Harvard Plagiarism Archive: Important book on plagiarism by Professor Hoffer

Harvard Plagiarism Archive

"[T]he problem of writers . . . passing off the work of others as their own . . . [is] a phenomenon of some significance."
PROFESSOR LAURENCE TRIBE, e-mail to Dean Lawrence Velvel, 9/13/2004

"'I . . . delegated too much responsibility to others . . .,' [Prof. Charles Ogletree] said. 'I was negligent
in not overseeing more carefully the final product that carries my name.' * * * Ogletree told The Crimson that
he had not read the passage of Balkin’s book that appears in his own work. An assistant inserted the material
into a manuscript . . . . But Ogletree said he was closely involved in most of the drafting of the book . . . ."
STEVEN MARKS, "Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text," The Harvard Crimson, 9/13/2004

"'Ronald Klain . . . then only a first-year student at Harvard law . . . spent most of his time with
Tribe working on Tribe's [1985] book God Save This Honorable Court,'" the Legal Times added in 1993.
* * * 'Many of Klain's friends and former colleagues say that he wrote large sections of the book . . . .'"
JOSEPH BOTTUM, "The Big Mahatma," The Weekly Standard, 10/4/2004

"[A]fter several plagiarism scandals broke over distinguished faculty members at Harvard's law school, including
Laurence Tribe,a group of students there set up a blog, Harvard Plagiarism Archive, to follow the University's
handling of the problem. They believe that the University, President Summers, and Dean Elena Kagan
essentially white-washed the scandal and are demanding further action.
PROF. RALPH LUKER, History News Network's "Cliopatria" blog,4/26/2005

“The Tribe and Ogletree matters have catalyzed bitter complaints from Harvard students that the university
employs a double standard. . . . The students have every right to be incensed over this gross double standard.
They in fact ought to raise hell peacefully about it: a constant barrage of letters, emails, statements . . . .”
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, "Velvel on National Affairs" blog, 4/28/2005

"If you want to keep track of this story, I recommend the new Harvard Plagiarism Archive. . . . [I]t's pretty thorough."
TIMOTHY NOAH, Slate's "Chatterbox" blog,9/28/2004

"[Y]ou have done a wonderful service to all by operating the AuthorSkeptics website . . . a fine public service."
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, author of "Velvel on National Affairs," e-mail to AuthorSkeptics, 4/19/2005

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Important book on plagiarism by Professor Hoffer

There is an important new book on plagiarism which has recently been published by a prominent historian, Peter Charles Hoffer, a history professor at the University of Georgia, which examines recent plagiarism scandals involving historians, including that involving Doris Kearns Goodwin, chronicled on this blog.

The book is called Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Frauds -- American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellisles, Ellis, and Goodwin. We will try to post further on this after we have a chance to read the book.

In the meantime, for websites selling the book, see here and here.

For some background on Professor Hoffer from his university website, see here and here (PDF file of C.V. ).

The most important review of the book to date appears to be the one published in the Washington Post, here.

An earlier review in the Boston Globe can be found here. For other coverage to date, see here, here, and here.

Update (2/3)

For more book reviews, or other treatments of plagiarism issues prominently mentioning the book, see:

Two important items in Slate, by Timothy Noah here, and by David Greenberg here.

Three important items from the History News Network, here, here, and here.

And various other items of possible interest here, here, here, here, and here.

Of special possible interest to readers in New York, Professor Hoffer is scheduled to speak about his book at an event to be held on June 22 at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan. See here.

Harvard Plagiarism Archive