Professor "Quits" After Anti-Gun Book Found Fraudulent

Washington Times ^ | 10/28/02

[lelio]

Even in defeat based on his actions, like The Torch, he can't help but blame others for trying to block his issue. Well maybe if you weren't such a fraud this wouldn't happen. Seems to be a trend in liberals.

[Fzob]

Bump to savor later

[wideawake]

I don't believe it either. And I don't believe that 100K marched for Communism in DC this weekend.

Interesting that no footage on any channel I saw showed a wide-angle shot including the horizon. All the crowd footage was shot at eye-level and didn't extend further than 50-100 yards.

[Paul Atreides]

Facts and logic are always trumped by feelings, in the world of liberalism.

[bribriagain]

"Million Mammary Marchers"....LOL! That would put their real numbers at about 250k, wouldn't it?

[Paul Atreides]

Plus, when all of those smelly commies dispersed, you could really tell that there was nowhere near that number. It looked like maybe a thousand people, if that much.

I also noticed that C-Span didn't cover the Freeper rally audience in the same manner.

[Pompah]

It wasn't so much that he lied, but that he got caught.
As the ol'Fonz would say " Correctamundo ".

[SkyPilot]

George Will ripped this "professor" to shreds months and months ago. I am glad Emory U finally noticed.

[KC Burke]

It was announced last week, I just forgot to ping you. The Washington Times is just a business day behind.

See Scolded author quits Emory (Michael Bellesiles) and what I said then about watching for the soft landing the leftist MLA crowd will give him, still goes.

[LO_IQ]

I'm surprised this wasn't announced late Friday after most of the weekend papers were made up

Your gut feeling is right... it was released on Friday

The 40-page report, released Friday, concluded that Bellesiles was "guilty of unprofessional and misleading work" in his research. Original post

.

[FourPeas]

Imagine that, an anti-gunner being less than truthful. The real surprise is that it's being reported AND that the university is doing anything about it.

[Freedom2specul8]

Don't know if this is old news to you all...but if it's not...maybe we should forward this.

[Fzob]

Prof. resigns; faulty gun research cited
By Melissa Seckora
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 10/28/2002 12:19 PM


WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Emory University has accepted the resignation of a history professor whose work on the use and ownership of firearms in early America has been widely criticized.

Emory Associate Vice President Jan Gleason announced Friday that Michael Bellesiles' resignation would be effective Dec. 31. Bellesiles is the author of "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture," an award-winning book that appeared to confirm that the Second Amendment protects only a collective right to bear arms and that individual gun rights were unimportant to America's founders.

However, Emory released a 40-page indictment of Bellesiles' research composed by a committee of three historians as well as Bellesiles' 7-page response in which he denied any wrongdoing.

The basic thesis of "Arming America" is there were very few guns in early America and that most of the guns that did exist were old and broken. Bellesiles published an article on the subject in 1996 in the Journal of American History -- a piece that was named "Best Article of the Year" by the Organization of American Historians. The book won the 2001 Bancroft Prize, the most-prestigious prize in American-history writing. Columbia is investigating the possibility of revoking the prize.

But over the past year, critics of "Arming America" claimed that Bellesiles miscounted, misinterpreted and made up substantial portions of the information in the book.

The critics said Bellesiles' work focused on nonexistent probate records that he said he read in San Francisco and in Providence, R.I. However, the San Francisco records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, and many of the Providence documents that Bellesiles says he read apparently never existed. Bellesiles has also said that his research notes were destroyed in a flood in his campus office, a story that people at Emory familiar with the flood have cast doubt on.

After questions were raised in the media and in faculty workshops at Columbia, Yale, and other major universities, Emory's dean, Robert A. Paul, convened a panel of historians to investigate the charges. The committee was led by Stanley N. Katz of Princeton and included Hanna H. Gray, a former president of the University of Chicago; and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich of Harvard.

