Nov. 15, 2006

Plagiarism Charge

The University of Tennessee Press has suspended all sales and recalled all stock of Captain Henry Wirz and Andersonville Prison: A Reappraisal, which was published this fall, after the author acknowledged “grave oversights” in crediting another author for material.

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The press would not answer questions directly about the matter, but issued a statement indicating that it was informed this month by William Marvel, an independent historian based in New Hampshire, that he believed Ruhlman’s book contained material from Marvel’s award-winning 1994 book, Andersonville: The Last Depot, published by the University of North Carolina Press.

That book argues that the thousands of deaths of Union soldiers in the notorious Confederate prison were not solely the fault of those who ran the prison. Marvel’s book says that disease, food shortages and the Union’s decision to stop prisoner exchanges were also to blame. The Tennessee press has removed information about Ruhlman’s book from its Web site, but scattered online references suggest that it too was a revisionist look at the prison and Wirz, who ran it and who was executed after the Civil War.

Marvel discovered the similarities when he was asked to review Ruhlman’s book for The Georgia Historical Quarterly.

The statement from the Tennessee press said that as soon as it was informed of the allegations, it suspended sales of the book. Following a preliminary investigation, it has also recalled the book, and additional steps may be announced after a more complete inquiry.

In an interview Tuesday, Ruhlman said that he worked on the book for six years and that “it has become quite evident that I still have learning to do about producing a scholarly work.”

He characterized the overlap with Marvel’s book as being in 8 to 10 paragraphs in which he had engaged in “very close paraphrasing” without necessary attribution. Ruhlman said he had engaged in “some soul-searching” to try to figure out what happened, and that he’s not sure.

Any similarities with Marvel’s wording was “unintentional,” Ruhlman said. He added that he agrees with his publishers that — in light of the similarities between his book and Marvel’s — his “does not meet the standard” to be published.

Ruhlman said he first worked on Andersonville for his dissertation at the American University of London, a distance learning institution that he said awarded him a Ph.D. based on the dissertation, without any course work. The university is incorporated in Nevis, and did not respond to calls or e-mail messages.

In an interview, Marvel said that he hadn’t heard of Ruhlman’s book until he was asked to review it. After he found numerous similarities — he said that they are “more extensive” than Ruhlman suggested — he called back the editors at The Georgia Historical Quarterly and said he didn’t feel he could be objective in his review. Eventually, he was persuaded to write the review (which focuses on the similarities) and to tell the Tennessee press about his concerns.

Marvel said that the press has handled the situation “responsibly” and that he has been told that unsold copies of the Ruhlman book may end up being destroyed.

As for Ruhlman, Marvel said that he appreciated the acknowledgement that some of his work was used without credit. But Marvel added that he believed it was too much to be a simple error. “I find it very hard to believe,” he said. “I don’t know how you could insert that much text and not have done it intentionally.”

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

What?

I am sorry, but no one with a PhD should be saying “I still have learning to do about producing a scholarly work.” Furthermore, who is responsible for editing this work that it could have this much in common with an award-winning book on the same topic?

Andrew Purvis, at 7:00 am EST on November 15, 2006

Hiring

I’d be fascinated to know why the University of Tennessee Chattanooga hired someone with a degree from a nontraditional program like that when the humanities markets are so glutted right now, even for adjuncts.

Chattanooga is a reasonably large community with lots of compelling history, so there certainly wouldn’t be a shortage of better-qualified people there.

James, at 7:50 am EST on November 15, 2006

What does the little editorial “but scattered online references suggest that it too was a revisionist look at the prison and Wirz, who ran it and who was executed after the Civil War” have to do with the article?

Seems like an attempt to slander both authors work.

Mike, at 8:50 am EST on November 15, 2006

Both the UT Press and their outside readers bear responsibility for this fiasco. The Press because it didn’t take extra caution with an author who had a Ph.D. from what was effectively a degree mill, and the readers because they didn’t know enough about Andersonville to have read Marvel’s earlier book.

In passing, is the thesis of either of these books “revisionist"?

Anson, at 2:55 pm EST on November 15, 2006

Clarification for Mike

“Revisionist” is not a negative term. The standard history casts Wirz as the great criminal of Andersonville, and perhaps the war. In this instance, “scattered online references” appear to be all that IHE can collect, given that the book has been pulled from sales.

Slander? No. Nor was it libel.

Andrew Purvis, at 6:10 pm EST on November 15, 2006

Responsibility of outside readers

Of Anson’s comment that outside readers bear responsibility because they didn’t know enough about Andersonville to have read Marvel’s earlier book, one notes a related issue with the book by Tom Carhart, Lost Triumph: Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg—and Why it Failed (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2005), which portrays as novel a theory that Lee had a coordinated plan at Gettysburg including both Longstreet (Pickett) and Stuart, when in fact this theory had been presented many times previously, including in 2002 by Paul D. Walker in The Cavalry Battle that Saved the Union: Custer vs. Stuart at Gettysburg. Sometimes “revisionists” are not profoundly new in their thinking, but readers are not supremely aware of prior work.

Separately, if Ruhlman incorporated work by Marvel in his dissertation, without proper attribution, one might have another issue, similar to the one now facing Ohio University.

Further discussion is available athttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/11...rism-charges-against-professors.html

Lawrence B. Ebert, at 9:10 am EST on November 17, 2006

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Plagiarism Charge

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Comments

What?

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