Barriers to Historical AccuracyRichard A. Widmann Harry Elmer Barnes is a controversial figure whose memory is blurred both by his detractors and his supporters. His long and distinguished career crossing many subjects and interests is often left in the shadows of his historical revisionism. Even much of his revisionist work, which began in the years following World War One and continued through the Cold War, are forgotten in light of his work to debunk the myths of World War Two. The emotions stirred by World War Two remain high. To question any aspect of this conflict still meets solid resistance and ad hominem attacks. Barnes once wrote that in the minds of anti-revisionists the term "revisionism" savors of malice and vindictiveness. Barnes's few brief statements regarding the Holocaust, his positive book review of Paul Rassinier's trail-blazing work, The Drama of the European Jews, and his involvement in the publication of a few early Holocaust revisionist titles have resulted in wild attacks on his character from the anti-revisionist crowd. In Deborah Lipstadt's highly acclaimed screed, Denying the Holocaust, she charges that Barnes was anti-Semitic. 1 She also charges Barnes with twisting "information and misrepresent[ing] established historical fact." 2 She claims that Barnes sought to exculpate Nazi Germany and even questions his standing as a historian. 3 The widely read (and highly inaccurate) on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia goes even further. The anti-revisionists who edit Wikipedia call Barnes a "Holocaust Denier" and a "Nazi Sympathizer."4 Barnes's memory has also suffered from some of his supporters. The magazine that is emblazoned with his name changed its byline several years back to "A Journal of Nationalist Thought & History." 5 The association suggests that Barnes would not only embrace nationalist thought but somehow was a major proponent of such a movement. The truth is quite the opposite. Barnes addressed the subject of the relationship between nationalism and historical writing in his History and Social Intelligence (1926). After running through a brief history of the importance of nationalism on world history, Barnes addressed the impact of nationalism on the writing of history. Barnes considered the nationalist movements in several nations including Germany, France, England, and the United States. Barnes was very negative about the impact of such writing including the work of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and those he called "the blatant Teutonists."
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