Historians in Trouble is investigative journalist and historian Jon Wiener’s ‘incisive and entertaining’ (
New Statesman, UK) account of several of the most notorious history scandals of the last few years.
Focusing on a dozen key controversies ranging across the political spectrum and representing a wide array of charges, Wiener seeks to understand why some cases make the headlines and end careers, while others do not. He looks at the well publicized cases of Michael Bellesiles, the historian of gun culture accused of research fraud; accused plagiarists and ‘celebrity historians’ Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin; Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph J. Ellis, who lied in his classroom at Mount Holyoke about having fought in Vietnam; and the allegations of misconduct by Harvard’s Stephan Thernstrom and Emory’s Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who nevertheless were appointed by George W. Bush to the National Council on the Humanities.
As the Bancroft Prize-winning historian Linda Gordon wrote in
Dissent, Wiener’s ‘very readable book . . . reveal[s] not only scholarly misdeeds but also recent increases in threats to free debate and intellectual integrity.’
About the author
Jon Wiener is a contributing editor to
The Nation and is host and producer of ‘Start Making Sense, ‘
The Nation’s weekly podcast. An emeritus professor of U.S. history at UC Irvine, he is the author of
Gimme Some Truth,
Come Together, and, most recently,
Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties (with Mike Davis). He lives in Los Angeles.
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