Regnery Publishing

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Unfit for Command, published by Regnery Publishing.

Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C. is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York."[1] Regnery Publishing, a sister company of Human Events, has been a division of Eagle Publishing since 1993. Regnery is currently led by President Marjory Ross, who had previously served as Vice President under President Al Regnery, son of the company's founder, until 1997.

History

Regnery Publishing was founded in 1947 as Henry Regnery Company by Henry Regnery, located in Chicago, Illinois. It originally had a close affiliation with the University of Chicago, and published classics for the Great Books series at the University. Regnery's first three books were In Darkest Germany, and Hitler in Ourselves, by Victor Gollancz and The High Cost of Vengeance by Freda Utley.[1] Among the first controversial books it published was God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, Jr. (1951).

In the 1980s, Alfred S. Regnery, son of Henry Regnery, took control of the company. In the 1990s, the Regnery family sold the publishing company to Phillips Publishing, which put the book publishing company into its Eagle Publishing subsidiary, which also publishes the weekly Human Events. Alfred Regnery has subsequently left his post as President of Regnery Publishing to become the publisher of the conservative American Spectator magazine. He still holds a seat on the Board of Directors. Pat Sajak is also a member of the board. Alex Novak, son of political columnist Robert Novak, is director of marketing.

Controversy and criticism

Regnery has become noteworthy, apart from authors of its books, because of its penchant for political controversy with a high profile on the national stage. It recently launched a series of books titled "The Politically Incorrect Guide to" (multiple subjects), confronting what it conceives to be the assumptions of the nation's elites, sometimes negatively described as political correctness. The Politically Incorrect Guides have often been referred to by their backronym PIGS by supporters and opponents alike. Former Regnery officials have described its marketing strategy as getting its conservative books condemned by the New York Times, generating very large sales to conservatives as a result. [citation needed]

In June 2004, Regnery agreed to publish Unfit for Command by former Swift Boat Veteran John O'Neill and veteran author Dr. Jerome Corsi. Television advertisements about Presidential candidate John Kerry's criticisms of U.S. soldiers and his own military record in Vietnam were unveiled nationwide at about the same time as Unfit for Command was released, creating shortages of the book in bookstores nationwide. [citation needed] The book exceeded 1 million copies in print.

The Kerry campaign demanded that Regnery cease publication and distribution of Unfit for Command, saying that there were inaccuracies in the book about John Kerry's war record and anti-war activities at home. Regnery responded by offering to print and distribute a reply book by John Kerry, suggesting "Winter Soldier" on the same subject matter which Kerry authored in the 1970s.

In describing Regnery's position in the publishing world, Nicholas Confessore, then writer for the liberal American Prospect, said,

Welcome to the world of Regnery Publishing—lifestyle press for conservatives, preferred printer of presidential hopefuls, and venerable publisher of books for the culture wars. Call it—gracelessly but more accurately—a medium-sized, loosely linked network of conservative types, with few degrees of separation and similar political aims. Just don't call it a conspiracy.[2]

Regnery has published books by authors such as Newt Gingrich, former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour, Barbara Olson, and Ann Coulter.

Carl Ernst, an academic scholar of Islamic studies, says that the Regnery Publishing is 'promoted and supported by right-wing organizations, who are perpetuating a type of bigotry similar to anti-Semitism and racial prejudice.' As an example, Ernst notes that Robert Spencer, whom Ernst views as an Islamophobe, publishes some of his books through Regnery.[3]

Regnery Publishing has put out many controversial books. For example, in The Secret Life of Bill Clinton (1997), British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, "manages to connect the president to everything from 1995's Oklahoma City bombing to Arkansas's drug underworld to the mysterious death of White House aide and longtime Clinton friend Vince Foster, and, of course, to Paula Jones."[4]

Ben Domenech

In 2006, Regnery editor Ben Domenech resigned under pressure for repeated plagiarism, even though this occurred in his writing outside of his Regnery duties. Domenech was accused of appropriating a chapter from P.J. O'Rourke's 1990 book "Modern Manners" for an editorial in The Flat Hat, a weekly student newspaper at William and Mary.[5] O'Rourke denied Domenech's claim that the author had been granted permission to use his words, adding that he couldn't recall ever meeting the college student.[6]

Domenech resigned from Regnery Publishing on March 21, 2006.[7][8] The well-known Washington media blog Wonkette subsequently cited an unnamed source at Regnery who said that the Post affair gave Regnery convenient cover for getting rid of a poor performer who neglected his editorial responsibilities to make connections and advance his political career. The source alleged that he had displeased Michelle Malkin by removing a 27-word passage from her book Unhinged.[9] Regnery production staff denied this, saying the omission was a "layout error" and not Domenech's fault.

Publications

Books

Books published by Regnery include:

The Politically Incorrect Guides

Regnery publishes The Politically Incorrect Guide™ (P.I.G.) addressing issues in "a concise overview" (no more than 80,000 words) in each book.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.regnery.com/regnery/regnery.html
  2. ^ Hillary Was Right from The American Prospect
  3. ^ Link from a course website of Prof. Carl Ernst
  4. ^ Ambrose Evans-PritchardThe Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories. ISBN 0895264080
  5. ^ Original blog entry
  6. ^ New York Times online, Washington Post Blogger Quits After Plagiarism Accusations, Julie Bosman, March 25, 2006.
  7. ^ : I Am Surprisingly Fair to My Old Bosses
  8. ^ Domenech's account to Wonkette echoed that of Regnery Publishing vice president and executive editor Harry Crocker, as quoted by Human Events Online
  9. ^ Fireproofing His Master's House
  10. ^ In Defense of My Book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History By Thomas Woods, Jr.

External links

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