A Few Facts About the
Institute for Historical Review

The Institute for Historical Review is an educational, public interest research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of the past, and especially socially-politically relevant aspects of twentieth-century history. It strives especially to increase understanding of the causes, nature and consequences of war and conflict.

Founded in 1978, the IHR is non-partisan, non-ideological, and non-sectarian. It is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt enterprise.

The Institute’s offices are located in Orange County, southern California. Its director is Mark Weber, a historian who was educated in the US and Europe, and who specializes in twentieth-century American and European history.

The Institute operates as an entity of “Legion for the Survival of Freedom,” a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1952 and controlled by a responsible board of directors. Its work is funded through donations and bequests, and by sales of books, discs and tapes. As a 501(c)(3) enterprise, its budget is public, and donations to the IHR are tax-deductible. The identity of donors, though, is not made public.

With support from across the United States and many foreign countries, the IHR works to promote peace, understanding and justice in relations between nations and cultures. It ardently defends freedom of speech and freedom of historical inquiry.

The IHR works with scholars, writers and publicists who endeavor — sometimes at great personal sacrifice — to separate historical fact from propaganda fiction.

Devoted to truth and accuracy in history, the IHR continues the tradition of historical revisionism pioneered by distinguished historians such as Harry Elmer Barnes, A.J.P. Taylor, Charles Tansill, Paul Rassinier and William H. Chamberlin. The Institute’s strives, in the words of Barnes, to “bring history into accord with the facts.”

Global Impact

Defying powerful adversaries, the Institute has influence vastly out of proportion to its modest size and budget. Its impact is greater than that of any other comparable center or organization. Even its adversaries, such as the Zionist “Anti-Defamation League,” acknowledge the IHR’s effectiveness.

The IHR has been cited in the world’s leading newspapers and magazines. Institute spokesmen have been seen and heard by millions on radio and television, both in the US and abroad. Countless scholars, researchers and journalists have turned to the IHR for solid and reliable information.

Outreach and Publishing

The Institute’s website – www.ihr.org – routinely reaches tens of thousands of visitors across the US and around the world. It attracts many more visitors than the sites of much more prominent and better funded organizations. It is regularly updated with news and comment items from around the world, and with reports on the Institute’s work and impact. With its tremendous library and archives, the site also serves as a great learning center, globally informing and educating people.

The IHR keeps up a vigorous program of media outreach, including numerous interviews that regularly reach many hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners on stations in the US and over­seas, as well as through the Internet.

Since its founding, the IHR has published many books, booklets, leaflets and audio and video recordings. It brings long-neglected classics back into print, and breaks fresh ground with professionally edited and attractively designed first editions of significant new works. In addition to its own titles, the IHR distributes worthwhile books issued by other publishers. Many IHR books, essays and leaflets have been issued in a range of foreign languages.

As part of its routine work of promoting, processing and shipping educational materials, the IHR has over the years distributed many tens of thousands of books, leaflets, discs, tapes and other items – a record unmatched by any similar center or association.

Conferences

Over the years the IHR has organized 14 three-day conferences, as well as many meetings. Speakers have included:

• John Toland, Pulitzer prize-winning American historian, and author of several best-selling works of history.

• John Sack, veteran journalist, war correspondent, historian and novelist. This Jewish-American writer is the author of nine non-fiction books.

• Tony Martin, professor of African studies at Wellesley College (Massachusetts).

• Paul “Pete” McCloskey, former U.S. Congressman (Rep.-Calf.). This U.S. Marine Corps veteran braved enemy fire in Korea, opposed Richard Nixon on Capitol Hill, and spoke out against Israel’s violations of U.S. law and the deceit of the Israel-first Anti-Defamation League.

• Tom Sunic, author, scholar and former political science professor and diplomat.

• James J. Martin, an American historian with a 25-year career as an educator. Author of several meticulously researched historical studies.

• Joseph Sobran, author, lecturer, and nationally-syndicated columnist.

• David Irving, British historian and author of numerous bestselling works.

• Hideo Miki, retired professor at Japan’s National Defense Academy and retired Lieutenant General of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

• John Bennett, noted Australian civil liberties attorney and activist, and president of the Australian Civil Liberties Union.

Audio and video recordings of IHR Conference addresses are available.

The Journal of Historical Review

For more than 20 years the IHR published The Journal of Historical Review. Altogether 96 issues were published.

