David Barton's book on Jefferson republished

David Barton’s controversial The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed about Thomas Jefferson will soon be back. Thomas Nelson published it in April 2012 and then pulled it from bookstore shelves as historians criticized its accuracy. WND Books, publishing arm of the conservative website World Net Daily, will re-release the book on Jan. 16.

Barton, founder and president of the WallBuilders organization, was for several decades a popular Christian history writer and lecturer, but his reputation took a major hit during the summer of 2012 when the History News Network voted The Jefferson Lies as the “Least Credible History Book in Print.” Shortly after that, several prominent conservative Christian scholars began to question the scholarship behind Barton’s work.

Jay Richards, a professor in the School of Business and Economics at The Catholic University of America and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, was one of the critics of Barton’s writings. Richards, who participated in Christian conferences with Barton, asked 10 conservative Christian professors to review Barton’s work. Their responses came back uniformly negative, with one calling Barton’s claims about Jefferson “unsupportable.”

Two professors from Grove City College, Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter, went as far as to write a full-scale critique of the book: Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President. Theyargued Barton was “guilty of statements and actions out of context and simplifying historical circumstances.”

Thomas Nelson decided in early August 2012 to cease publication and distribution of The Jefferson Lies, telling WORLD contributor Thomas Kidd it had “lost confidence in the book’s details.”

Throughout the barrage of criticism, Barton steadfastly defended his work. In early 2013, WORLD published his lengthy response to the controversy.

“I welcome appraisal of my work,” he wrote. “Indeed, whenever I receive word of a possible inaccuracy in any work, I investigate the claim and, if it is accurate, I make the necessary corrections in subsequent printings. This has been my established practice for 25 years.”

Barton admitted some of the passages in The Jefferson Lies “might have been more carefully worded or better argued,” adding he planned to make changes in a subsequent revision of the book. It’s not clear whether he made changes for World Net Daily’s new edition, although the publisher reports it “contains a preface dismantling the claims of Throckmorton and other critics.”

World Net Daily founder and CEO Joseph Farah justified his company’s decision to republish The Jefferson Lies, saying he didn’t find criticisms of Barton’s work credible. Farah claimed the original book was “censored” by Thomas Nelson because of political correctness: “Many books published in America as non-fiction are made up out of whole cloth—and that includes history books with the most preposterous speculation and fantasies. In a free society, that is to be expected. What should never be expected is that controversial books with premises some might disagree with should be banned, spiked, burned, or shredded.”

In addition to his work with WallBuilders, Barton is active in Republican politics. He currently serves as the head of the Keep the Promise PAC, a Super PAC that supports GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.