Michael Bellesiles, Lord High Commissioner of Chutzpah. People who know who he is will be stunned by gall of this:

1877 is also notable as the comeback book for a celebrated U.S. historian. Michael Bellesiles is perhaps most famous as the target of an infamous “swiftboating” campaign by the National Rifle Association, following the publication of his Bancroft Prize-winning book Arming America (Knopf, 2000)—”the best kind of non-fiction,” according to the Chicago Tribune—which made daring claims about gun ownership in early America. In what became the history profession’s most talked-about and notorious case of the past generation, Arming America was eventually discredited after an unprecedented and controversial review called into question its sources, charges which Bellesiles and his many prominent supporters have always rejected.

Now, in fairness, one could argue that he was “swiftboated” insofar as he was target by critics who had the facts on their side. But I don’t think that’s what they mean.