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When historian Michael Bellesiles came to the University of California, Irvine, to give a talk on the controversy surrounding his book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture--this was early in 2001, before he was charged with inventing evidence, and before he was awarded the prestigious Bancroft Prize for the book--people coming to the talk were greeted at the door of the Humanities Lecture Hall by four unusually large men passing out a brochure titled "The Lies of Michael Bellesiles." One wore a flak jacket, one had a shaved head; they did not look like faculty members or...

9-26-02: Historians & HistoryWaiting for EmoryBy Jerome Sternstein Mr. Sternstein is Professor Emeritus of History, Brooklyn College, CUNY, and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of American Biography. To find out about the latest deveopments in the Bellesiles case click here.In early June, a journalist working for a pro-gun organization interviewed an unnamed professor at Emory University who reportedly was closely following the institution's investigation into the allegations of academic fraud and misconduct leveled against Michael Bellesiles's research in his award-winning book Arming America. The interviewer wanted to know his take on how Emory was handling the matter. "The people I talk...

History professor Michael Bellesiles has appealed a report from an independent panel that was charged with evaluating his research for his award-winning book on gun culture in America. Bellesiles is the author of Arming America: Origins of a National Gun Culture, which claims that guns were more rare in early America than previously thought. The book's thesis contradicts long-held images of frontier Americans who used guns as indispensable tools and places a different light on the founding fathers' intentions when they wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing citizens the right to bear arms. The University announced in an...

HNN has been told that that the independent panel appointed by Emory University to investigate Michael Bellesiles's Arming America has finished its report and submitted it. The university told HNN that it will not have a comment "until the end of the summer." Mr. Bellesiles has declined to comment. The names of the panel members are secret. The university has indicated that it may never reveal their names even after the report is made public. Mr. Bellesiles has been teaching in the Emory at Oxford program this summer. His course: History 341, The American Revolution from the British Perspective. 4...

Emory University recently announced that an outside panel of scholarswill examine Michael Bellesiles’s Arming America—with results to beannounced this summer. If the investigation discredits Bellesiles thenit could hurt the arguments filed by gun-control advocates in a majorSecond Amendment case ( US vs Emerson) that is coming before theSupreme Court.If the Supreme Court hears US vs Emerson, the Justices will reviewmaterial submitted to the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals: lawjournal articles, the prosecution’s brief, and Amicus Curiae filed bygun-control advocates. The material in support of the gun-controlposition has a number of citations to Bellesiles’s publications – suchas the 1996 article...

Bellesiles More Headlines Trustees approve cut to benefits package Faculty and staff express concerns with benefit changes New shuttles service Clairmont, aid more students Rise in applications for RA, SA posts creates competition Fate of history professor remains uncertain two months after launch of investigationBy Andrew AckermanAsst. News Editor April 19, 2002More than two months after the University launched its first-ever inquiry into possible research misconduct by a College professor, Emory remains silent on the investigation while the academic concensus has shifted largely against Professor of History Michael Bellesiles' book on guns in early America. The University launched a...

<p>In the fall of 2000, professor Michael Bellesiles of Emory University published his book Arming America, which purported to establish that the core historical argument behind the Second Amendment was a fraud.</p> <p>The brave minuteman armed with his trusty rifle, Bellesiles told us, was mostly a myth — Americans at the time of the Revolution, and for many decades afterward, seldom owned guns, but instead relied on the government for protection.</p>

Historian's failings have impact todayThursday, March 14, 2002By THOMAS SHAPLEYSEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNISTStephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin aren't the only nationally known historians whose scholarship is in question. The spotlight of peer and public scrutiny has also fallen on Michael Bellesiles (pronounced "Buh-leel"), the Emory University professor who wrote the book "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture."Not only are Bellesiles' alleged transgressions less broadly reported than the others. They are, if confirmed, more relevant because his historical thesis has become part of the contemporary public policy debate on the Second Amendment.While the other historians' purported failings are...