Publisher Pulls Prizewinning History Book After People Start Questioning Author’s Claims
“I said, ‘Where is she getting this?’”
Kerri K. Greenidge is a historian who used to work at Tufts University. Her book was widely praised until people started asking questions.
A Tufts historian plagiarized and fabricated parts of her award-winning book on slavery and the abolition movement.
She claims the scrutiny is racially motivated.
(NYT previously gave the book glowing reviews) https://t.co/KiTW7CH99C
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) July 11, 2026
The New York Times reports:
A Decorated Historian’s Research Comes Under Fire
A major publisher appeared to pull a prizewinning history book about a prominent South Carolina slaveholding family and its role in the abolitionist movement, after several scholars accused the author of misleading readers about details that were central to what reviewers had described as a groundbreaking narrative.
The book, “The Grimkes,” and its author, the historian Kerri K. Greenidge, received widespread acclaim when the book was released in 2022 by Liveright Publishing.
Glowing write-ups came pouring in, including from The New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly, which named “The Grimkes” one of the 10 best books of 2022. In 2023, the American Historical Association awarded Greenidge with the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, which recognizes scholars in women’s history and feminist theory.
It was a high point for Greenidge, who has since reviewed multiple books for The Times and is part of an accomplished family. One of her sisters is the playwright Kirsten Greenidge and another is the novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge.
But then things began to unravel for Kerri Greenidge, appearing to later cost her another book deal and her position as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University.
Several other scholars, who described themselves as skeptical of some of Greenidge’s assertions in the book, started fact-checking her — scrutiny that Greenidge argued was racially motivated when asked for comment on Friday. Some of the criticism centered around whether Greenidge had properly credited sources.
“I said, ‘Where is she getting this?’” Myra C. Glenn, a retired professor of American history at Elmira College and the author of several books on U.S. history, said in an interview on Thursday. “Boy, it became a major problem.”
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Comments
“… in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University.”
Someone please tell me the name of that department is fictitious, too
Beat me to the comment. I wonder why young adults have college degrees that prepare them for nothing of note after spending $250,000
Actually, that is the first clue that mischief is afoot.
Because, like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz observed, if you have a diploma, it means you have a brain. But it doesn’t
I didn’t read the book. Don’t know anything about the context. Did any of the commentators read the book? What if anything she wrote is or is not plagiarized or false. Are the allegations racist too, one way or another.. I don’t think any of us can tell from the article. Does anyone here know the author. I don’t.!
Read the linked NYT article. It gives several examples of her fakery. For instance she cited letters that don’t exist. Much like Belleisles, who cited records that had been destroyed in a flood years earlier.
Is that where you find “a tenured associate professor.”
Michael Bellesiles has entered the chat…
Indeed. The problem is that papers submitted to journals for review are seldom reviewed with scrutiny. Most often they are rubber stamped if the findings push the narrative the journal wants. I point to the infamous dog park sex papers that were entirely fictitious but got printed anyways.
This is a common issue with academic journals and not only in history. Scientific and medical journals appear to be rife with error, falsification, data manipulation, error, according to many reviewers of the literature.
Put it this way: If a paper or book comes out of the academy, one should immediately suspect some level of fraud. No benefit of the doubt should be the operative rule.
It’s a comment on the saying “publish or peril”. Academics are under pressure to not only publish research on a regular basis but secure grant funding for the research. It’s one of the reasons you find such highly specialized journals no one has heard about like the International Journal of Control, The International Journal of Tourism Sciences and the Journal of Dietary Supplements.
Somebody needs to tell this… person that the race card has expired.
“One of her sisters is the playwright Kirsten Greenidge and another is the novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge.”
So the fiction is strong in this family.
Nothing wrong with fiction if it’s labeled as such.
That describes huge areas of academia and so called peer reviewed papers published in obscure journals but are published. How much hard research are you going to find in the Journal of Homosexuality. Ok, poorly worded. How about Gender and Research? Not much.
Names mentioned in this article:
* Kerri Greenidge
* Joan Kelly
* Kirsten Greenidge
* Kaitlyn Greenidge
* Myra Glenn
Anyone notice a pattern here?
That’s right, white males (including those with Ph.D.s from first-rate universities and strong credentials in general) have been expunged in the race to “Affirmative” Action.
White male sacrificial lambs need not apply.
It’s a grift. Intellectual midwits congregate in the social sciences and “studies” departments where they can publish just about anything then pat each other on the back for their rigor and expect everyone else to take them seriously.
The article does not says what was questioned. Maybe they were suspicious of how the prominent slave owning family deleted all their tweets.
The linked article gives some examples.