ShareThisBy DARREN DUNLAP
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The University of Tennessee Press suspended sales of a book by a Chattanooga adjunct history professor after allegations of plagiarism by a New Hampshire writer.
New Hampshire author William Marvel complained to the UT Press that R. Fred Ruhlman's book, "Captain Henry Wirz and Andersonville Prison: A Reappraisal," borrows heavily from his own work on the subject as well as from other authors.
The UT Press published the book on Aug. 31. It is Ruhlman's first book. Through a UT Press release, Ruhlman said there was no intentional unreferenced duplication of the works of other authors.
He said he greatly admired Marvel, had read his work extensively _ "perhaps too much" _ and obviously used it multiple times as a source for his own work.
Ruhlman said that he was a novice and innocent of willful plagiarism but acknowledged grave oversights in crediting the work of Marvel.
"I feel very bad about this," said Ruhlman. "If I had done this deliberately, it would have been academic suicide because Marvel is an authority on this. He would have been asked to review this. I sincerely regret this. I'm reaching out to Mr. Marvel with an apology."
Marvel, an acclaimed author of Civil War histories, alleged on Nov. 2 to the UT Press that Ruhlman's book contained "uncredited material," according to the UT Office of Media Relations. Marvel is the author of "Andersonville: The Last Depot," published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1994.
Scot Danforth, the UT Press acquisitions editor, said sales of Ruhlman's book have been suspended pending review by university legal counsel.
Marvel said he discovered the similarities when reviewing Ruhlman's book for the Georgia Historical Quarterly in October. Marvel described the amount of information allegedly taken from his work.
"I would characterize the extent as 'pages and pages' of text that has been lightly rearranged and doctored to appear original, and without counting the work of other historians that he has appropriated," Marvel wrote in an e-mail.
He added: "I should also note that Ruhlman's alleged manuscript research duplicated my own almost exactly, with the exception of four documents relating to one Confederate surgeon. In one instance I found him repeating the only bibliographic error in my entire book, and it would be incredibly coincidental for him to have made that transcription error through his own research."
Teaching history is a second career for Ruhlman. He earned his doctorate in history from American University in London and has been an adjunct history professor at UTC for three years. He is a retired special agent for the FBI. He said he is not seeking a tenure-track position.
Ruhlman agreed with Marvel that passages in the books were similar. He also agreed with the UT Press that his work "did not meet the standards of a scholarly work."
