Michael A. Bellesiles (pronounced "bah-LEEL")[1] is a US academic of American colonial and legal history, former Emory University professor, and author of books including Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture (2000).

Education and academic career edit

  • B.A., UC Santa Cruz 1975
  • PhD, UC Irvine 1986
  • joined Emory University faculty 1988
    • director of undergraduate studies in history, 1991–1998
    • full professorship 1999.
    • also director of Emory's Center for the Study of Violence.
  • additional teaching at UCLA
  • Senior Fellow, Stanford Humanities Institute 1998-99
  • Visiting Fellow, Newberry Library in Chicago 2001-02

2010 onwards edit

In 2010, Bellesiles published an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education recounting his interactions with a student whose brother had been killed by a sniper in Iraq.[2] After the story was questioned by readers, including law professor James Lindgren,[3][4] the newspaper's investigation found the student had lied to Bellesiles and his teaching assistant.[5]

In 2011, Bellesiles was teaching at Central Connecticut State University.[6] In 2010 his book 1877: America's Year of Living Violently was published by The New Press.[7] A review in the Journal of American History called the "old-fashioned narrative tone" of 1877 "so delightfully retro that it is almost cutting edge."[8]

Writings by Bellesiles edit

  • Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier (1993)
  • "The Origins of A Gun Culture in the United States, 1760-1865," Journal of American History 425 (1996).
  • Editor, Lethal Imagination: Violence and Brutality in American History (1999)
  • "Exploding the Myth of an Armed America", Chronicle of Higher Education (Sept. 29, 2000)
  • "The Second Amendment in Action," in Carl T. Bogus and Michael A. Bellesiles (editors), The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms, The New Press (2001), ISBN 978-1-56584-699-9.
  • Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000; 2d ed., Soft Skull Press, 2003.
  • Editor, Documenting American Violence: A Sourcebook (2006), with Christopher Waldrep
  • "The Year 1877 Looks Awfully Familiar Today," History News Network (May 17, 2010)
  • "Teaching Military History in a Time of War," The Chronicle of Higher Education (June 27, 2010)
  • Bellesiles, Michael A. (2010). 1877: America's Year of Living Violently. New York: The New Press. p. 400. ISBN 978-1-59558-441-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

References edit

  1. ^ "How the Bellesiles Story Developed". Hnn.us. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  2. ^ Basken, Paul (2010-06-27). "''The Chronicle of Higher Education''". Chronicle.com. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  3. ^ Cohen, Patricia (August 3, 2010). "Scholar Emerges From Doghouse". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Jim Lindgren, "Serious Questions about the veracity of Michael Bellesiles's Latest Tale", The Volokh Conspiracy, 9 July 2010
  5. ^ Editorial endnote to Bellesiles article, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2010. Bellesiles said he regretted having unknowingly passed on a story that was inaccurate.
  6. ^ New Press blurb
  7. ^ History News Network news item, 2010.
  8. ^ Robert E. Weir review of 1877 in the Journal of American History 98, no. 1 (June 2011), 210-11.

Further reading edit


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