JHR Volume 18 number 4 Cover Letter
December 1999
Dear Friend,
Two decades ago the newly formed Institute for Historical Review threw down a defiant challenge to a corrupt and negligent historical establishment by launching the first issue of The Journal of Historical Review.
In the years since, few periodicals have so enraged the ruling elite, and especially the mighty Jewish-Zionist lobby. In spite of furious verbal and physical attacks — including the devastating 1984 arson fire-bombing of the IHR’s offices — this Journal, and the IHR, have endured to make an indelible mark on the social-intellectual life of America and the world.
Over the past 20 years, the Journal has been a key player in the worldwide struggle for truth in history, and especially against the “Holocaust” pseudo-religion. It has helped to crack this cult’s grand edifice, forcing major concessions in the official “Holocaust” story, including abandonment of numerous specific Holocaust claims (such as the notorious “human soap” lie), and drastic reductions in the numbers of Auschwitz victims.
We are also proud of our legend-busting record on other historical issues. For example, the Journal has been the leading US publisher of serious revisionist writing on the background to the 1941-1945 clash between Third Reich Germany and Soviet Russia — a scholarship based on new evidence and insights that profoundly alters our entire perspective on the Second World War, and on 20th century history.
In an apparent indirect acknowledgment of the Journal’s impact, a new Yale University Press catalog refers to “the currently popular view that Stalin was about to invade Germany when Hitler made a preventive strike.” In fact, this revisionist view is anything but “popular.” To the contrary, America’s intellectual-cultural establishment continues to insure that the public hears only the victor’s version of this chapter of history. In the United States the Journal has been all but alone in challenging the well-entrenched myth of a rapacious Hitler treacherously attacking a naive and trusting Stalin.
Today the Journal is widely recognized as the flagship revisionist history periodical, with an unmatched record of responsible and authoritative scholarship, and an unequaled level of support from scholars around the world. It’s been the only significant English-language publisher of the writings of such revisionist giants as Robert Faurisson and Arthur Butz. It’s also presented the path-breaking research of many other scholars (such as Samuel Crowell, whose work is featured in the Journal issue that accompanies this letter).
As the current furor over Pat Buchanan and his new book on the folly of American global interventionism, especially in World War II, once again points up, the “lessons of the past” have never been more crucially relevant. As we enter a new century, in an increasingly inter-related world bristling with weapons of mass destruction, how we view history is more vitally important than ever in determining how we, and all humanity, will live in the future.
To all those who have helped — especially during the recent years of siege and emergency — many thanks! With your continued support, we will insure that the IHR, and its Journal, remains the leader in the great worldwide battle against historical lies and bigotry — a struggle in which every supporter is a participant.
Now, with veteran writer and editor Ted O’Keefe back full-time on staff here, we are working hard to publish a series of new IHR books, to prepare for another full-scale IHR Conference, to expand IHR outreach, and to bring out the punctually.
From all of us here at the IHR, we extend the best wishes of the season, hoping all the best for you and your loved ones in the new year — and the new decade.
Yours truly,
Mark Weber