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Bellesiles: Author loses grant name, keeps funds

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited May 2002 in General Discussion
Author loses grant name, keeps funds
Jen Sansbury - Staff
Thursday, May 23, 2002


The National Endowment for the Humanities has yanked its name from a fellowship given to Emory University professor Michael Bellesiles to write a second book about guns.

Bellesiles has spent the academic year in Chicago at the Newberry Library, a research institution that awarded him an NEH-funded $30,000 fellowship in February 2001 to work on a project called "American Gun Laws: The Regulation of Firearm Use and Ownership, 1607-2000."

Bellesiles has been redesignated a "Newberry Library Fellow," but the funding will not be revoked, said James Grossman, the library's vice president for research and education. The fellowship ends next week.

Bellesiles could not be reached for comment.

The history professor has been under fire for his most recent book, "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture," published in 2000.

In it, he contended guns were not commonly owned or used in early America until the Civil War, contrary to popular folklore.

A growing chorus of critics --- first gun-rights advocates, then fellow scholars --- claim his research was flawed and he misinterpreted historical records.

At issue now is whether the charges were substantial enough 15 months ago to warrant further investigation by the Newberry Library's review committee.

NEH officials this week said the library erred in awarding its grant.

"They failed to weigh and consider all the factors surrounding Professor Bellesiles' previous research, his proposed research, and indeed the credibility of the researcher himself," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole in a written statement.

Emory officials have appointed a committee of outside scholars to study the accusations, a process that is expected to wrap up this summer.

The NEH, a federal agency, had previously withdrawn its support of a project only once, for a 1987 documentary called "The Africans," after it was deemed to be biased against the West. http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/metro_c3ce68dcc6be702e0074.html



"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Don't be reticent Saxon, tell us how you really feel! Pulling the name is meaningless, they need to make him give back the funds!
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