falsified Holocaust memoir slugfest

HHN: Penguin cancels formerly-upcoming Holocaust memoir ("Angel at the Fence") that historians revealed to be false. As Ken Waltzer, director of Jewish Studies program at Mich State, writes:

This memoir was at the far end of implausibility, yet until yesterday, no one connected with packaging, promoting, and disseminating it asked questions about or investigated it. Some actively resisted such investigation and tried to shut mine down.

The story gets really interesting when you look into how the producers of a film version complained to Waltzer's dean and attacked Deborah Lipstadt for investigating the claims. (TNR stories here)

Lipstadt also adds some interesting thoughts on HBO's recent John Adams, in which they show Adams railing against Trumbull for painting the signing of the Declaration as a great assembly, which didn't happen. But the scene as shown in the miniseries is itself undocumented!

Johns Adams fact and fiction

Writer of HBO's recent (and excellent) John Adams considers what parts of the historical record they changed, and why. (TNR: "One for the Books")

A screenwriter always seeks economy in storytelling. Of course I knew that there were two Boston Massacre trials, not one. But the audience would not have thanked us for devoting the whole of the first episode to an examination of courtroom procedure, with two separate verdicts rendered. The key dramatic points are Adams's decision to defend Captain Preston and his soldiers, and his success at exonerating them on the charge of murder. Both points are "factual." Has there been some manipulation involved in the dramatization? Absolutely. But the outcome of the proceedings has not been altered.

Other examples are more suspect. But the general point remains, and in any case it's an interesting thing to present to students as a thought piece on how to write and present history.

Monday links I: Boston Massacre and the Rule of Law

Publis at OW muses about the John Adams series and its depiction of the Boston Massacre:

Mankind hasn’t really changed that much since we've emerged from the forest. Passions have consumed us for as long as there have been men. We saw it in the French Revolution. We saw it in the Russian Revolution. We saw it in Boston in 1770 when British officials were swept up and tortured with burning tar (a scene the HBO series chillingly portrays). And we saw it in 2002 when America rushed mob-like into war in a matter of weeks, based entirely on falsehoods and misguided assumptions.

He uses it as a platform to talk about judicial review, the importance of judiciary and the rule of law. I'll just link this to remind me that the scene can be a good one to show in a future class.