history, law, and cite checks

[Malla Pollack]

One answer to judging reliability is to look at the citations.  Another
is to check for review articles, especially in historians' databases.
Many (if not most) university libraries can give you Historical
Abstracts on line.  Gordon Wood once quipped that the Supreme Court
flunked history.  Citing a case for a historical statement is,
therefore, usually worthless; unless you are writing a brief. I usually
follow up citations in any work I really rely on;  if the citations do
not support the proposition or cite to another secondary source I make
sure that I check the proposition in multiple other sources. As with law
review articles,  a historical piece that ignores the existence of
controversy is usually unreliable.

Malla Pollack
Visiting Assoc. Prof. of Law
Northern Illinois Univ., College of Law
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
815-753-1160; (fax) 815-753-9499
mallapollack at niu.edu