letters....
—A History of the United StatesWhat is happening here?
Do we imagine that Boorstin and Kelley cribbed from Cayton, Perry, Reed,
and Winkler? Daniel J. Boorstin was a famous historian, former Librarian of
Congress, and the author of more than twenty books. According to his obituary
in the Manchester Guardian, his “learning and diligence were legendary.” But
he was in his eighty-ninth and final year when this textbook was being written.
Maybe the fault lies with his coauthor. Brooks Mather Kelley formerly served
as Yale University archivist and curator of historical manuscripts, so he must
know about proper scholarship and attribution.
Or maybe Cayton, Perry, Reed, and Winkler cribbed from Boorstin and
Kelley? They are less famous than Boorstin, but all are tenured professors and
hold doctorates in history, so all have been exposed to proper scholarly
etiquette. One of them, Allan Winkler, “Distinguished Professor of History” at
Miami University in Ohio, specializes in recent history, especially the history
of the home front during World War II. So maybe he wrote the passages in
question and Boorstin and Mather pilfered them.
If these were real books, historians would hold their collective breaths,
waiting to see whether Kelley (and Boorstin’s estate) sues Cayton et al., or
vice versa. These identical passages are far longer and more flagrant, after all,
than the copying that got Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin into so
much hot water a few years ago. One of Ambrose’s sins, for example, was
quoting primary sources as if he had found them, rather than double-quoting
them because he had read them in a secondary source. Nothing so subtle is
going on here. For page after page, topic after topic, these textbooks sport
paragraphs that are interchangeable.
I asked Kelley what he thought had taken place. He said he had nothing to do
with the 2005 revision: “Dan Boorstin did that one.” (Kelley claimed to have
had more to do with the “classic edition,” which also carries a 2005 copyright,
has the same cover, lists for the same price, and appears to be the same book.)
I asked who wrote the material on the recent past. “They hired somebody,” he
replied. “I don’t remember the man’s name. Dan then looked over it and, I’m
sure, rewrote it in his inimitable fashion.” When he learned that the passages