Historian McCullough, others criticized for mistakes

Times are strange for history writers. Stephen Ambrose is accused of stealing material. Doris Kearns Goodwin admits she copied language from other texts. David McCullough acknowledges he misquoted Thomas Jefferson. Joseph Ellis confesses he lied about his own past.

"I can't remember so many controversies happening at once," says Ashbel Green, a longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf who has worked with Ellis and other historians.

From Ellis' "Founding Brothers" to McCullough's "John Adams" to Ambrose's "The Wild Blue," historians have enjoyed great success over the past year, proving that a large readership exists for lively nonfiction narratives. Even during a weak economy, McCullough has sold more than a million copies of a $35 book about a president voted out after one term.

But success is also the common theme of the recent negative attention. While the examples range from the isolated carelessness of McCullough to Ellis' personal dishonesty, they all involve best-selling historians.

"This saddens me because I've always been an advocate of historians trying to reach a public audience, and I would hope the next generation of historians will not be dissuaded," says Arnita Jones, executive director of the American Historical Association.

"I think there are a lot of popular writers — Garry Wills, Taylor Branch — you don't hear these complaints about," says Eric Foner, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of the acclaimed "Reconstruction."

"I hope and expect Ellis and Goodwin and the others to continue writing books, but I think they have a responsibility to make it clear that they realize they've made mistakes."

Ellis' downfall began with an interview he gave in 2000 to The Boston Globe. The historian claimed that he had gone to Vietnam as a platoon leader and paratrooper and served on the staff of Gen. William C. Westmoreland.

In June 2001, after reviewing public records and interviewing some of Ellis' friends and colleagues, the Globe contradicted his assertions. The author, a professor at Mount Holyoke College who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for "Founding Brothers," said he had lied and was suspended for a year without a pay.

A month later, McCullough was criticized in Harper's Magazine for writing in "John Adams" that Thomas Jefferson had called the second president a "colossus of independence."

The only problem: Jefferson never said it. McCullough admitted he had erred.

"It's hard work; you're trying to get the truth about distant times," he told The Associated Press this week. "When you make the mistakes, it's very painful, but you will make mistakes. We're imperfect, in an imperfect world."

Green and others say there's virtually no such thing as a flawless history book. McCullough notes he's seen errors made by some of the writers he admires most.

"I go back to (Francis) Parkman and Samuel Eliot Morrison, and I see mistakes in those books," he says. "But so what• That shouldn't make us throw our hands up in disgust and disapproval. Look at what they did! Look at what they wrote! Where would we be without them?"

The allegations against Ambrose and Goodwin are more serious and more infrequent; the American Historical Association has given full review to just 14 plagiarism cases since 1993. "The profession polices itself," Foner says. "We're all interested readers."

Goodwin acknowledged recently that "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," released in 1987, contained sentences that closely resembled prose from three other books. She settled privately with one of the authors soon after publication.

At least five books by Ambrose, a retired history professor, have been cited for material lifted from other sources. The historian has both apologized and defended himself, saying he footnoted the passages in question, a policy most of his peers consider inadequate.

Fame at first protected Ambrose. Thomas Childers, a University of Pennsylvania professor who thought Ambrose's "The Wild Blue" lifted passages from Childers' "Wings of Morning," was at first hesitant to take on someone so well known.

But once his suspicions were confirmed earlier this month, Childers spoke up. He said he was "surprised and disappointed," condemned Ambrose for his "chutzpah" and dropped the historian's "Band of Brothers" from his class syllabus.

Meanwhile, sales jumped for "Wings of Morning."

Young Artists concerts

Winners of the Pittsburgh Concert Society's Young Artists Competition will perform at concerts Sunday and Feb. 17 at Duquesne University, Uptown.

Besides the performances, each winner will receive a $500 Anna and Benjamin Perlow Scholarship to help with their music education.

Winners performing Sunday will be pianist Christine Ho from North Allegheny High School in McCandless; baritone Thomas Octave from Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland; violinist Rachel Smoliar from Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill; harpist Arielle, who is home-schooled in Mt. Lebanon; and pianist Samuel Jihan-Hua-Yam from North Allegheny.

Performing Feb. 17 will be pianist Jessica McGillen from Mt. Lebanon High School; violinist Ross Snyder from North Allegheny; baritone Liam J. Bonner from Carnegie Mellon; and pianist Kimberly Kong from North Allegheny; along with a string quartet made up of violinists Smoliar and Sarah Silver from Mt. Lebanon; Brandon Gillis from North Allegheny; and Evan Mallory from Sewickley Academy.

The concerts will begin at 2 p.m. in the PNC Bank Recital Hall. Admission is $8; free for students.

Details: (412) 279-2970.

"Pursuit" author to visit

If, by chance, you prefer the suspense that comes via a good book rather zone blitzes and bone-crunching tackles, Mystery Lovers Bookshop offers an alternative to that little get-together scheduled for Heinz Field on Sunday. Mystery writer Thomas Perry will visit the Oakmont bookstore at 2 p.m. to discuss his latest novel, "Pursuit."

The author of 11 books, Perry, who is best known for his Jane Whitefield mystery series and the Edgar Award-winning "The Butcher's Boy." "Pursuit" (Random House, $25.95) presents a new character, Roy Prescott, a quasi-bounty hunter who works outside the law, pursuing a professional assassin.

Perry's appearance is free. Mystery Writer's Bookshop is at 514 Allegheny River Blvd.

Details: (412) 828-4877.

Marketing for arts groups

Two area arts groups are among 36 from across the country to be invited to a marketing workshop in March and April in Chicago.

The Bach Choir of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre will send representatives to the National Arts Marketing Project training program sponsored by the American Express Co.

Artistic director Brady Allred and general manager Ellen Sheppard will represent the Bach Choir, while artistic director Andrew S. Paul and development and marketing director Maureen McGranaghan will attend for the Irish group.

The training program is an effort to train mid-sized, nonprofit arts groups in marketing techniques. American Express committed $1.5 million to the project in 1999 and then added $1.5 million in 2001.

The two four-day sessions will show managers how to design marketing to bring new audiences to their events. Between the workshops on March 6 through 10 and April 10 through 14, the groups will put together outlines for their marketing plans.

CD release party

With the charts dominated by bland vocal groups, rap pretenders and contenders, and faceless alternative bands, the rock power trio is contemporary music's orphan child.

But once in awhile, a new band comes along to make you forget the excesses of the guitar-bass-drums groups such as Grand Funk Railroad and Z.Z. Top.

Meet Greensburg's Crushing Ground. Guitarist Rob Roush , bassist Chris Szekely and drummer Darrin Rathgeb take rock's basic format and update it for the new millennium. With nods to bands such as Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains, Crushing Ground covers, well, a lot of ground for a trio.

It helps that Roush and Szekely are better than average vocalists, but what sets the band apart is their songwriting. “Zero,” the new Crushing Ground CD, proves these guys are more than just a cover band, with “Silhouette” and “On the Other Hand” radio-worthy tunes.

The CD release for “Zero” is 10 p.m. tonight at Scooby's, Route 119, in Greensburg. Showtime is 10 p.m. Details: 724-834-9399.

Show canceled

The Air Force Tops in Blue, music, dance, and comedy show scheduled at 7:30 tonight at Soldiers and Sailors Hall, Pittsburgh, has been canceled due to European commitments that were unfulfilled due to the events of Sept. 11. Details: (412) 474-8501.

Spring programs

Hempfield Parks and Recreation has vacancies for these spring programs: