Last Sunday the NY Times Book Review section featured Frank Rich’s
glowing review of Rick Perlstein’s “The Invisible Bridge” on the front
page, a sure sign that you have made it. The bridge in the title is a
reference to the period between 1973 and 1976, when the Republican Party
was transitioning from Gerald Ford (who was far to the left of Barack
Obama) to Ronald Reagan.
Now only two days later Perlstein is embroiled in a plagiarism
controversy that pits him against Craig Shirley, the author of the 2004
“The Reagan Revolution”. Once again, from the NY Times:
In two letters to Mr. Perlstein’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, Mr.
Shirley’s lawyer, Chris Ashby, cited 19 instances of duplicated language
and inadequate attribution, and demanded $25 million in damages, a
public apology, revised digital editions and the destruction of all
physical copies of the book. Mr. Shirley said he has since tallied close
to 50 instances where his work was used without credit.
The basic line of defense by Simon and Shuster, Perlstein’s publisher,
is that he only paraphrased Shirley; moreover, he cited Shirley 125
times in the books’ endnotes that departing from tradition appears only
on Perlstein’s website and not in print. This observation from Frank
Rich might indicate the source of Perlstein’s problems: “Perlstein is an
obsessive researcher who often relies (and fully credits) the writers
who did the investigative spade work before him. He doesn’t break news.”
full:
http://louisproyect.org/2014/08/05/rick-perlstein-accused-of-plagiarism/
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