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MAYBE NOT (BELLESILES CHRONICLES) [Melissa Seckora] Eric Foner, a Columbia University history professor, and chairman of Columbia's 2002 Bancroft Prize Committee, says that the Bancroft has never been revoked, and that he's not sure that Roger Lane is right when he says Columbia is considering taking back Bellesiles's. "I've heard nothing about Columbia rescinding the prize. The University's trustees would have to do it, not the Bancroft Committee." Foner, who was critical of Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose when their plagiarism charges were in the news, says he is agnostic on the Bellesiles case: "I haven't made up my mind. The problem is that I'm not in a position to know--I'm not an expert in the use of probate inventories."
This is either disingenuous or grossly uninformed on the part of Foner, as Bellesiles work has been publicly reviewed, months ago, by the woman who is probably the country's foremost expert on probate inventories. Her utter disgust was evident even in her scholarly review published in a distinguished journal.
Dunce! You don't have to be "an expert in the use of probate inventories" to understand that Bellesiles claimed to have used inventories from San Francisco that didn't exist.
America's Fifth Column ... watch Steve Emerson/PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)