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David --,
a student at
Oxford University, asks, Tuesday, November 30, 2004, if
it is safe to reference Mr Irving's books in his
papers
Where are Alfred Rosenberg's Papers?
I DON'T want to take up any more of your time, as I am eager for Churchill's War vol. III, but I would like to ask what reaction is engendered by the use of your work as a historical source at university?
I am thinking of focusing on the Second World War in my third year, and as well as being associated with works by Kershaw, Beevor, Keagan, Trevor-Roper and William L. Shirer etc. I am most closely intimate with your work, and would like to quote/reference my thesis with it along with others.
Have you found that students who do this are castigated or treated deleteriously by tutors generally, or is there a discrepancy between establishments, and if so what do you know of Oxford University?
I know this a rather selfish question, but any reply you could make would be invaluable, but if you can't answer my questions I fully understand, and would just like to add in the most sincere terms: "keep up the good work."
David - [name
withheld by website]
Hertford College,
Oxford University
David
Irving replies:
WHEN touring Australia, before being banned there, in 1987, I lectured in two universities in New South Wales, Sydney and Wollongong. In one, the students told me they were penalized if they used my works; in the other they told me they were penalized if they did not. That is absolutely true.
My good advice to you is to discuss this issue with your tutor: say that you have personally studied my works, and find them valuable for their independent source research, and that you are minded to reference them, among other sources, in our papers, but what would he advise? -- in light of the fact that a notorious Cambridge professor (Prof Richard "Skunky" Evans) has denounced my works as bunkum, distortions, and falsifications, etc.
Your tutor will get the point, and will give you the proper advice. Please stay in touch, and encourage your fellow students to contact me too.
Three years ago incidentally I was invited four times to address the Oxford Union, and four times a certain pressure group was able to intimidate the university and OU into canceling. - I knew Trevor Roper well; incidentally, and still think highly of his work. He too was an independent.
David Irving