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History

 

New Journal Release--Plagiary--Call for Papers

 

Historians and their Cut-n-Paste Scholarship

 

The rash of plagiarism among historians writing for both academic and popular markets has taken a lot of people by surprise. That professional historians could usurp their sources without any apparent twinge of guilt thwacking their collective conscience suggests that this rash is more than just a skin-deep affliction. Historians ought to know better than that! A historian is more than just a re-compiler of pre-existing texts. Using other historians' interpretations, word for word, is nothing more than shoddy *scholarship* which bears much resemblance to the sorts of pilfering going on among modern day romance novelists.

 

Aren't historians supposed to go back to the original sources? The original texts and documents upon which recorded history is based? Six-figure book deals and lust for slices of the popular market seem to have superceded some very basic rules underlying honest scholarship. "Clearly, popular history will always sell, even when its authors have been proved to be cheats" (Peter Charles Hoffer, Past Imperfect). How many other historians have forgotten these basic rules, neglecting to cite their sources as they (and their "research assistants"--how convenient of an excuse!) engage in such convenient methods of cut-n-paste historical scholarship!

 

 

 

 

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Profiles in Plagiarism: History

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Stephen Ambrose

 

Profile:
HSTRY-2002-SA
Name:

Stephen Ambrose

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Orange: High Risk

 

Occupation:

Historian--consultant, author, professor (deceased)

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism discovered in one book to begin with, The Wild Blue, followed by further discoveries of plagiarism in a number of other books including Crazy Horse and Custer, Citizen Soldiers, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery . . .

 

Results:

Reputation as a history writer called into question; Popular market share for history books unaffected

 

Known for:

Churning out popular history books at a rapid pace; Acclaimed as a "one of the leading historians of our time" who wrote "definitive" works on important historical events; Historical consultancy for movies such as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan; Plagiarism scandal which broke in 2002

 

Overview:

Dubbed as a "history factory" for the pace at which he could produce his history books, the now deceased Stephen Ambrose's career as a respected historian and author of popular books on important historical events and people took a drubbing when his modes of textual composition were closely analyzed beginning in 2002.

After The Wild Blue was found to contain passages plagiarized from the works of other historians, further discoveries of plagiarism in his other books called into question his reputation as a historical scholar.

That Ambrose could produce texts for popular consumption was never in doubt. But the scholarly community--particularly other historians--gasped and then gawked at the blatent thievery, the sucking of colleagues' "lifeblood" as if he were a textual vampire.

Numerous media outlets publicized the details of Ambrose's plagiaristic misdeeds and the pattern of unacknowledged derivation which characterized the popular historian's modus operandi which included employing his children in the textual composing process.

Ambrose, now deceased, denied the plagiarism charges at the time, but did admit using other's work in an internview with the New York Times: "I am not out there stealing other people's writings. If I am writing up a passage and it is a story I want to tell, and this story fits, and a part of it is from other people's writing, I just type it up that way and put it in a footnote."

Re-use of existing material has a long tradition in historical scholarship. But without question, ex-appropriation of the exact wording formulated by another author requires more than a footnote. Verbatim use of another author's language requires use of little marks of punctuation known in Britian as inverted commas, in France and elsewhere as guillemets (more like little arrows before and after a quote), and in the US as quotation marks.

Conventions for the use of punctuation to indicate verbatim quotation have a lengthy history reaching back to when printing was first introduced in Europe, and extending back even further to the discoursal norms which writers and producers of texts have used since antiquity to indicate their indebtedness to those scholars who have gone before.

Historians who sidestep the conventions involving the use of "quotation marks" to indicate verbatim quotation put themselves at risk of drawing the ire of--and provoking jibes from--those readers who uncover their slipshod scholarship.

References

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Iris Chang


Profile:
HSTRY-1997-IC
Name:

Iris Chang

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Best-selling author and popular historian

 

Allegations:

"[S]imple carelessness, sheer sloppiness, historical inaccuracies, and shameless plagiarism"(T.M. Kelley) in Chang's book The Rape of Nanking

 

Results:

Rape of Nanking continues to be a bestseller; Chang suffered from depression and committed suicide in 2004, although it remains pretty well certain that this was not related to any criticisms of her book

 

Known for:

Works of history addressing the Japanese occupation of China, the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the US, and the development of China's missile program; Organization of Chinese American Women named her National Woman of the Year; "a role model for young Chinese Americans"

 

Overview:


Historian Stephen Ambrose said of Iris Chang: "She may be the best young historian we've got, because she understands that to communicate history you've got to tell the story in an interesting way. She uses those vital storytelling rhythms." Chang's abilities as a popular historian were evident from the start in her first book, Thread of the Silkworm, which traced the development of China's missile program through telling the story of Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen.

