http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/166#K
In an interview published in Egypt Today, Beinin states that I “could not get a permanent academic position, despite the fact that his father [allegedly] tried to engineer one for him at Harvard.” This brief statement contains two major errors of fact.
- I did get a tenure-track position and turned it down, preferring to write than teach.
- My father had zero role in my being appointed to a teaching position at Harvard and he recused himself from any decisions concerning me. (Egypt Today itself signals its doubts about Beinin’s accuracy by adding “allegedly” in square brackets.)
Comments: (1) By simply inventing biographical falsehoods about me, Beinin again reveals what a shoddy “scholar” he is.
(2) What relevance my career in the 1970s and early 1980s has to my current work is beyond me. Maybe Beinin’s next history project should be to locate and publish my 6th-grade marks?
(3) Once Beinin raises the topic of my early career, how can I resist pointing out that Harvard’s doctoral program in history turned him down but awarded me a Ph.D.?
(4) Beinin, like too many American academics, suffers from an advanced case of credentialitis, the disease that places more emphasis on qualifications than achievements. (Nov. 6, 2006)
