Doc. I doubt many will want to read it.

21 posted on 08/05/2010 2:33:21 PM PDT by Panzerlied ("We shall never surrender!")
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To: neverdem; All
Look to this link. It is titled Bellesiles lies again:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2556365/posts

22 posted on 08/05/2010 2:37:39 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: neverdem
His next tome will be about Global Warming.....
23 posted on 08/05/2010 2:45:27 PM PDT by Apercu ("A man's character is hs fate" - Heraclitus)
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To: Hillarys Gate Cult

“If he was just wrong then he may get a second chance but instead he went out of his way to sell BS as fact. He doesn’t get one from me.”

I agree with you HGC. Remember, they believe it is a crime only if they get caught. This was not an “Ooops, my bad!” This is someone who has offered a rendition as an objective truthful representation of the original, when it has been proven to be grotesquely altered with deviously calculated misrepresentations artfully designed to intentionally deceive. It will not “if” but “when” he resumes his true colors. Will there be any diligent people left to catch him next time? Folks, it is time to stop talking about shades of gray. Right or wrong. Left or right. Call a spade, a spade.


24 posted on 08/05/2010 2:47:46 PM PDT by pack29172 (You can learn what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.)
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To: neverdem
He will never completely outrun the controversy over Arming America. He is aware of that, and his goals are more modest: "I would like to think that the scholarship I am producing will demonstrate that I am a competent, capable historian and I always have been."

If true, Bellesiles is confirming what we always knew about his book Arming America, it wasn't shoddy work, it was a lie pure and simple.

25 posted on 08/05/2010 2:49:25 PM PDT by RJL
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To: neverdem
This attempt at redemption begs the question, What compelled him to lie to begin with? And whatever that was, has he foresworn it as a motive forevermore?

I doubt it. A zebra doesn't change its stripes.

26 posted on 08/05/2010 2:58:25 PM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: Lurker

“Of course he has a future. It includes the question “Would you like fries with that?”

HaHaHaHa! Great line.


27 posted on 08/05/2010 2:58:40 PM PDT by SkipW
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To: neverdem

“I would like to think that the scholarship I am producing will demonstrate that I am a competent, capable historian and I always have been.”
This man isn’t producing scholarship- he’s producing bulls**t. I don’t care what he likes- as a historian, your job is to present the facts accurately. It’s called objectivity. His first book was total garbage, and the logical conclusion is that all of his others to come will be.


28 posted on 08/05/2010 2:58:48 PM PDT by GenXteacher (He that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart!)
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To: neverdem
Does Disgraced “Historian” Michael Bellesiles Deserve A Second Chance?

Does that future involve living under a bridge?

29 posted on 08/05/2010 2:59:13 PM PDT by Lee N. Field ("You fool! Don't you know every Taurus purchased brings us closer to TEOTWAWKI?")
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To: Billthedrill

Yes, he will certainly be welcome to edit and post Wikipedia articles.


30 posted on 08/05/2010 2:59:24 PM PDT by glorgau
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To: neverdem

NO....never.


31 posted on 08/05/2010 3:00:22 PM PDT by JamesA (You don't have to be big to stand tall)
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To: neverdem
Bellesiles still refuses to apologize to me. I still have a letter where he called me impertinent for holding a panel denoucing the prize on the day it was given. He said taht Clayton Cramer wasn't a scholar.

Let him apologize, publish an acocunt of his errors, denounce his own use of political agenda to shape history, and then I may forgive him.

32 posted on 08/05/2010 3:01:19 PM PDT by rmlew (There is no such thing as a Blue Dog Democrat; just a liberals who lies.)
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To: neverdem
NO!

Lock him up next to Ward Churchill.

33 posted on 08/05/2010 3:02:33 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: neverdem

I don’t have a problem with him publishing a book... as long as the crayons are included.


34 posted on 08/05/2010 3:09:46 PM PDT by Stormdog (A rifle transforms one from subject to Citizen)
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To: wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; Jeff Head; ...
A Second Amendment Special for the otherwise repulsive, new gun grabber of the SCOTUS

Senate Votes to Confirm Kagan Comment# 157 links the roll call vote.

Ashtabula County 'Posse' Helps Nab Wanted Man

The Persecution of Gilbert Arenas: How gun prohibitionists and an image-conscious NBA scapegoated a basketball star

Groups Seek Ban on Lead in Sporting Ammunition

Lawmaker wants gun permit data curbed (NY Pistol Permit Records, not concealed carry privileges)

35 posted on 08/05/2010 3:12:59 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: marktwain

Thanks for the link.


36 posted on 08/05/2010 3:26:53 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

Belles isles. Does he pronounce that like...Belial?


37 posted on 08/05/2010 3:29:37 PM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
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To: neverdem

No. He didn’t just make an innocent mistake, which could happen to anyone guilty of shoddy research and ideological prejudice. His was a quite deliberate and calculated deception, and his future must be considered outside academia and/or serious research.


38 posted on 08/05/2010 3:31:51 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: neverdem

Wouldn’t this be the third chance?


39 posted on 08/05/2010 3:39:00 PM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (Oligarchy...never vote for the Ivy League candidate.)
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
Belles isles. Does he pronounce that like...Belial?

I searched "Michael Bellesiles" pronounced on Yahoo.

I got "buh-LEELS" or "buh-LAYELS," Bell-eel, buh-LEEL, 'b'leel,' buh-LEEL and Bell-Leel on the first page.

40 posted on 08/05/2010 4:10:18 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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