BELLESILES UPDATE: Ralph Luker notes that a new edition of Arming America, the discredited work of former Emory historian Michael Bellesiles, will soon be published by an outfit called Soft Skull Press. And no, I’m not making that up.

It would be nice, of course, if this second edition rigorously addressed the systematic errors of its predecessor (some of which are spelled out at length in this Yale Law Journal article by James Lindgren) but I suspect that such hopes are in vain. Were this book an answer to Bellesiles’ critics, and the charges of fraud that ultimately led to Bellesiles’ dismissal and the withdrawal of his book from the market, I suspect that his original publisher, Knopf, would have been happy to bring it out.

UPDATE: Several readers sent me more information on Soft Skull Press, which apparently has some experience with discredited authors.