Disarming America

‘The power of image and myth repeatedly overwhelms real- I ity in discussions of early American firearms,” writes Michael A. Bellesiles, a professor of history at Emory University, in his book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. “America’s gun culture is an invented tradition.”

Bellesiles has done some inventing of his own. His book— which won this year’s Bancroft Prize, the most prestigious award in the writing of American history—is one of the worst cases of academic irresponsibility in memory. Yet his remark’ able performance has not been enough to cause either his employer, Emory, or his publisher, Knopf, to act.

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Melissa Seckora

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‘The power of image and myth repeatedly overwhelms real- I ity in discussions of early American firearms,” writes Michael A. Bellesiles, a professor of history at Emory University, in his book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. “America’s gun culture is an invented tradition.”

Bellesiles has done some inventing of his own. His book— which won this year’s Bancroft Prize, the most prestigious award in the writing of American history—is one of the worst cases of academic irresponsibility in memory. Yet his remark’ able performance has not been enough to cause either his employer, Emory, or his publisher, Knopf, to act.