Pop History Plagerism

Griff · 02-23-2002, 03:29 PM

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is being criticized for plagerizing parts of a book she "wrote" back in '87 (1).

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/23/bo...odaysheadlines

I don't know how many others here were history majors, but even if you only took the intro classes didn't your profs beat you over the head and let you know that poorly cited papers were gonna be harshly graded and plagerism would get you run!

Her research assistant is taking one for the team, but that does not eliminate the "authors" responsibility. I am no great fan of Ms. Goodwin mostly because her definition of a great President is 180 degrees from mine (she favors men with high body counts) but am I over-reacting? History writing seems to be taking a lot of heat these days because of sloppy and sometimes fraudulent scholarship ( the Bellisaurus [? er whatever his name was] history of American gun ownership comes to mind.)(2) I'd say its time for legitamit historians to cut out the polite silence and maybe call for a good old fashioned shunning. Something like, "I'm sorry Jim I can't appear on the News Hour with Doris, its a question of credibility."

Anyway, I wonder how Lynne McTaggert feels about Goodwin taking advantage of her research? *cough* lawsuit *cough* I don't know her work but its a fair bet she wasn't pleased when she found out that a writer who'd already made it critically and financially was using her work. Oh yah Ambrose too. (3)

(1) bah
(2) bah bah
(3) bah bah bah [oops I have inadvertently quoted from the Guns of Navarone by the Skatelites, wet noodle forth coming]

02-23-2002, 03:29 PM	#1
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Pop History Plagerism Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is being criticized for plagerizing parts of a book she "wrote" back in '87 (1). http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/23/bo...odaysheadlines I don't know how many others here were history majors, but even if you only took the intro classes didn't your profs beat you over the head and let you know that poorly cited papers were gonna be harshly graded and plagerism would get you run! Her research assistant is taking one for the team, but that does not eliminate the "authors" responsibility. I am no great fan of Ms. Goodwin mostly because her definition of a great President is 180 degrees from mine (she favors men with high body counts) but am I over-reacting? History writing seems to be taking a lot of heat these days because of sloppy and sometimes fraudulent scholarship ( the Bellisaurus [? er whatever his name was] history of American gun ownership comes to mind.)(2) I'd say its time for legitamit historians to cut out the polite silence and maybe call for a good old fashioned shunning. Something like, "I'm sorry Jim I can't appear on the News Hour with Doris, its a question of credibility." Anyway, I wonder how Lynne McTaggert feels about Goodwin taking advantage of her research? cough lawsuit cough I don't know her work but its a fair bet she wasn't pleased when she found out that a writer who'd already made it critically and financially was using her work. Oh yah Ambrose too. (3) (1) bah (2) bah bah (3) bah bah bah [oops I have inadvertently quoted from the Guns of Navarone by the Skatelites, wet noodle forth coming] Last edited by Griff; 02-23-2002 at 03:31 PM.

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