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Institute for Historical Review (IHR)
Question:
What is the Institute for Historical Review?
Andrew Mathis Responds:
The IHR was founded by Willis Carto in 1978. Carto has a long history on the far right-wing, first in the John Birch Society and then later as founder of the Liberty Lobby, a PAC dedicated to ending U.S. aid to Israel. He also served on the Wallace for President campaign in 1968, and he has published the newspaper Spotlight, which featured conspiracy theories and alternative views of history.It may be easy to say that Carto is merely critical of Israel and he is not an anti-Semite. However, his advocacy for neo-Nazi "martyr" Francis Parker Yockey (author of Imperium, which the IHR sells, a Mein Kampf for the postwar era) makes it quite clear that he is a garden-variety Jew-hater, not to mention an anti-black and anti-Latino racist.
The IHR was wrested from Carto's control about a decade ago in a dispute over money left to the organization by Thomas Edison's granddaughter (the Edison family and Thomas Edison himself were anti-Semites). Since the early to mid-1990s, effective control of the IHR has been in the hands of Mark Weber, who is the alumnus of several neo-Nazi organizations, including the NSDAP/AO (based in Nebraska and headed by Gary Lauck) and the National Alliance (once the largest neo-Nazi organization in the U.S. and headed by the late Dr. William Pierce, who wrote The Turner Diaries , the Bible of the far right). Weber was arrested in Germany while a student there for distributing neo-Nazi material, and while under arrest, he claimed he was defending the "Aryan race." Weber's relationship with Pierce lasted, according to some accounts, right up until Pierce died, and Weber continues to have contacts with the National Alliance and other neo-Nazi organizations. Just to show you that my statement here is true, I am CC'ing this e-mail directly to Mark Weber, who may refute it (i.e., lie to you) if he so wishes.
As for the IHR and its "journal," the Journal of Historical Review is not peer-reviewed (as is nearly every major academic journal in the U.S. and abroad) and it is basically a place where these Nazi apologists and associated miscreants and losers can publish their garbage because no reputable journal would in a million years.
I hope I've answered your questions regarding the IHR, Carto, and Mark Weber. Please feel free to follow up.
Best,
Andrew
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Last modified: September 18, 2004
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