FC: Emory U. prof who wrote guns-were-rare book says email was forged

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Fri Apr 26 2002 - 22:57:27 PDT

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    Here's what Emory University prof. Michael Bellesiles has to say:
    http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2001nov/bellesiles.html
    http://www.emory.edu/HISTORY/BELLESILES/
    
    And that of critics:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment112601.shtml
    http://www.gunowners.org/opagny02pt28.htm
    http://www.stats.org/newsletters/0201/gun.htm
    
    A good summary:
    http://historynewsnetwork.org/articles/article.html?id=691
    
    What we need, of course, are the full headers of that message.
    
    -Declan
    
    ---
    
    Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 18:04:28 -0700 (PDT)
    From: herror <blackmarketsat_private>
    Subject: The dog wrote my email part II
    To: declanat_private
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
    X-UIDL: 5f30a2a2ef91c0e6527ab26ee720e428
    
    Declan,
           The Bellesille's phony scholarship case
    gets funnier. First it was records destroyed
    in a flood, then hacked a website.  Now emails that
    catch him in lies must have ben forged.
                         tom brennan phila pa
    
    original here:
    http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/04/25/3cc820eb8af19
    
    
    Professor of History Michael Bellesiles
    
    Bellesiles insinuates professor forged e-mails in his name
    
    By Andrew Ackerman
    Asst. News Editor
    
    April 25, 2002
    
    Professor of History Michael Bellesiles suggested this week that one of
    his main critics fabricated e-mails in his name.
    
    The accusation complicates an already confusing debate swirling over
    Bellesiles' award-winning book on gun culture in early America, which
    is now widely-considered fraudulent by academics who have studied
    Bellesiles' book.
    
    Bellesiles is the author Arming America: Origins of a National Gun
    Culture, which claims that guns were more rare in early America than
    previously thought. While the book was initially praised in its
    September 2000 debut for its innovative use of historical records to
    support Bellesiles' claim, the academic consensus has recently shifted
    against the book.
    
    Prompted partly by outside academic concerns, the University launched
    its own formal investigation in February into allegations Bellesiles
    engaged in research misconduct. As of Wednesday night, the University
    remains silent on its investigation, the first into the work of a
    College professor, though a public statement is expected any day.
    
    Bellesiles' accusations this week concern e-mails between him and James
    Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern University (Ill.) and an
    expert on probate records. The e-mails, which Bellesiles seems to deny
    writing, were allegedly sent to Lindgren in the final months of 2000.
    
    In August 2000, Lindgren asked Bellesiles in an e-mail to explain where
    he found most of the probate records cited in Arming America.
    Bellesiles allegedly replied that the records he used were stored at
    the National Archives at East Point in southeast Atlanta.
    
    "The probate records are primarily on microfilm in the [East Point]
    federal archives," Bellesiles allegedly wrote in a message dated Aug.
    31, 2000.
    
    But now Bellesiles denies that he wrote that e-mail -- after Lindgren
    learned no microfilmed probate records are housed at East Point --
    which Lindgren forwarded to the Wheel and HistoryNews-Network.org, a
    historical Web site for historians.
    
    [...]
    
    For continuing coverage of the Bellesiles controversy, please see:
    
    * Emory announces outside panel to review Bellesiles' research
    http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/04/25/3cc89bcfe177d
    
    * E-mails may include lies
    http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/04/25/3cc821c6a1b9c 
    
    
    
    
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