Hundreds of Journal articles and reviews covering a wide range of historical, political, current affairs and cultural topics, along with IHR leaflets and other IHR items, can be downloaded from the Institute’s well-organized website. And all Journal issues, with the complete text of every article and review, are available on a single computer-readable disc. Many Journal articles have been reprinted, translated and circulated worldwide, or have been widely disseminated through the Internet

The Holocaust Issue

Since its founding, IHR books, articles and conference speakers have dealt with a broad range of historical topics. But probably the best-known and most controversial aspect of its work has been its treatment of the Holocaust issue.

The IHR is sometimes mischaracterized as a “Holocaust denial” organization. This smear is completely at variance with the facts. The Institute does not “deny the Holocaust.” Every responsible scholar of twentieth century history acknowledges the great catastrophe that befell European Jewry during World War II.

All the same, the IHR has published detailed books and numerous probing essays that call into question aspects of the orthodox Holocaust extermination story, and highlight specific Holocaust exaggerations and falsehoods. IHR publications have devoted considerable attention to this issue because it plays an enormously significant role in the cultural and political life of America and much of the world. As a number of Jewish scholars have acknowledged, the “Holocaust” campaign is a major weapon in the Jewish-Zionist arsenal. It is used to justify otherwise unjustifiable Israeli policies, and to extort enormous sums of money, especially from European countries and companies.  

In some countries – including France, Germany, Austria and Israel – it is a crime to dispute the official or orthodox view of “the Holocaust.” Many persons who have challenged the official view of this chapter of history have been imprisoned, fined and forced into exile.

Bigoted Attacks

The IHR steadfastly opposes bigotry of all kinds in its efforts to promote greater public understanding of history. It does not seek to whitewash any past regime or rehabilitate any ideology. The IHR is proud of the backing it has earned from people of the most diverse political views and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

A featured speaker at the 13th IHR Conference (May 2000) was John Sack, who is Jewish. A report by this veteran American journalist and author based on his participation in the three-day meeting appeared in the February 2001 issue of Esquire magazine. Rejecting the often-repeated lie that the IHR and its supporters are “haters” or bigots, Sack described those who spoke at and attended the IHR conference as “affable, open-minded, intelligent [and] intellectual.” He also affirmed that numerous revisionist arguments and findings are, indeed, true.

The Institute has been a target of authentic hate groups. It has come under repeated assault from the Jewish Defense League – identified as a terrorist group by the FBI. On July 4, 1984, the JDL destroyed the Institute’s office and warehouse in a major arson attack. Estimated property loss was more than $400,000, including tens of thousands of books, rare documents, irreplaceable files and expensive office equipment. This fire-bombing climaxed a months-long campaign by the JDL that included numerous death threats by telephone and mail, extensive property damage, five relatively minor fire bombings, one drive-by shooting and two physical assaults.

In addition, major Jewish-Zionist groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center (Los Angeles) and the Anti-Defamation League (New York) have for years smeared the IHR, maliciously misrepresenting its work and purpose.

For Peace And Understanding

Bitter experience has taught us to be skeptical of the pronouncements of politicians and governments, especially during wartime when official and semi-official propagandists are most busy deceiving the public. As American historian Harry Elmer Barnes put it: “Truth is always the first war casualty. The emotional disturbances and distortions in historical writing are greatest in wartime.”

Powerful interests – including politicians and the major media – often distort the historical record for self-serving reasons. Textbooks, motion pictures and television routinely present history in a slanted and partisan way. As George Orwell aptly noted in his classic Nineteen Eighty-Four: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

Americans have been misled into one costly, destructive and needless war after another. In the months leading up to the 2003 US attack against Iraq, for example, government officials and much of the media deceived the public to justify the invasion and occupation of that country.

The Institute does not merely oppose war. It forthrightly identifies the forces that push for war. The IHR speaks factually and effectively about the Jewish-Zionist grip on America’s cultural and political life, World War II lies, distortions of Middle East history, myths about the Israel-Palestine conflict, the corrosive impact of “Holocaust” propaganda, and much more – educating the thoughtful public with solidly referenced books, articles, reviews and recordings.

An awareness of factual history provides understanding about the great issues of the present and the future. The work of the IHR in “blasting the historical blackout” (Barnes) has never been more relevant or important. In the global struggle against historical lies and self-serving propaganda, the Institute for Historical Review stands as a precious bulwark and beacon.