Chang's second book, The Rape of Nanking, documented the Japanese assualt on the citizens of Nanking during World War II, and her next book, The Chinese in America, chronicled the history of Chinese immigrants in the US.

Described by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing as "a real woman warrior trying to fight injustice", Chang was working on yet another bestseller-in-progress when she took her own life in Los Gatos, California. Also described as "passionate" and "articulate", Chang will be sadly missed both in the US and in the communities of Nanking (C. Burress, "Chinese American Writer found dead in South Bay"). Prior to committing suicide, she had been suffering from severe depression, which some have speculated as being related to her deep emotional involvement in the horrifying details of the war atrocities which she had devoted so much of her life to studying.

It was with Chang's second book that a number of controversial issues and accusations were raised. The Rape of Nanking, although generally acclaimed by the media, was criticized by some experts as exhibiting "simple carelessness, sheer sloppiness, historical inaccuracies, and shameless plagiarism" (T.M. Kelley).

These are quite serious charges to be leveled against an immensely popular historian such as Chang. Yet Timothy M. Kelly states from the outset of his review that he is not interested in making an "attack [on] Chang personally or . . . tak[ing] issue with her politics or agenda." After this statement, Kelly goes on to give a rather thorough documentation of the criticisms leveled against Chang's Rape of Nanking, concluding with constructive suggestions for revision of the work so as to correct the deficiencies.

Kelly clearly takes issues with the overwhelmingly positive and glib endorsements of The Rape of Nanking, disagreeing with these over-rated reviews which are nearly "all long on praise and virtually void of negative remarks." He issues a stern rebuke to such shallow critiques, accusing the mass media of being "incredibly irresponsible" followed by "and they need to be told so."

After taking a deep breath at these bold and frank assessments, readers of Kelly's review will find a clearly organized and thoroughly documented critique of the four main areas with which Kelly takes issue as far as The Rape of Nanking:

1. Careless errors

2. Sloppiness

3. Historical inaccuracies

4. Shameless plagiarism

While reading The Rape of Nanking, Kelly states that it was "[q]uite by accident" that he came across Chang's insufficiently acknowledged derivation from David Bergamini's Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, and he attempts to "demonstrate a clear pattern of wholesale and unacknowledged borrowing" from Bergamini by citing instance after instance of "parallel passages" in the two works.

In Kelly's view, Chang's occasional citation of Bergamini's work does not absolve her of wholesale appropriation of extensive passages from Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, and he ponders whether this might be a strong indication of further mis-use of sources and plagiarism within The Rape of Nanking. He ranks Chang's work as being "merely of rough draft quality" hastily rushed to press in time for the 60th anniversary of the Nanking massacre, and he suggests that a "completely revised edition" is needed to address the work's serious deficiencies.

Other critics, too, have alluded to the questions concerning the "accuracy and balance" of Chang's writings. But they have also highlighted the importance of Chang's works in reminding readers--particularly Chinese American readers--of the historical significance of events such as the Japanese assault on Nanking, provoking renewed calls for redress of grievances and payment of reparations by Japan to the victims of this horrendous episode in Sino-Japanese relations.

Sadly, the passing on of Iris Chang has extinguished any hope for the revisions called for by Kelly in his critique of The Rape of Nanking. The death of this popular Chinese-American author has left behind swirling controversies and troubling questions which remain unanswered. Was Chang's suicide related at all to the accusations of plagiary? For now, it does not seem so. Were her depictions of the Nanking assault completely accurate? Given that plagiary was discovered in Chang's work, might there be further issues of credibility and research integrity which have yet to be discovered?

References

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Donald Cuccioletta

Profile:
HSTRY-2001-DC
Name:

Donald Cuccioletta

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Yellow: Elevated Risk

 

Occupation:

History Professor, formerly Interim Director of the University of Plattsburgh's Institute on Quebec Studies

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism in a book on L'américanité et les Amériques

 

Results:

Discharged from one academic post, removal from position as Interim Director of the University of Plattsburgh's Institute on Quebec Studies

 

Known for:

American history and world events scholarship

 

Overview:

Donald Cuccioletta was working at two universities, the University of Quebec, and the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, when another history professor found apparent instances of plagiarism in Cuccioletta's book on L'américanité et les Amériques. Evidently, Cuccioletta lifted passages from Do the Americas Have a Common History, a work authored by Columbia University historian, Lewis Hanke.

