Harry Elmer Barnes

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For other persons named Harry Barnes, see Harry Barnes (disambiguation).

Harry Elmer Barnes (June 15, 1889 – August 25, 1968) was a prominent American historian in the 20th century. Associated for virtually his entire career with Columbia University, Barnes is considered to have been a pioneer of historical revisionism, meaning the use of historical scholarship to challenge and refute the narratives of history promulgated by the state and the elite, most often in opposition to Whig history or as Barnes himself termed it, "court history".

Front cover of Harry Elmer Barnes, Learned Crusader, by Arthur Goddard (ed.)

In 1925 He edited A Manual of Universal History, a revision of William H. Tillinghast's A Handbook of Universal History. This work's organizational structure, was the outline used in William L. Langer's An Encyclopedia of World History.

Long regarded as a leader of the progressive intelligentsia, Barnes joined many of its intellectual leaders such as Charles Beard in opposing from the left the New Deal and, at the price of their reputations, American entry into World War II. In the years following the war, he argued that Hitler did not want to go to war and that Roosevelt had deliberately provoked Pearl Harbor. He also questioned many aspects of the Holocaust, but did not attempt to deny or defend it, arguing that all sides were guilty of equally awful atrocities. His work has had a profound influence on the "Wisconsin school" of New Left historians such as William Appleman Williams, Gabriel Kolko, and James Weinstein, as well as on the historical writings of libertarian icon Murray Rothbard.

Authors such as Deborah Lipstadt have argued that Barnes was a key figure in pioneering modern conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial, and have noted Barnes's close association with David L. Hoggan and his praise for Hoggan's 1961 book Der Erzwungene Krieg as the definitive account of how World War II began. However, supporters of Barnes contend Lipstadt's methods to be heavy handed and the charge of holocaust denial to be a red herring, namely as a means of smearing any historian who takes a critical look at American involvement in World War II or any other war.[1] Further, self-styled "revisionists" such as David Irving have attempted to claim Barnes for their pro-Nazi historiography, but have been generally unsuccessful.

[edit] Work

The Social History of the Western World, an Outline Syllabus, New York, D. Appleton, 1921.
Sociology and Political Theory, a consideration of the sociological basis of politics, New York, Knopf, 1925, 1924.
Co-written with Karl Worth Bigelow, and Jean Brunhes The History and Prospects of the Social Sciences, New York, A. A. Knopf, 1925
The New History and the Social Studies, New York, The Century co., 1925
Ploetz's Epitome of History, New York : Blue Ribbon, 1925
The Repression of Crime; Studies in Historical Penology, Montclair, N.J., P. Smith, 1969, 1926
History and Social Intelligence, New York : A. A. Knopf, 1926.
The Evolution of Penology in Pennsylvania; a study in American social history, Montclair, N.J., Patterson Smith, 1968, 1927.
Co-written with Melvin M. Knight & Felix Fluegel Economic History of Europe, Boston, New York : Houghton Mifflin, 1928.
Living in the Twentieth Century; a Consideration of How We Go This Way, Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill 1928
In Quest of Truth and Justice; Debunking The War Guilt Myth, Chicago, National Historical Society, 1928.
The Genesis of the World War; an Introduction to the Problem of War Guilt, New York, Knopf, 1929.
Battling the Crime Wave : applying sense and science to the repression of crime, Boston, Mass. : Stratford, 1931.
Can Man Be Civilized?, New York, Brentano's 1932.
Money Changers vs. The New Deal; a Candid Analysis of the Inflation Controversy, New York, R. Long & R. R. Smith, 1934.
The History of Western Civilization, New York : Harcourt, Brace and company 1935
An Economic History of the Western World, New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1937
Co-written with Bernard Myers, Walter B. Scott, Edward Hubler & Martin Bernstein An Intellectual and Cultural History of the Western World, New York : Random House, 1937
A History of Historical Writing, Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1938 revised edition New York : Dover Publications, 1963.
Social Institutions In an Era of World Upheaval, New York, Prentice-Hall, , 1942.
Co-written with Negley K. Teeters New Horizons in Criminology; the American Crime Problem, New Tork, Prentice-Hall Inc, 1943; revised edition Englewood Cliffs, N.J : Prentice-Hall, 1961, 1959
Historical Sociology: Its Origins and Development; Theories of Social Evolution From Cave Life to Atomic bombing, New York : Philosophical Library, 1948
Co-Edited with Howard Becker & Frances Bennett Becker Contemporary Social Theory, New York : Russell & Russell, 1971, 1948.
An Introduction to the History of Sociology, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Co-written with Oreen M. Ruedi The American Way of Life; an introduction to the study of contemporary society, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1950.
Society in Transition, New York, Greenwood Press, 1968
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace : a Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and its Aftermath, New York : Greenwood Press, 1969, 1953.
Blasting the Historical Blackout in Britain : Professor A. J. P. Taylor's "The Origins of the Second World War" ; its Nature, Reliability, Shortcomings and Implications, 1963.
Pearl Harbor after a Quarter of a Century, New York : Arno Press, 1972 ISBN 0-405-00413-3.
Selected Revisionist Pamphlets, New York : Arno Press, 1972
The Chickens of the Interventionist Liberals Have Come Home To Roost; the Bitter Fruits Of Globaloney, New York, Revisionist Press, 1973 ISBN 0-87700-194-4.