PROFESSOR DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

(This is the summary of the Goodwin plagiarism story contained in our e-mail of September 16, 2004, lightly edited, and including a few more links which have been suggested since our e-mail.

One link in particular we have added is to an item which now takes on new significance because of the charges of scholarly misconduct recently made against Professor Laurence Tribe. The link is to Professor Tribe's defense of Professor Goodwin in a letter to the editor which appeared in the Harvard Crimson on March 18, 2002. See here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180631. For criticisms of Professor Tribe's letter, see here: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063299, and here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180706 (to the best of our knowledge, Professor Tribe has never answered these criticisms). The Weekly Standard article on Professor Tribe (which we discuss above, here: http://authorskeptics.blogspot.com/2004/09/professor-laurence-tribe.html) relies heavily (especially in its next-to-last paragraph) on Professor Tribe's letter defending Professor Goodwin. See here:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/674eijco.asp.)

The first Harvard plagiarism story broke in January 2002. It involves Doris Kearns Goodwin, a former Harvard history professor and a member of its Board of Overseers until she was forced off the Board after the Harvard Crimson called for her resignation because of the plagiarism story. She also resigned her position on the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes. The story was broken by the Weekly Standard.

Although initially limited in scope, after a number of months other investigations into Professor Goodwin’s work, including one conducted by the LA Times, confirmed the Weekly Standard’s findings and uncovered other instances of plagiarism in at least two of Professor Goodwin’s best-selling history books, written while she was a Harvard professor, including one for which she received a Pulitzer Prize.

Professor Goodwin’s explanation for the plagiarism involved faulty note taking habits, not just on her part, but on the part of four research assistants who help write her books. These faulty note taking habits made it difficult, she explained, for them to distinguish between notes containing their own analysis and notes summarizing analysis they find in books written by others.

For background on the Goodwin plagiarism story see:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/793ihurw.asp

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/817fdukv.asp

http://slate.msn.com/id/2061056

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,197614,00.html

http://slate.msn.com/id/2061281

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june02/history_1-28.html

http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2004fall/hi361f/goodwin-plagiarism.html

http://historynewsnetwork.org/articles/article.html?id=589

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/02/27/edtwof2.htm

http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/27/0227goodwin.html

http://greaterboston.tv/features/btp_goodwin_030102.html

http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/shaw/20020304.htm

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2062793

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/03/05/goodwin.pulitzer

http://www.onlinecolumnist.com/030602.html

http://www.robertfulford.com/Plagiarism.html

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180483

http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/000552.html

http://www.thelaf.com/news/2002/03/14/News/Last-Years.Commencement.Speaker.Admits.To.Plagiarism.By.Noah.Goldstein-217639.shtml (free registration required)

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180636

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180631

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063299

http://fray.slate.msn.com/?id=3936&m=3140756

http://fray.slate.msn.com/?id=3936&m=3144892

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180706

http://mobylives.com/Nobile_Goodwin.html

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/dont_quote_me/multi-page/documents/02201537.htm

http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/plagiarizer.htm

http://mobylives.com/Nobile_Pulitzer_speech.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_6_54/ai_84107380

http://slate.msn.com/id/2064187

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_5_6/ai_85880887

http://www.villagevoice.com/vls/177/perlstein.shtml

http://hnn.us/articles/718.html

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2069001&device

http://hnn.us/articles/985.html

http://hnn.us/articles/590.html

http://slate.msn.com/id/2091197

http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=16186


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