As a result of these allegations, Cuccioletta was dismissed from his position at the University of Quebec, and he was also removed a short time later from his position as Interim Director of Plattsburgh's Institute of Quebec Studies. Whether further consequences will result from this plagiarism remain to be seen.

References

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Doris Kearns Goodwin

Profile:
HSTRY-1987-DKG
Name:

Doris Kearns Goodwin

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Red: Severe Risk

 

Occupation:

Historian, Author, previously professor at Harvard University

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism of source materials in The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys

 

Results:

Allegations of plagiarism widely circulated, significant monetary settlement paid to Lynne McTaggert, author of Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times, from which Kearns Goodwin borrowed most extensively--although she continues to maintain that she's "absolutely not" a plagiarist

 

Known for:

History books; various achievements and awards including the Women's Professional Achievement Award, a Radcliffe Award; "Democratic insider" in the presidential administrations of L.B.Johnson and W.J.Clinton, assisting in defense of the latter during the impeachment process(P.C.Hoffer, Past Imperfect); most recently remembered for the great scandal caused by her being one of the many historian-plagiarists increasingly circumventing scholarship norms

 

Overview:

Handwritten, schmandwritten! Longhand, schmonghand! Doris Kearns Goodwin's explanation that her longhand notes were to blame for shoddy scholarship just doesn't cut it!

First she accuses another author of plagiarizing portions of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and then she finds out--big surprise!--that she herself is being accused of the very same thing in the very book she accused Joe McGinniss of lifting passages from in 1993.

The allegations were quickly picked up by most major media outlets, and as a result of these allegations Kearns Goodwin was dis-invited from some speaking events, dropped from television programs, and forced to pay a significant sum of money--the exact amount has never been revealed--to the author from whom she appropriated quite extensively, Lynne McTaggert, author of Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times.

The undisclosed financial settlement with McTaggert as well as Goodwin's membership in the liberal academic establishment seem to have exacerbated the difficulties for Goodwin. Particularly, the fact that she was a "Democratic insider" in the presidential administrations of L.B.Johnson and W.J.Clinton, and also the fact that she assisted in the defense of President Clinton during the impeachment process, brought her into the kill-zone for well targeted conservative criticism. There was a definite political aspect of the accusations against this member of the liberal academic elite. Republican politicians even took potshots at their liberal quarry during sessions of the U.S. Congress(P.C.Hoffer, Past Imperfect).

In spite of the plagiarism allegations, Goodwin Kearns has denied that she ever plagiarized ("absolutely" not!), and has continued to do quite well financially with lucrative speaking engagements and book contracts, although the public jibes against her scholarship continue to surface now and then (see reviews of her work at Amazon.com for examples).

Moral--"Let he/she who is without plagiaristic sin . . . "

References

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Kitty Kelley

Profile:
HSTRY-2004-KK
Name:

Kitty Kelley

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Yellow: Elevated Risk

 

Occupation:

Biographer

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism of several passages in her book Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty

 

Results:

$5 million lawsuit for damages

 

Known for:

Unauthorized biographies of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan

 

Overview:

Known for her biographies detailing the lives of important figures such as Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan, Kitty Kelley has been accused of lifting material from another author in writing her book about the "Bush Dynasty".

The passages in question are alleged to have been lifted from Glynn Wilson's article about President Bush's service in the National Guard in Alabama. The article was published in the Southerner Daily News, and Ms. Kelley allegedly lifted passaged directly from this article in writing her book.

Both Kelley and her publisher deny the allegations.

References

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Rashid Khalidi

 

Profile:
HSTRY-2005-RK
Name:

Rashid Khalidi

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Columbia University's Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies; Director of The Middle East Institute

 

Allegations:

Unacknowledged derivation and "compilation" in an Internet article entitled "Jerusalem, A Concise History" (link), written for the website of the American Committe of Jerusalem (re-named as the American Taskforce on Palestine)

 

Results:

Confined so far to Internet chatter and a blogosphere buzz; Austin Quigley of Columbia University responded by initially suggesting the plagiarism allegations were of "malicious" intent

 

Known for:

Ideological extremism and anti-Israeli rhetoric in the university classroom, including--according to student reports--intolerance of student dissent and abuse of power/position

 

Overview:

Columbia University's Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies stands accused of plagiarism by Internet bloggers at Solomonia.com and the History News Network. Allegedly, Professor Rashid Khalidi lifted content in the "writing" of an Internet article on the history of Jerusalem ("Jerusalem, A Concise History")posted on the website of the American Committe of Jerusalem, an organization which Khalidi served as President in the past. Today, this organization has been re-named as the American Taskforce on Palestine.

