Carnivalesque XXXV, an ancient/medieval edition of the festival, is up at Atol · is · Þin · Unseon! JK at Varnam has posted Indian History Carnival #1. If you are interested in Indian history blogging, contact JK: jk*at*varnam*dot*org.

Stanley Katz urges the AHA's professional division to revisit its policy of ignoring cases of plagiarism among professional historians. Peter Charles Hoffer and I are two historians who agree with Katz. If fear of litigation is the issue, Hoffer has argued that the AHA could indemnify itself easily enough.

Nathan Glazer,"A Word from our Sponsor," NYT, 20 January, reviews Hugh Wilford's The Mighty Worlitzer: How the CIA Played America.

Finally, Jillian at Sadly, No, 21 January, seeks your help for her project, a book entitled: Conservative Communism: The Collectivist Temptation from Mao Zedong to the Hoover Institute. In the unlikely event that you don't know what that's about, Withywindle, whose conservative bona fides are pretty good, has been reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning and concedes that it isn't. Withywindle's full review of Goldberg's book is here.

Ralph E. Luker - 1/23/2008

Tim, Unlike the American Bar Association or the American Medical Association, membership in the American Historical Association isn't obligatory for practice. That gives the AHA a weaker hand in policing the profession. Until four or five years ago, the AHA did conduct inquiries into charges of plagiarism. One high profile case proved to be highly contentious, very time consuming and fairly expensive. For what? the AHA's leadership asked. Since the accused was not an AHA member, it was hard to show that the time and money expended in highly contested inquiry that could only yield a toothless consequence was worth the trouble.

Tim Lacy - 1/23/2008

Couldn't the AHA provide a waiver when signing up or renewing that, should the need arise, the member would be willing to allow the AHA the unqualified right to review all members work? Why hasn't this been done before? Is it because the AHA is too clubby as opposed to a more union-like, firm-handed organization? - TL