The Culture War - A

The Culture War - A bit of background, here. Last year, Michael Bellesiles, a history professor at Emory University, published a book, Arming America, which purported to show (among other things) how the so-called "gun culture" is not a product of American history, but rather firearms-industry marketing. The book received rave reviews from the NYT Book Review, and a Bancroft Prize, among many other kudos.

The problem is, the data was all wrong; slapped-together, out of context, or just plain made up. After the accolades passed, a number of critics began noticing the gaps in Bellisiles' data - a process that ended with his resignation from Emory, last week. Emory's student newspaper has been remarkably candid about this issue, by the way.

John Rosenberg, author of the Discriminations blog, writes about this fracas' place in the culture wars. Read the whole thing.