Dialoging bloggers and historians reported that Professor Rashid Khalidi seems to have lifted material for re-use from a previous article by Kamil Jamil el Asali, formerly of the University of Jordan. When asked about this possible instance of plagiarism, Dean Austin Quigley of Columbia seemed to suggest that the plagiarism allegations were of "malicious" intent.

Khalidi's outspoken, anti-Israeli rhetoric is well known, and it was the reason for his being dropped from a program developed to educate New York City public school teachers about the Middle East. His controversial rhetoric is without a doubt responsible for the strong opposition from students and pro-Israel activists, and his rhetoric seems to have also provoked a re-analysis of his scholarship.

For now, the American Committee on Jerusalem has removed the Rashid Khalidi byline from the article in question, replacing it with the more truthful phrase, "Compiled by ACJ from a variety of sources." This is a sign of a textual retreat. With this neat little revision to their web content, both ACJ and Khalidi have distanced themselves from claims to authorship for the article "Jerusalem, A Concise History", and in so doing, they seem to have tacitly admitted the validity of the plagiarism allegations (see the original byline in a web archive of the article).

Oppositional origins of these allegations notwithstanding, a closer investigation would seem to be warranted. As bloggers have noted, this was not a peer-reviewed journal article which has been called into question, and there is a palpable discomfort with how easily plagiarism allegations can be quickly publicized via the Internet "blogosphere".

If plagiarists had their way, the plug would be quickly pulled on such blogging just as quickly as the ACJ byline was revised upon surfacing of the plagiarism allegations against Khalidi. But these bloggers have every right to exist. They aren't going to go away. And the online accusers might even include a few of Khalidi's own colleagues and compatriots--perhaps in the employ of Mossad, perhaps with a personal grudge to settle with Khalidi, or perhaps of the minority pacifist leaning ilk looking for the day when truly peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis will arrive.

References

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Joe McGinniss

 

Profile:
HSTRY-1993-JM
Name:

Joe McGinniss

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Green: Low Risk

 

Occupation:

Author and Biographer

 

Allegations:

Doris Kearns Goodwin alleged McGinniss had derived material for The Last Brother from one of her works

 

Results:

In an ironic twist to things, Kearns Goodwin herself was found to have plagiarized in her book on The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys

 

Known for:

Nonfiction writing

 

Overview:

When Doris Kearns Goodwin accused Joe McGinniss of borrowing too much from her work on The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, little did she realize that she would face accusations of plagiarism relating to this very same book.

The allegations against McGinniss seem to have had little effect on his career as a writer and they pale in comparison to the fallout surrounding the Kearns Goodwin case.

References

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Stephen
B. Oates

 

Profile:
HSTRY-1993-SBO
Name:

Stephen B. Oates

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Former Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Biographer

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism in biographies of Abraham Lincoln; Martin Luther King,Jr.; William Faulkner

 

Results:

Use of a "plagiarism machine" operated by NIH (National Institutes of Health) scientists Walter W. Stewart and Ned Feder to detect parallel language passages in Oates' books and source texts; A formal complaint to the NIH by Oates about this "abuse" of a government position by Feder and Stewart results in their reassignment and confiscation of alleged plagiarism data; An investigation and adjudication process initiated by the AHA (American Historical Association) result in years of wrangling and a controversial, un-committed ruling on the Oates case followed by a decision not to get involved in any more such cases of alleged plagiarism due to resource constraints

 

Known for:

Biographies of important American figures; Fighting back feistily, creatively and resourcefully against a well-organized plagiarism inquisition

 

Overview:

The case of plagiarism involving Stephen B. Oates marks an important turning point in the war on plagiarism, for it was this case that marked the first use of a "plagiarism machine" being used in 1993 to detect word-for-word language lifting by an author, the results capturing the attention of the public and professional communities alike.

Since this first application of computing technology as a plagiarism-detection aid, the software used for such detection of similar strings of text has become widespread, spawning a new industry which capitalized on the power of digital processing to expose academic cheats.

Venture startups such as Integriguard, Glatt Plagiarism Detection Services, Turnitin, MyDropBox, EVE (Essay Verification Engine), and so on, have ushered in a new era of academic invigilation of the writing process for students and professionals.

