Get up to speed here. The Daily Princetonian has more reporting. Kruse has not interacted with his more than 500,000 Twitter followers since the story broke on June 14, 2022.
Here are some highlights from the piece by Amy Ciceu and Annie Rupertus:
Professor of History Kevin M. Kruse was accused of several instances of plagiarism by conservative historian Phillip Magness in an article published in “Reason” in June.
In the article, Magness alleged that Kruse plagiarized sections of his 2000 doctoral dissertation at Cornell University as well as sections of his 2015 book, “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America.” Magness claims that Kruse plagiarizes Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Ronald H. Bayor’s book “Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta.”
Kruse expressed “surprise” at the allegations and attributed the lack of citations in one instance to an inadvertent oversight.
“While I indicated my intellectual debts to Prof. Bayor elsewhere in the text, endnotes and bibliography of the dissertation, I was surprised to see that there was an instance in the introduction in which I failed to do so properly,” Kruse wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian.
Bayor himself expressed skepticism around the allegations in an email to the ‘Prince,’ attributing Kruse’s alleged missteps to “sloppy notetaking” and suggesting that the recently surfaced allegations are politically motivated.
On the Princeton investigation into Phillip Magness’s claims of plagiarism:
When asked by the ‘Prince’ whether the University is investigating the plagiarism allegations against Kruse, University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss said in an email that administrators are currently “reviewing” the claims.
“The University is committed to the highest ethical and scholarly standards, and thus takes allegations of research misconduct very seriously. We are carefully reviewing the concerns that have been shared with the University, and will handle them in accordance with University policy,” Hotchkiss wrote.
More on Ronald Bayor‘s response:
In response to allegations that Kruse plagiarized from his book, Bayor questioned whether such claims even merited discussion.
“It looks to me like very sloppy notetaking which can be fixed with an endnote. I did not see the dissertation but did read his book on [the] Atlanta suburbs and found it to be a sound and important history,” Bayor wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’
He argued that Magness’s allegations are made in bad faith.
“I don’t approve of politically motivated attacks on good scholarship whether it comes from the right or left, and I believe this scrutiny of Kruse’s work is just that. There is not a story here,” Bayor added.
Magness and Kruse maintain a history of fraught academic exchanges. In the past, Magness has leveled criticisms at Kruse’s work, including against his book “White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism,” as well as with respect to his contributions to The New York Times’ 1619 project, an ambitious journalistic endeavor exploring the roots of American history through centering the implications of slavery and the efforts of Black Americans.
Kruse also said he has had the opportunity to discuss the unattributed passages with Bayor himself.
“I’ve had a chance to speak with Prof. Bayor about it, and I’m glad to have such a generous and supportive intellectual mentor,” he added.
A response from Princeton historian (and Kruse colleague) David Bell:
Princeton history professor David Bell, who serves as a committee member at the Center for Collaborative History alongside Kruse, offered his own perspective on the matter. He argued that the severity of plagiarism offenses exists along a continuum, and that Magness’s charges of plagiarism fall short of considering these nuances. Bell noted that his opinion does not represent the views of the history department, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center, or the University.
“While plagiarism is always wrong, there are, obviously, many different degrees of plagiarism. There is a huge difference, for instance, between passing off someone else’s entire article as one’s own, and copying a few sentences,” wrote Bell in an email to the ‘Prince.’
“In the latter case, it matters whether the sentences in question are crucial to the work or not—whether or not they represent a theft of key ideas or evidence. What Magness uncovered was the copying of a few pieces of felicitous, but essentially incidental prose. Magness is wrong to charge Kruse with plagiarizing a “key passage” of his dissertation. This should be kept in mind when asking what consequences Kruse should face,” he wrote.
Read the entire piece here.
I have a fanatical dislike of plagiarism – I actually got a PhD degree rescinded once because I discovered it. And I have no idea about the political overtones in this case – I remember reading that the author is an outspoken voice but I can’t remember if on the left or the right. My point is that this struck even me, fanatic on this issue that I am, as a nothing-burger. As far as I can tell, he is not being accused of stealing someone else’s research or ideas, just for lazily (and quite wrongly for sure) using some of their descriptive language. There are degrees, as people in this article rightly say. Who was the Lincoln biographer accused of plagiarism who replied along the lines of: “There are only so many ways to say that Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield”?
I agree, Timothy. Sloppy, yes. Plagiarism, no.
Magness says he has other material, too. I figured that since you were in political agreement with Kruse that you would in the end excuse it. However, I doubt seriously that Current would give the same support to someone whose politics you don’t like even if the situation were exactly the same.
You progressives are willing to cover each other’s backs even if it means lying.
By the way, here is a new bill in California that almost certainly will pass. The Messian and Covenant faculties will ignore it and its implications because, after all, the only threat comes from those evil fundamentalists.
https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/the-dangerous-overreach-of-californias