David Barton Watch
David Barton has been a fixture in far-right politics since at least the early 1990s. Recently, with the praise and support of conservative figures like Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee, his national profile has risen even higher.
Although he has little or no formal academic training in history and historical research (he has a bachelor’s degree in religious education), Barton has managed to cast himself as a historian retelling what he calls America’s “forgotten history” as a Christian nation. His revisionist work has made him a hero in conservative evangelical and political circles.
But that work has been much criticized by true experts and scholars. Their criticisms have centered on Barton’s use of questionable and cherry-picked pieces of evidence to support his political and religious viewpoints. At the same time, they point out, he ignores mountains of evidence contrary to those views. In other words, Barton is seen as a propagandist who has set out to create his own versions of history.
