After issuing dozens of corrections to high-profile book, historian shuts down his blog

A historian has shuttered his personal blog, which he created to respond to critics of his high-profile book.

Columbia University professor Charles Armstrong launched the blog in order to address the criticisms of his book about North Korea during the Cold War. Soon after Tyranny of the Weak appeared, Balazs Szalontai of Korea University uploaded a series of what he called “noteworthy problems” with the book — mostly allegations of including either irrelevant or non-existent sources to support Armstrong’s claims. In the end of 2016, Armstrong announced on his blog that he was going to issue dozens of corrections to the book, which won the John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History in 2014.

The book has now been re-published; as such, Armstrong told Retraction Watch he sees no need to maintain the blog further:

I set up the blog in the first place in order to respond to the critics of the book. My ultimate response, however, is the corrected edition of the book itself, which was published in July 2017. At the moment I have neither the time nor the inclination to maintain a blog. If readers have any further questions about my book or any other of my publications, they are welcome to email me directly…

However, to Szalontai, the discussion about the book isn’t over:

I have purchased a copy, and found out that the “corrected” edition still includes over 20 cases of plagiarism and source fabrication…

Last year, Armstrong returned the Fairbank Prize he earned for the book.

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