[Ads-l] "No Irish need apply"

[Dave Wilton]

These are not esoteric, arcane topics: ethnic and race relations/history in the US, the Holocaust. People are rightly interested in them.

If you're writing a commercial book, the hope is that "shocking discovery" will generate sales. There is also money to be made on the speaking circuit, via the web, and other channels if you can establish a name for yourself in that niche. If you hit a sweet spot, you can make a tidy living, not Trump money, to be sure, but a living. No guarantee of course. There are lots of people who successfully do this in all sorts of subject niches, many who produce quality work, some who don't.

For academics, the allure is a new discovery, upsetting the paradigm, tenure. 

Carving a name out for oneself and cashing in on the fame isn't necessarily a bad thing. Pretty much anyone who writes a nonfiction book is trying to do the same thing. The problem is when the dream clouds reality and you end up ignoring the evidence.




-----Original Message-----


On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 9:20 AM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:

Wikipedia's article on Richard J. Jensen (the self-described Ph.D. professor) has a section titled "The Debunking of Jensen's article: No Irish Need Apply: A Myth of Victimization, 2002/03".

What motivates the writing of papers and even books purporting to "debunk" history, I wonder? And why do other people care? Ten or fifteen years ago, someone wrote a book "demonstrating" that, IIRC, there were no Nazi gas-chambers and/or crematoria, claiming that the buildings were, in fact, otherly-purposed. This novel didn't enjoy much circulation at Harvard, but it was one of the books borrowed most often through the Harvard College Library Inter-Library Loan.
"Otherly-purposed" is a jocular nonce-formation that I've invented, just this moment. Let's see what Google says.
Four hits, the oldest dating from 2010. *Still* behind the curve.
Youneverknow.

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