For Stephen B. Oates, the software program written by W.W. Stewart marked another stage of a nightmare adjudication process investigating his alleged plagiarism and misuse of sources in his biographies of Abraham Lincoln, William Faulkner, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Working from their NIH office with their "plagiarism machine", Feder and Stewart scanned the text from Oates' biography on Abraham Lincoln to begin with, finding multiple instances of unattributed (i.e. no quotation marks used), word for word copying from the source texts used by Oates.

As Feder and Stewart have observed, mere side-by-side passages of parallel texts still require human judgement to determine whether a charge of plagiarism is valid or not. Indeed, this is still one of the concerns educators have with such "plagiarism detection" technology. A machine or a software program can identify matching chunks of text, but it still requires a human to look at those matches to determine whether there are false matches, whether quotation marks and citations have been incorporated, and whether there might be other explanations for the "intertextuality" which has been identified.

Oates' concern was with the entire process, what he viewed as an "Orwellian" star chamber investigation by the American Historical Association (AHA) which he claimed had no jurisdiction since he was not a member and had thus not participated in the ratification or election processes. He was also concerned that Feder and Stewart, being untrained in the historical writing process, lacked the sufficient expertise needed to evaluate charges of plagiarism which others had raised prior to use of the "plagiarism machine".

He must have felt rather singled out by the use of this new technology on his case alone by two scientists working for the government at NIH. And so, questioning the authority of the government-salaried Feder-Stewart duo to single out a private citizen for calibration of their new "machine", he filed a formal complaint which resulted in the "un-plugging" of this so-called "plagiarism machine" and a re-assignment of Feder and Stewart to a different location. Their work as self-proclaimed "fraud-busters" and plagiarism sleuths on the government's dime came to a halt.

But the controversy continued. More than 10 years after the plagiarism allegations against Oates first surfaced (1990-91), the History News Network featured another round of accusations, recriminations, self-defense, and more of the side-by-side parallel passages of identical text. Oates chose for his title a past-tense reflection, "I Stood Accused of Plagiarism", as an introduction to his "Nightmare Tale of Ruthless Accusers, A Misused 'Plagiarism Machine,' An Orwellian Star Chamber, an Unscrupulous Verdict, and Hopeless Confusion About Definitions" (2002).

Feder and Stewart responded with examples of language lifting in Oates' books, observing that Oates chose to defend himself with the "permissive standards" of Alexander Lindey (Plagiarism and Originality, 1952) rather than standards such as those of the MLA. The fraudbusting duo do concede in this exchange that "it is not possible to be certain that plagiarism is the explanation for every instance of copying without adequate attribution", but they hold firm to their position with a concluding question: "Oates should say flatly whether he copied the passages that Burlinghame identified, or not. And if not, how does he account for the similarities? Just a coincidence?"


David J. Garrow, in his review of Peter Charles Hoffer's Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud--American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin, references the Oates case, quoting Hoffer's assessment: "[Stephen Oates' challenge] was still an embarrassment to the Professional Division [of the AHA]." A number of years after the Oates plagiarism fiasco, and not necessarily as a direct result of this particular case of alleged plagiarism, the AHA decided in 2003 to abstain from any further involvement in questions of plagiarism or professional misconduct by historians, a "retreat from professional responsibility" in the opinion of scholars such as Hoffer.

In "A Heartbreaking Problem of Staggering Proportions" by Richard Wightman Fox, the situatedness of plagiarism allegations within the "culture wars" is explored. As Fox explains, "The news [on plagiarism cases]gets amplified further because it is so useful in the ongoing culture wars."

But Fox seems rather wishy-washy in his explanations, having done a U-turn in his thinking on the Oates case. He basically absolves Oates of the plagiarism allegations in approving of Oates' composing style: "gather[ing] the fragments of past historical writing and forg[ing] them into a new work with a passion and fire all your own. Plagiarism or not, With Malice toward None is an original book." In this same article, Fox states, "I can see the twenty-two historians' implicit argument for not fetishizing quotation marks and for restricting plagiarism to cases in which one author does not credit another author at all" and he makes a convincing case on the importance of using quotations marks to indicate verbatim quotation.

The bottom line is this. Had Stephen B. Oates--or many other scholars in his position--opted to use those small yet vitally important marks of punctuation known as quotation marks, the lengthy controversies and years of bitter recriminations might have been avoided altogether.


References

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Louis Roberts