Did Buchanan Plagiarize this Map of Germany After Versailles? Scott Manning July 3, 2008

Did Buchanan Plagiarize this Map of Germany After Versailles? You be the judge.

In Patrick J. Buchanan's Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War", he uses a map (Buchanan, p. 82) to show how Germany was carved up after the Treaty of Versailles. There is another map (Gilbert, p. 144) in a book by Martin Gilbert that appears very similar.

Similarities

• Similar topic: "Germany After Versailles" and "Germany in Defeat" both showing how Germany was carved up after World War I
  
  
• Same region focus
  
  
• Same key in the mid-left region to show "Principal German Losses". Wording and terminology is the same.
  
  
• Same key on the lower right-hand side. Buchanan even uses the same coloring method. Solid color for territory lost, stripes for territory retained, and territory retained with no fortifications.
  
  
• The same cities and regions all have sub-text. In some cases, it's the exact same text.
  

Buchanan's map is first. Gilbert's map is second. Click the pictures for a larger size.

Something that should be considered when looking at these two maps is the Introduction and Preface to Martin Gilbert's book.

The Introduction was written by Field-Marshal Montgomery when the book was first published in 1970.

The idea of teaching history by a series of maps was new to me until Martin Gilbert's historical atlas of British history had come my way. I was at once intensely interested and later studied those of other countries and nations which he published. Such historical facts cannot fail to be of real value to students in schools and universities; they would look through a window, as it were, at the subject before getting down to a details study-which is, of course, essential. (Gilbert, p. vi)

The Preface is written by Martin Gilbert in which he states the following.

The principal books upon which I have drawn for both facts and ideas are listed in the bibliography at the end of the volume. (Gilbert, p. vii)

References

Buchanan, Patrick J. Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War". New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2008.

Gilbert, Martin. The Routledge Atlas of the First World War, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2002.

More on the "Unnecessary War"

The commentary on Patrick J. Buchanan's book doesn't stop here. We've discovered more questionable historical analysis, hacked quotes, copied maps, and flat-out mistakes in the book. Read more here.