Updating readers on reviewed books

When a book on the history of gun ownership in America is published by a mainstream press, you can bet it's going to get some attention Â- especially if it suggests a contentious interpretation of the Second Amendment and reports that Americans have only relatively recently taken to firearms.

That's what happened with "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture," which hit stores in 2000 and has since drawn great praise and great criticism. At its high point, it won the Bancroft award, a prestigious history honor, in 2001. But it's been downhill since, with academics, journalists, and the public scrutinizing author Michael Bellesiles's sourcing, particularly with regard to probate records, and finding it sloppy. Emory University, the author's employer, announced in February that it is conducting a formal inquiry.

That's not a big surprise at a time when historians, dogged by issues of accuracy, are being held to higher standards. But some people are now taking that accountability a step further, asking what responsibility newspapers have to tell readers when doubts arise about the substance of a book they've reviewed.

Two weeks ago, a column on the Fox News website took issue with several newspapers and publications for not reporting subsequent charges against the book after they ran positive reviews.

"Some editors might say that, by now, their reviews of Bellesiles's book are old news Â- but of course, as the research for this piece demonstrates, they are readily available on the Internet or via other electronic research services. And one would think that book-review editors and publishers would feel an obligation to tell the public that it has been led astray, with their unwitting assistance," wrote Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.

According to Mr. Reynolds's research, the publications that have told readers about the book's recently alleged errors include The New York Times (though not in its book-review section), The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. Others, such as the Monitor (until now), the New York Review of Books, and the Atlantic Monthly, have not.

A number of readers Â- prompted in some cases by the Fox News column Â- have written to publications (including the Monitor) and questioned why they haven't retracted their reviews or at least alerted their audiences to the problems with the book.

Many publications don't have a great track record with following up on stories, and Tom Rosenstiel at the Project for Excellence in Journalism says that papers should at least be expected to report something about the debate over the book. But, he adds, "controversy doesn't equal debunking. The controversy has to sort itself out completely."

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