In the laundry room of my apartment building, there is a bookcase where people put fairly random books. Mostly they are mysteries or spy thrillers, but occasionally there are a few gems. One of the more unusual books I've picked up is The Historian As Detective, a collection of essays by historians that shed light on the historian's technique.
I'm in the middle of reading this book right now, and am currently reading an essay by Prof. John Kaplan of Stanford University on the JFK conspiracy books. Back when I started undergrad, I very much believed that there was a conspiracy, but after reading alt.conspiracy.jfk, I saw great usenet warriors Brian Holtz and John McAdams argue the conspiracy mongers into the ground. That, together with the conspiracy mongers' own bizarre behavior, which included frequent accusations of various people being CIA disinformation agents, made me realize where the truth lay.
At any rate, back to the book. So, I've always wondered what serious historians think of the JFK conspiracy hubbub. Well, at least John Kaplan doesn't think much of it. He brilliantly dismantles the most popular conspiracy books. My favorite quote, about Lane's Rush To Judgement:
Lane's argument about the smoke over the knoll is equally interesting. Actually, it was not disputed that there was a puff above the knoll... The Commission did not attempt to deny this. Lane's slight of hand is going from the smoke to the assumption that the puff came from a gun fired at the President.... unless the assassin fired a fifteenth-century harquebus it is hard to see how a shot fired at the President could have made as much smoke as Lane implies was visible.
I love a good debunking.
Posted by ahyatt at January 8, 2006 07:42 PM