A01=Ron Robin
academic culture
academic deviants
academic scandals
anthropology
Author_Ron Robin
Category=JN
Category=JNM
cyberdebates
debunked research
derek freeman
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
historical cases
historical events
human condition
infamy
joseph ellis
mass mediation
media events
michael bellesiles
napoleon chagnon
plagiarism cases
politics of scandal
public discourse
retrospective
rigoberta menchu
rule making process
scandalous events
scientific academy
sensationalism
stephen ambrose
Product details
- ISBN 9780520242494
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 11 Oct 2004
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Ron Robin takes an intriguing look at the shifting nature of academic and public discourse in this incisive consideration of recent academic scandals - including charges of plagiarism against Stephen Ambrose, Derek Freeman's attempt to debunk Margaret Mead's research, Michael Bellesiles' alleged fabrication of an early America without weapons, Joseph Ellis' imaginary participation in major historical events of the 1960s, Napoleon Chagnon's creation and manipulation of a 'Stone Age people', and accusations that Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu's testimony on the Maya holocaust was in part fiction. "Scandals and Scoundrels" makes the case that, contrary to popular imagery, we're not living in particularly deviant times and there is no fundamental flaw permeating a decadent academy. Instead, Robin argues, latter-day scandals are media events, tailored for the melodramatic and sensationalist formats of mass mediation. In addition, the contentious and uninhibited nature of cyberdebates fosters acrimonious exposure.
Ron convincingly demonstrates that scandals are part of a necessary process of rule making and reinvention rather than a symptom of the bankruptcy of the scientific enterprise.
Ron Robin is Professor of History and Communication Studies and Dean of Students at the University of Haifa. He is the author of The Making of the Cold War Enemy: Culture and Politics in the Military Intellectual Complex (2001), The Barbed Wire College: Reeducating German POWs in the United States during World War II (1995), and Enclaves of America: The Rhetoric of American Political Architecture Abroad, 1900--1965 (1992).
