In 2001 "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" received the prestigious Bancroft Prize for American history from Columbia University.In October 2002 the author, Michael Bellesiles, resigned as a professor at Emory University, after an independent panel of scholars strongly critized his research, saying that he was "guily of unprofessional and misleading work."In December 2002 Columbia rescinded their award to Bellesiles; in a statement issued by the school's trustees, they said that Bellesiles' "book had not and does not meet the standards ... established for the Bancroft Prize."An online search will quickly and easily verify that the above information is true - something that sadly cannot be said of many of the "facts" contained in Bellesiles' book.Whatever your views on gun control may be, avoid "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" like the plague - it has clearly and widely been discredited as bad, bad, bad history.