Despite Thomas Nelson recently canceling David Barton’s controversial best-seller about Thomas Jefferson, the conservative historian will continue to sell the book through WallBuilders.
“We find it regrettable that Thomas Nelson never contacted us with even one specific area of concern before curtly notifying us they had dropped the work,” Barton, named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential American evangelicals in 2005, wrote on his WallBuilders website. “Had they done so, we would have been happy to provide them with the thorough and extensive historical documentation for any question or issue they raised; they never asked. The Jefferson Lies has not been pulled from publication and it will continue to sell nationally.”
But after a group of conservative scholars claimed that Barton’s take on Jefferson was factually incorrect, Nelson decided to pull The Jefferson Lies at the end of July.
The Jefferson Lies—released in April with a foreword by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck—claims to expose common myths about Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s third president.
“We are not releasing specifically how many people expressed concerns—only that there were several who expressed concerns about the historical accuracy of the book,” Casey Harrell, director of corporate communications for Thomas Nelson, told Christian Retailing. “We are not releasing any additional information other than the publishing relationship has ceased between Thomas Nelson and Mr. Barton, and we do not expect to publish his works in the future.”
However, Barton has defended The Jefferson Lies, citing Nelson never mentioned any concerns about the book, which made the New York Times best-seller list after its release.
“While Thomas Nelson may have ‘lost confidence’ in the work, others have not and the book has already been picked up by a much larger national publisher and distributor,” he wrote. “Even at the time Nelson dropped the work, [the company] admitted that it was still selling very well.”
As of earlier this week, The Jefferson Lies was still the top-selling book about Jefferson on Amazon.com, the New York Times reported. It also remains for sale on the website of WallBuilders, a pro-family organization founded by Barton that presents America’s history and heroes with an emphasis on its moral, religious and constitutional heritage.
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