Communications

COMMUNICATIONS To The Editor of Civil War History: In his critical review of Lee Benson's Toward the Scientific View of History: Selected Essays, Civil War History, XVIII (June 1972), 17980 , Peter Kolchin states: After "refuting" the works of Barrington Moore, Jr., Eugene Genovese , David Donald, and Eric Foner in an analysis filled with ad hominem remarks and distortions of their interpretations, Benson offers his own "tentative" interpretations of the causes of the Civil War. In the process he makes numerous assumptions for which there is little or no evidence. Then Kolchin provides examples of assumptions for which there is, in his view, insufficient evidence. Yet for the more serious charge that Benson distorted the works of Moore, Genovese, Donald, and Foner, and indeed filled his analysis with ad hominem remarks; Kolchin furnishes no exemplification whatever. Thus the charge is mere assertion and unscholarly . Kolchin should either retract the damaging statement or, if Civil War History chooses to give him the opportunity, substantiate it. In its present form the review lends weight to the suspicion that ad hominem factors governed Kolchin s conclusions. University of Arizona John V. Merino To the Editor of Civil War History: It seems to me that Mr. Mering mistakes the purpose of a review, which is not to provide a scholarly treatise with full documentation, but to offer prospective readers an informed appraisal of the book under consideration. I do not think most readers of Mr. Benson's book who are familiar with the works of Moore, Genovese, Donald, and Foner will have much trouble finding the distortions and ad hominem remarks to which I referred. Peter Kolchin University of Wisconsin 368 ...