[Joe Brower]

Bellesiles deserves to burn, and in time, it looks like he will. Hey, look -- I have some matches right here...

[Joe Brower]

[Paleo Conservative]

Although there has been no discussion of disciplining Mr. Belles iles or revoking the prize, a spokesman for Jonathan R. Cole, the provost and dean of faculties at Columbia University, said he had distributed copies of the documents detailing Mr. Bellesiles's mistakes to this year's three Bancroft jurors and asked them to examine it.

It's obvious that this award was presented on the basis of the political correctness of the research. If there were any integrity to this organization the prize would have already been taken back.

[Hillary 666]

What is this? An anti-gunner lying and fabricating historical fact to further his cause? Oh, never never. /sarcasm

[45Auto]

Mr. Bellesiles (pronounced buhl-SH*T)!

[kaylar]

Maybe he'd be better off if he claimed a dog ate his research, rather than blaming a flood.

[rmlew]

It is pathetic to see the profs and admin at Columbia scurry for cover. the truth is that they ignored well-documented problems with the book.
The truth is that I made History department aware of the problems with Bellesiles work for a full week before the Bancroft Award was given. I contacted the department with on-line articles and forwarded them to key professors. A few days before the conference, I dropped off information packet citeing the problems. The History Department told me to mind my own business.
Instead, I worked with the NRA and local 2nd Ammendment supporters to hold a panel refuting Prof. Bellesiles' work at Columbia prior to the conference. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/conservative/pr.htm I invited the entire history department. Not one member came. Later, I spoke to a sympathetic TA who told me that Prof. Eric Foner, a Stalinist then head of the American Historical Association and previous head of the department, had told members of the department not to go. Similarly, Columbia Office of Public Affairs dissuaded reporters from goin to the event. The Columbia Spectator, which did cover the event, gave the wrong date in the announcement. Fortunately, CSPAN covered the event and ran it along with the Bancroft Award ceremony on Book TV .

For Columbia to regain any honor and repute, it needs to
1. Publically strip Bellesiles of the Award.
2. Reprimand the History department for putting politics above history and truth.

It will not do either.
Cordially,
Ron Lewenberg,
President, Columbia College Conservative Club.

[MarkWar]

>Mr. Bellesiles (pronounced buh-LEEL) has denied that the errors in "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" are more serious than the ones found in any lengthy and serious work of scholarship...

Actually, I believe this guy has hit upon an important truth here. ALL the scummy, left-wing, liberal, anti-American "scholarship" that academics have cranked out for the last few generations are probably about on par with this piece of crap. It is nice to hear it from an insider, though...

Mark W.

[Dan from Michigan]

This guy had an agenda from day 1. He signed an anti-NRA letter and is a part of "Legal Community against violence".

He was caught, and he doesn't like it.

[J Jay]

I was surprised to find a post regarding the book "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture". I have been reading it during the last week. The first two pages reminds the reader of the Jonesboro, Ark and the Columbine school shootings. At that point I knew the author was a bleeding heart liberal anti-gunner. The book is a compilation of hundreds and hundreds of early day quotes held together with comments by the author.

None of these quotes acknowleged the value of the firearm. The general theme seem to be that society would have been better off had they not been invented.

Biased....Biased....Biased..... This is the most biased book I have ever read. I'm sure the Violence Policy Center (HCI), McCain, Schumer, and Finstein(sp) would think it a masterpiece.

[JoeSchem]

We should all pretend to be history professors at Columbia, and do 'scholarly' research with pro-left wing bias. Then we can get huge cash advances from liberal book publishers, get exhorbitant speaker's fees from liberal colleges, and discredit the liberal academia when it turns out we made it all up. And of course if anyone attempts legal action, we can claim that our research was destroyed in a flood.

[ILoveCats]

Isn't it the thought that counts?

History is always written by those in charge. It's easy to see why this clown thought he'd get away with it. I guess he thought the anti-gunners had already won. I guess he guessed wrong.

[Fixit]

Original posting of this article from this morning.

[Shooter 2.5]

I wrote a damning review about the book on Amazon.com. The bad reviews are running 10 to 1 but Amazon is trying to claim that the average review is positive for the book. I invite everyone here to write a review of this trash on their website.

[Bonaparte]

LOLOL! The "prestigious Bancroft prize" -- for excellence in leftist propaganda.

[aculeus]

Lefties have to lie. Their entire ideology is built on it.