Most of you will recall the controversy that ultimately discredited (former) Emory professor Michael Bellesiles and his book, Arming America. Vintage Books withdrew the paperback edition in January 2003 after serious flaws had been discovered in Prof. Bellesile’s work, leading to the withdrawal of his Bancroft Prize and his resignation from Emory.
Now he’s attempting a comeback. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning that his book has been re-issued by Soft Skull Press, a small New York city imprint founded in 1992 “publishing editions of poetry by Lower East Side rock muscicians,” but which recently has branched out into art and politics.
Soft Skull’s press release contained the following:
“This is not the first time it has fallen to Soft Skull to ensure the American public can read books the Right doesn’t like,” says Publisher Richard Nash. “It is imperative that we stand up to the NRA smear machine. We believe in allowing readers to evaluate for themselves how Bellesiles has responded to the legitimate criticisms and whether the core thesis of the book-the undermining of the creation myth of the Second Amendment-stands up.”
According to The Chronicle, Nash observed that “[t]he American tradition of academic publishing is one that is incredibly fastidious,” but, fortunately for Soft Skull, he went on to say that “that’s not the only tradition of publishing. History books in Europe, outside of really arcane German books, barely have bibliographies.”
In an email to The Chronicle, Bellesiles wrote that “I did not realize it earlier, but apparently to question the American myth is to step outside of the mainstream. I should have paid closer attention to Alexis de Tocqueville, who made this point 160 years ago.”
He should have paid closer attention to lots of things, but at least now he seems to have found his natural home. Soft Skull indeed.
Questioning the American myth is a big business in publishing, especially for university publishers. Monsieur Bellesiles has a strange notion of what “mainstream” consists of. Providing a bibliography and citations is standard procedure for any book that wishes to be taken seriously as a work of research.