https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2005/05/30/book-notes-jon-wiener-historians-in-trouble/ Culture, Politics, Academia and Other Shiny Objects Tue, 31 May 2005 12:19:39 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.15 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2005/05/30/book-notes-jon-wiener-historians-in-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-133 Tue, 31 May 2005 12:19:39 +0000 http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=29#comment-133 Hoffer’s book is high on my list–I remember you recommending it more than Wiener over at Cliopatria.

]]> https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2005/05/30/book-notes-jon-wiener-historians-in-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Tue, 31 May 2005 02:44:40 +0000 http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=29#comment-131 I’m inclined to agree with most of what you say here about the “history scandals” and Jon’s highly politicized reading of them. The Fox-Genovese and Thernstrom controversies had little to do with the fact that they are historians and Weiner’s thesis that conservative scholars have survived with little damage done, while lefty scholars have been savaged is not a very illuminating — or even accurate — way of interpreting what happened. One might well ask why Jon didn’t treat the case of Ann Lane, a lefty scholar who committed major plagiarism with her first book, took a minor hit, and after a very comfortable academic career will retire very comfortably from the University of Virginia. I’d say that he didn’t treat it because it doesn’t serve his thesis. It certainly isn’t because he didn’t know about the case. Really, even though it has its own problems, I’d much more highly recommend Peter Charles Hoffer’s book, Past Imperfect.

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