Journal of Historical Review

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History

The journal was founded in 1978 by the far-right political activist Willis Carto, [1] derived from Carto's The American Mercury . [2] Its first issue appeared in 1980. [3]

Its first editor was David McCalden, who then left the periodical in 1981 after a dispute with Carto. [3] He was replaced by Tom Marcellus, [3] who was replaced in February 1983 with Keith Stimely, until Stimely quit the IHR in February 1985. [4] [5] The impetus for this was his claim that Carto had, without consulting him, removed part of an article by Robert Faurisson that was critical of David Irving (both Holocaust deniers) from the Journal. [6] In 1985, Mark Weber joined the institute's editorial advisory committee and was made editor of the journal in 1992. He was the editor from then until the journal's end. [7]

Publication was suspended for a time due to the Mel Mermelstein case, which caused the IHR great financial difficulties. It was revived in 1988, with a magazine rather than academic style. This was accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign, which increased the periodical's circulation to 7,000 from 4,500. [8] Its circulation was at 6,000 in 1993, but this fell to 3,000 by the time of the paper's end [9]

In the 1980s, the IHR's members (principally Marcellus and Weber), seeing the IHR as a serious group, became increasingly embarrassed by how outspoken Carto was in his antisemitism; they also came into conflict over Carto's usage of funds (alleging he had stole several million dollars from them). in 1993, they wrote a document, published in the Journal, rebuking him and calling him a liability that had contributed little to the IHR. They voted to oust him and filed a lawsuit against Carto. [10] [11]

The journal commenced publication in the spring of 1980 as a quarterly periodical. No issues were published between April 1996 and May 1997. [12] It continued until 2002, when it became defunct due to financial problems. [13] After publication of the journal ceased, the IHR publishes its Bulletin only in an online format, [14] although back issues are still made available on the Institute website. [15]

Contents

Its subject was primarily Holocaust denial, [16] [17] [18] though other topics were discussed, if only at times to fill space. In terms of topics covered it was heavily European in orientation, though a majority of its contributors were Americans. [19] The journal published original content but also sometimes reprinted articles from deceased authors to fill space. [19] In an analysis of its contents, historian Stephen E. Atkins found that 34.4% of articles were on exclusively Holocaust denial articles, while "revisionist" history of all kinds (including on the Holocaust) was 41.5% of its coverage, and 13% was on topics unrelated to Holocaust denial. [19] Its contents were initially academic in style, [2] but following the 1988 revival were changed to a magazine format with photographs and colors. [8]

Writer Spencer Sunshine described it as the "premier Holocaust denial publication in the United States". [4] The journal became a platform for Holocaust deniers around the world, [19] with the editorial board including, among others, Germans Udo Walendy, Wilhelm Stäglich, and Georg Franz-Willing); French Robert Faurisson and Henri Roques; Argentinian W. Beweraggi-Allende, Australian John Tuson Bennett; Spanish Enrique Aynat); Italian Carlo Mattogno; and American M. A. R. Barker. [14] [20]

Editors

Reception

The Journal's critics have included the Anti-Defamation League, the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and scholars including Robert Hanyok, a National Security Agency historian, [21] and many others who have described the journal as pseudo-scientific. [22] Scholar of the radical right Jeffrey Kaplan called it a "serious-looking, pseudo-academic journal". [23] Historian Stephen E. Atkins wrote that the contents of the journal were "cleverly intertwined between Holocaust denial and what might be considered as historical revisionism". [3]

Jonathan Petropoulos wrote in The History Teacher that the "[journal] is shockingly racist and antisemitic: articles on 'America's Failed Racial Policy' and anti-Israel pieces accompany those about gas chambers... They clearly have no business claiming to be a continuation of the revisionist tradition, and should be referred to as 'Holocaust Deniers'." [24]

Russian historians Igor Ryzhov and Maria Borodina commented that the fact that the Institute for Historical Review published its own historical journal "helped not only to unite the deniers into a single movement, but also to give their activities a form of pseudo-scientificness." [18] The Organization of American Historians commissioned a study of the journal in which a panel had found that it was "nothing but a masquerade of scholarship". [25]

References

  1. ↑ Macklin, Graham (2012). "Transatlantic Connections and Conspiracies: A.K. Chesterton and "The New Unhappy Lords"". Journal of Contemporary History. 47 (2): 285. doi:10.1177/0022009411431723. ISSN   0022-0094. JSTOR   23249187.
  2. 1 2 Michael 2008, p. 128.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Atkins 2009, p. 167.
  4. 1 2 3 Sunshine 2024, p. 406.
  5. 1 2 Coogan 1999, p. 525.
  6. ↑ Coogan 1999, pp. 525–526.
  7. ↑ Atkins 2009, pp. 168, 170.
  8. 1 2 Michael 2008, p. 201.
  9. ↑ Michael 2008, p. 205.
  10. ↑ Kaplan 2000, pp. 44–45.
  11. ↑ Michael 2008, p. 198–200.
  12. ↑ "Institute for Historical Review". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  13. ↑ Atkins 2009, pp. 114, 160, 168.
  14. 1 2 "The Institute for Historical Review". Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum . Retrieved 2020-08-30.
  15. ↑ "Journal of Historical Review by Volume". IHR. Institute for Historical Review. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  16. ↑ Blee, Kathleen M. (2003). Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement. University of California Press. p. 92. ISBN   0-520-24055-3. In recent years, Holocaust denial has become a propaganda mainstay of organized racism. It is promulgated by racist groups and by organizations like the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which publishes the scientific-looking Journal of Historical Review.
  17. ↑ Morris, Lydia (2006). Rights: Sociological Perspectives. Routledge. p. 238, note 1. ISBN   0-415-35522-2. The pseudo-scholarly guise of Holocaust deniers is epitomised by the Institute for Historical Review—established in the United States in the late 1970s—and its journal, the Journal of Historical Review, which have provided the core of the more contemporary Holocaust denial movement (Stern 1995).
  18. 1 2 Borodina, Maria Yurievna; Ryzhov, Igor Valerievich (2015). "Проблема отрицания Холокоста: история, особенности и современные тенденции" [The Holocaust denial problem: history, features and contemporary trends](PDF). Bulletin of the N. I. Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (in Russian) (3). Nizhny Novgorod: N. I. Lobachevsky University: 98. ISSN   1993-1778 . Retrieved 28 June 2023. The publication by the Institute for the Revision of History of its own historical journal, the Journal of Historical Review, helped not only to unite the deniers into a single movement, but also to give their activities a pseudo-scientific form.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Atkins 2009, p. 168.
  20. ↑ "Editorial Advisory Committee". The Journal of Historical Review . September 2, 2017. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  21. ↑ Hanyok, Robert J. (2005). Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945 (PDF) (Second ed.). National Security Agency . Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  22. ↑ Berlet, Chip; Lyons, Matthew Nemiroff (2000). Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort . Guilford Press. p.  189. ISBN   1-57230-562-2.
  23. ↑ Kaplan 2000, p. 44.
  24. ↑ Petropoulos, Jonathan (1995). "Confronting the "Holocaust as Hoax" Phenomenon as Teachers" . The History Teacher . 28 (4): 523–539. doi:10.2307/494640. JSTOR   494640.
  25. ↑ "Extremism in America: Institute for Historical Review". Anti-Defamation League . 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-12-02. Retrieved May 9, 2007.

Works cited

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