History News Network Celebrates Bad History Books Those who do not study history, the old adage goes, are doomed to repeat it. But can it also be that those who read history are sometimes doomed to become more stupid? Such seems to be the position of the History News Network, which has announced that it would be celebrating the Fourth of July by asking readers to reflect not just on what is best but also what is most bogus in our nation's history - or at least in our nation's history writing. Until Friday the network's Web site - also home to upbeat fare like "Marist Poll Reveals Ignorance of July 4th History" and "Top Five Myths About the Fourth of July" - is accepting nominations at editor@hnn.us for "history books that nobody should take seriously." On July 9 the top five nominees will be posted on the site, which is hosted by George Mason University. Readers then be asked to vote for "the least credible history book in print." The winner - or loser? - will be announced on July 16, along with commentary on the finalists from various academic historians, who make up the bulk of the site's contributors. David Walsh, the site's editor, said that Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln" and David Barton's "The Jefferson Lies" (which argues, among other things, that the man who first spoke of the need for a "wall of separation" between church and state was an evangelical Christian) were currently running strong. Other nominees so far include Michael Bellesiles's "Arming America" (which was stripped of the prestigious Bancroft Prize after Mr. Bellesiles was accused of falsifying data about early American gun ownership), Gavin Menzies's "1421: The Year China Discovered America," and Richard Williams's 2006 book "Stonewall Jackson: The Black Man's Friend," along with various works from the now-discredited Dunning school, which held sway in the early 20th-century with its argument that Reconstruction failed because African-Americans were not capable of self-government. But bad history isn't all bad, Mr. Walsh said. "Thinking about why a particular history book is shoddy makes you appreciate why a good history book works, because it forces you to evaluate evidence critically, which is a skill every good historian - and every good citizen - should have," he said. And he confessed to some guilty historical pleasures of his own, including Erich von Daniken's 1986 space-archaeology fantasia "Chariots of the Gods." "Ancient astronauts are utter nonsense as a historical and scientific theory, of course, but the idea sure is entertaining," Mr. Walsh said.