Historians who initially admired "Arming America" ceased to defend Bellesiles. The nationally prominent historian Garry Wills, who had enthusiastically reviewed "Arming America" for the "New York Times", later said, in a 2005 interview on C-SPAN, "I was took. The book is a fraud." Wills noted that Bellesiles "claimed to have consulted archives he didn't and he misrepresented those archives," although "he didn't have to do that," since "he had a lot of good, solid evidence." Wills added, "People get taken by very good con men."