Kerri K. Greenidge is a historian who used to work at Tufts University. Her book was widely praised until people started asking questions.
The New York Times reports:
A Decorated Historian’s Research Comes Under FireA 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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