Journal of Historical Review

The Journal of Historical Review was a non-peer reviewed, pseudoacademic, neo-Nazi periodical focused on promoting Holocaust denial. It was published by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), based in Torrance, California. It ran quarterly from 1980 until 1992, and then bimonthly from 1993 until publication ceased in 2002.[1] A supplement, IHR Newsletter (ISSN 1043-156X), was published alongside the journal.

Journal of Historical Review
DisciplinePseudohistory, fringe science
No
LanguageEnglish
Publication details
History1980–2002
Publisher
FrequencyBimonthly
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4J. Hist. Rev.
Indexing
ISSN0195-6752 (print)
0195-6752 (web)
OCLC no.5584935
Links

History edit

The journal was founded in 1978 by the far-right political activist Willis Carto.[2] Its subject was primarily Holocaust denial.[3][4][5] In 1985, Mark Weber joined the institute's editorial advisory committee and, between 1992 and 2000, he was editor of the Journal.

The journal became a platform for neo-Nazis around the world, with the editorial board composed of Holocaust deniers, including Germans Udo Walendy, Wilhelm Stäglich, and Georg Franz-Willing); French Robert Faurisson and Henri Roques; Argentinian W. Beweraggi-Allende, Australian John Tuson Bennett; Spanish Enrique Aynat); and Italian Carlo Mattogno.[6]

The journal commenced publication in the spring of 1980 as a quarterly periodical. No issues were published between April 1996 and May 1997; it thereafter continued until 2002.[1] After publication of the journal ceased, the IHR publishes its Bulletin only in an online format,[6] although back issues are still made available on the Institute website.[7]

Reception edit

The Journal's critics have included the Anti-Defamation League, the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide studies, and scholars including Robert Hanyok, a National Security Agency historian,[8] and many others who have described the journal as pseudo-scientific.[9]

Jonathan Petropoulos wrote in The History Teacher that the "[journal] is shockingly racist and antisemitic: articles on 'America's Failed Racial Policy' and anti-Israel pieces accompany those about gas chambers... They clearly have no business claiming to be a continuation of the revisionist tradition, and should be referred to as 'Holocaust Deniers'."[10]

Russian historians Igor Ryzhov and Maria Borodina commented that the fact that the Institute for Historical Review published its own historical journal "helped not only to unite the deniers into a single movement, but also to give their activities a form of pseudo-scientificness."[5]

The Organization of American Historians commissioned a study of the journal in which a panel had found that it was "nothing but a masquerade of scholarship".[11]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Institute for Historical Review". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  2. ^ Macklin, Graham (2012). "Transatlantic Connections and Conspiracies: A.K. Chesterton and "The New Unhappy Lords"". Journal of Contemporary History. 47 (2): 285. doi:10.1177/0022009411431723. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 23249187. S2CID 153984405.
  3. ^ Blee, Kathleen M. (2003). Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement. University of California Press. p. 92. ISBN 0-520-24055-3. In recent years, Holocaust denial has become a propaganda mainstay of organized racism. It is promulgated by racist groups and by organizations like the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which publishes the scientific-looking Journal of Historical Review.
  4. ^ Morris, Lydia (2006). Rights: Sociological Perspectives. Routledge. p. 238, note 1. ISBN 0-415-35522-2. The pseudo-scholarly guise of Holocaust deniers is epitomised by the Institute for Historical Review—established in the United States in the late 1970s—and its journal, the Journal of Historical Review, which have provided the core of the more contemporary Holocaust denial movement (Stern 1995).
  5. ^ a b Borodina, Maria Yurievna; Ryzhov, Igor Valerievich (2015). "Проблема отрицания Холокоста: история, особенности и современные тенденции" [The Holocaust denial problem: history, features and contemporary trends] (PDF). Bulletin of the N. I. Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (in Russian) (3). Nizhny Novgorod: N. I. Lobachevsky University: 98. ISSN 1993-1778. Retrieved 28 June 2023. The publication by the Institute for the Revision of History of its own historical journal, the Journal of Historical Review, helped not only to unite the deniers into a single movement, but also to give their activities a pseudo-scientific form.
  6. ^ a b "The Institute for Historical Review". Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
  7. ^ "Journal of Historical Review by Volume". IHR. Institute for Historical Review. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  8. ^ Hanyok, Robert J. (2005). Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945 (PDF) (Second ed.). National Security Agency. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  9. ^ Berlet, Chip; Lyons, Matthew Nemiroff (2000). Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. Guilford Press. p. 189. ISBN 1-57230-562-2.
  10. ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan (1995). "Confronting the "Holocaust as Hoax" Phenomenon as Teachers". The History Teacher. 28 (4): 523–539. doi:10.2307/494640. JSTOR 494640.
  11. ^ "Extremism in America: Institute for Historical Review". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-12-02. Retrieved May 9, 2007.

External links edit