Round Table

The Round Table is an open discussion about plagiarism in the Journal of American History in 2004.  The discussion revolves around the evidence that three major Historians have used unsavory means of gathering, interpreting, and presenting historical information.  The responses given to how the Historical Field should handle the subject of plagiarism varied.  Arguments were presented that the economic forces provoked these historians to act as they did.  Others question what the definition of plagiarism really is.  The lesson I learned from this discussion on plagiarism is conversation is key to prevention and identification.  As students we are taught not to plagiarize, so we seem to stray away from previous historical ideas and create our own. But history is more of a conversation that individual statements.  We should build upon the works of others, and cite them appropriately as we go along.