Fire at Will

Lindgren has also contacted historians who wrote positive reviews of Arming America and, according to the Chronicle, "urged them to reconsider their positions--in print." This is pretty much unheard of in academia. Matthew Warshauer reviewed the book favorably in the journal Connecticut History. He told me that Lindgren asked him to publish a retraction. "He added something like he would hate to have this affect my career. I viewed that as a veiled threat." Warshauer is an untenured associate professor at Central Connecticut State University. "I have twelve e-mails Lindgren sent me," he said, "including little ones, like 'where are you at with this?' He definitely kept up the pressure." The anti-Bellesiles campaign didn't stop there with Warshauer, either: One pro-gun website posted a link to Warshauer's graduate history seminar, where Bellesiles's book was assigned reading, and encouraged gun supporters to e-mail Warshauer. The director of the website, Angel Shamaya, even e-mailed Warshauer himself, saying, "If you're planning on exposing Bellesiles as the lying sack of anti-gun excrement he is, good for you.... but if, on the other hand, you're planning to pretend that...he is anything less than a deceitful snake--you're unfit to teach."