Hello all,
First, as moderator of the list, I appreciate the civil tone and
on-point discussion that this thread has so far generated. Let's keep it
that way.
I would need more than two examples (one of whom is not even a
historian) of bad researchers to support the claim that bad work is
"widespread" among academic historians. Is there a systematic study
that supports such a conclusion?
Gregg
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill Crews
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over
claims on black Confederate soldiers
I don't have a dog in this particular fight but I would like to note
that crappy research and extraordinary claims is as widespread amongst
academic historians as any other place. One has to look no farther than
Michael Bellisles, Ward Churchill, and any number of lesser lights who
were widely published, cited, and honored and yet were eventually
exposed as frauds. When one gets into the realm of historians who
publish for the general public the problem is magnified several fold.
----- Original Message ----
From: Margaret Peters <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, October 20, 2010 9:32:00 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over
claims on black Confederate soldiers
It is incredible to me that this text was not reviewed by a competent
and unbiased and knowledgeable historian. I recall back in the 1970s
working directly with the Board of Education on its then new materials
for 4th graders and carefully evaluating how various controversial facts
were presented. It is very disturbing that this was not being done in
this case. Sadly it is a mind-set that far too many so-called scholars
accept. Some of it goes back to the lack of any sort of accreditation
for historians. Relying solely on a secondary source as questionable as
the SCV who clearly have a specific agenda is just plain wrong. Anyone
can call themselves a "historian," these days.
Margaret T. Peters
Historian with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources 1968-2002.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Kukla" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 9:04 AM
Subject: Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black
Confederate soldiers
*Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate
soldiers
*
By Kevin Sieff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of
African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a claim
rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play
down
slavery's role as a cause of the conflict.
The passage appears in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," which was
distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first time
last
month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has
written several books, said she found the information about black
Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned
up
work by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Scholars are nearly unanimous in calling these accounts of black
Confederate
soldiers a misrepresentation of history. Virginia education officials,
after
being told by The Washington Post of the issues related to the textbook,
said that the vetting of the book was flawed and that they will contact
school districts across the state to caution them against teaching the
passage.
"Just because a book is approved doesn't mean the Department of
Education
endorses every sentence," said spokesman Charles Pyle. He also called
the
book's assertion about black Confederate soldiers "outside mainstream
Civil
War scholarship."
Masoff defended her work. "As controversial as it is, I stand by what I
write," she said. "I am a fairly respected writer."
The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary historian
Carol Sheriff opened her daughter's copy of "Our Virginia" and saw the
reference to black Confederate soldiers.
"It's disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history
based
on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship," Sheriff said.
"It
concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a parent."
Virginia, which is preparing to mark the 150th anniversary of the
beginning
of the Civil War, has long struggled to appropriately commemorate its
Confederate past. The debate was reinvigorated this spring, when Gov.
Robert
F. Mc-Don-nell (R) introduced "Confederate History Month" in Virginia
without mentioning slavery's role in the Civil War. He later apologized.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of male descendants of
Confederate
soldiers based in Columbia, Tenn., has long maintained that substantial
numbers of black soldiers fought for the South The group's
historian-in-chief, Charles Kelly Barrow, has written the book "Black
Confederates."
The Sons of Confederate Veterans also disputes the widely accepted
conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the
Civil
War. Instead, the group says, the war was fought "to preserve their
homes
and livelihood," according to John Sawyer, chief of staff of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans' Army of Northern Virginia. He said the group was
pleased that a state textbook accepted some of its views.
The state's curriculum requires textbook publishers and educators to
explore
the role African Americans played in the Confederacy, including their
work
on plantations and on the sidelines of battle. Those standards have
evolved
in recent years to make lessons on the Civil War more inclusive in a
state
that is growing increasingly diverse.
When Masoff began work on the textbook, she said she consulted a variety
of
sources -- history books, experts and the Internet. But when it came to
one
of the Civil War's most controversial themes -- the role of African
Americans in the Confederacy -- she relied primarily on an Internet
search.
The book's publisher, Five Ponds Press, based in Weston, Conn., sent a
Post
reporter three of the links Masoff found on the Internet. Each referred
to
work by Sons of the Confederate Veterans or others who contend that the
fight over slavery was not the main cause of the Civil War.
In its short lesson on the roles that whites, African Americans and
Indians
played in the Civil War, "Our Virginia" says, "Thousands of Southern
blacks
fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under
the
command of Stonewall Jackson."
Masoff said of the assertion: "It's just one sentence. I don't want to
ruffle any feathers. If the historians had contacted me and asked me to
take
it out, I would have."
She added that the book was reviewed by a publisher's advisory council
of
educators and that none of the advisers objected to the textbook's
assertion.
Historians from across the country, however, said the sentence about
Confederate soldiers was wrong or, at the least, overdrawn. They
expressed
concerns not only over its accuracy but over the implications of
publishing
an assertion so closely linked to revisionist Confederate history.
"It's more than just an arcane, off-the-wall problem," said David
Blight, a
professor at Yale University. "This isn't just about the legitimacy of
the
Confederacy, it's about the legitimacy of the emancipation itself."
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson of Princeton University
said, "These Confederate heritage groups have been making this claim for
years as a way of purging their cause of its association with slavery."
Masoff said one of her sources was Ervin Jordan, a University of
Virginia
historian who said he has documented evidence -- in the form of
19th-century
newspapers and personal letters -- of some African Americans fighting
for
the Confederacy. But in an interview, Jordan said the account in the
fourth-grade textbook went far beyond what his research can support.
"There's no way of knowing that there were thousands," Jordan said. "And
the
claim about Jackson is totally false. I don't know where that came
from."
The book also survived the Education Department's vetting and was ruled
"accurate and unbiased" by a committee of content specialists and
teachers.
Five Ponds Press has published 14 books that are used in the Virginia
public
school system, all of them written by Masoff.
Masoff also wrote "Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" and
"Oh
Yikes! History's Grossest Moments."
==============
Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
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