The committee's investigation focused on Bellesiles' use of probate records. Of particular interest was a key table on which the author's thesis is grounded. The committee's report stated: "Evaluating Table One is an exercise in frustration because it is almost impossible to tell where Bellesiles got his information. His source note lists the names of 40 counties, but supplies no indication of the exact records used or their distribution over time. After reviewing his skimpy documentation, we had the same question as (one reviewer) Gloria Main: 'Did no editors or referees ever ask that he supply this basic information?' ... The best that can be said about his work with the probate and militia records is that he is guilty of unprofessional and misleading work."

The committee also agreed with James Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern University, that the scandal could have been avoided with "more conventional editing" by The Journal of American History, and with Ohio State historian Randolph Roth, who determined that Bellesiles' numbers were "mathematically improbable or impossible."

Additionally, the committee found that "no one has been able to replicate Bellesiles' results (on the low percentage of guns) for the places or dates he lists"; that he conflated wills and inventories, which "greatly reduced the (reported) percentage of guns in estates"; he took a "casual approach" to gathering data; "(raised) doubts about his veracity" in claiming to have worked with records in California; and raised questions about his use of microfilm at the National Archives Record Center in East Point, Ga.

Committee members also called implausible Bellesiles' claim that false data on his Web site was put there by a hacker and his disavowal of e-mail messages that he wrote to researchers, giving the wrong location for almost all of his probate research.

In a statement, Bellesiles said: "All that remains in question are the few paragraphs and table on probate materials. On those paragraphs, Emory's committee of inquiry found no evidence of fabrication, though they do not charge evasion."

"I have never fabricated evidence of any kind nor knowingly evaded my responsibilities as a scholar," he wrote. "I have never consciously misrepresented any data or evidence. ... I will continue to research and report on the probate materials while also working on my next book, but cannot continue to teach in what I feel is a hostile environment."

-0-

Melissa Seckora is an editorial associate at National Review magazine.

Copyright © 2002 United Press International

[LO_IQ]

Rigoberta Menchu Award.

Does making up data out of thin cloth count?

This guy was so dishonest, then even after being given ample opportunities to retract or correct the record, he kept on fabricating and lying. Even the liberal professors were disgusted with him.

Academic panel's report: http://www.emory.edu/central/NEWS/Releases/Final-Report.pdf

Michael Bellesiles' statement: http://www.emory.edu/central/NEWS/Releases/B-statement.pdf

Statement from Emory College Interim Dean Robert A. Paul: http://www.emory.edu/central/NEWS/Releases/bellesiles1035563546.html

[Gumlegs]

They may claim to have a million marching, but I don't believe it.

I think that's when they're counting toes.

[Richard Kimball]

In a statement released Friday, Mr. Bellesiles defended his book, refused to concede wrongdoing and criticized Emory's inquiry as "just plain unfair" for focusing on "one small part" of "Arming America."

"I believe that if we begin investigating every scholar who challenges received truth, it will not be long before no challenging scholarly books are published," Mr. Bellesiles said, saying he was leaving Emory because he could not "continue to teach in what I feel is a hostile environment."

Whiney little b*stard, isn't he?

[CWRWinger]

Michael Bellesiles, the history professor who wrote that firearms were rare in early America.

He might be able to get a job writing comic books or working for Harry Turtledove.

[GOPJ]

This is odd. Don't liberals usually look the other way when one of the "in" group lies? Oh well, it still won't be covered by ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, or NBC. FOX will cover the truth, the others will cover-up.

Michael Bellesiles, the history professor who wrote that firearms were rare in early America, has resigned from Atlanta's Emory University after an investigation found he "willingly misrepresented the evidence" in his award-winning book.

[GOPJ]

So many ways liberals lie for each other, and you've found one more. Congrats.:

. And I don't believe that 100K marched for Communism in DC this weekend.

,I> Interesting that no footage on any channel I saw showed a wide-angle shot including the horizon. All the crowd footage was shot at eye-level and didn't extend further than 50-100 yards.