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590 College & Research Libraries 

The appendices are useful. They in­
clude sample form letters for requesting 
permission to use copyrighted works. 
Other appendices include a copy of 
guidelines for minimum standards of 
educational use as determined by Con­
gress, as well as highlights of pertinent 
sections of copyright law. 

The book pays some consideration to 
new information and communication 
mediums, evidenced by its coverage of 
computer software licensing, the use of 
graphics on the Web, etc. Despite these 
examples, though, its overall attention to 
the impact of technology on copyright 
law interpretation is minimal. It does not 
mention electronic reserves at all. The 
value of the manual would have been 
enhanced by more discussion of the prob­
lems posed by new technologies. How­
ever, despite this small gap, Guidelines for 
Educational Use of Copyrighted Materials is 
an excellent digest of current copyright 
law—concise, practical, and easy to use. 
It takes a conservative approach to inter­
pretation of the law, erring (if at all) on 
the side of caution. But its advice is solid 
and practical—a safe course of action for 
those who are disinclined to test the 
boundaries of the law and a wise posi­
tion for the university administration to 
promulgate. It is useful to educators, in­
structional support personnel, and infor­
mation specialists in libraries, Web de­
sign, or computing labs. It condenses a 
relatively indigestible law into manage­
able and comprehensible information 
bites, providing a solid overview of copy­
right law as well as answers to specific 
application problems.—Janita Jobe, Uni­
versity of Nevada, Reno. 

Harwit, Martin. An Exhibit Denied: Lob­
bying the History of the “Enola Gay.” 
New York: Copernicus, 1996. 477p. 
$27.50, alk. paper (ISBN 0-387-94797­
3). LC 96-18676. 

Given the Supreme Court’s recent ruling 
that the National Endowment for the Arts 
must consider community standards of 
decency in allocating federal funds to art­
ists and arts venues (museums, libraries, 

November 1998 

etc.), it becomes ever more imperative that 
opponents of censorship understand how 
self-appointed arbiters of cultural prod­
ucts use the media and political lobbyists 
to circumscribe artistic and intellectual 
freedoms. Harwit’s book is an important 
contribution to such understanding. 

Call this book an “anatomy” of a case 
of censorship, and you will have an apt 
description. In 477 pages, Harwit, direc­
tor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Na­
tional Air and Space Museum (NASM) 
from 1987 until he was forced to resign in 
May 1995, describes in great detail the 
way lobbyists for veterans organizations 
caused the cancellation of a NASM exhibit 
that would have made a major contribu­
tion to the public’s knowledge of World 
War II. Titled “The Last Act: The Atomic 
Bomb and the End of World War II,” the 
exhibit was to feature the airplane that 
dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima 
on August 6, 1945, and was scheduled to 
open as part of commemorations sur­
rounding the fiftieth anniversary of the 
end of the war. It was controversial, but 
as becomes evident from Harwit’s book, 
the opposition was really quite a small, 
but powerful, part of the veteran commu­
nity. The book is organized chronologi­
cally and relies heavily on quotations 
from exhibit planning documents, label 
scripts, memos, correspondence, newspa­
per stories, and editorials. As Harwit 
notes, the extensive use of quotes was 
necessary given that much of the debate 
surrounding the exhibit hinged on words 
and phrases from the script, archival 
documents, and other sources. The quo­
tations allow the reader to judge the mer­
its of the debate. 

An Exhibit Denied tells a tragic and dis­
turbing story. The development, use, and 
ongoing manufacture of atomic weapons 
have become a central feature of modern 
life. As the guardians of the Enola Gay (a 
B-29 Boeing bomber), and as museum 
professionals charged to “collect, pre­
serve, and display aeronautical and space 
flight equipment of historical interest and 
significance . . . and [to] provide educa­
tional material for the historical study of 



Book Reviews 591 

aviation and space flight,” curators at 
NASM knew that any display of the air­
craft would be controversial. They knew 
that although many veterans might want 
to see the “Enola Gay” as part of a cel­
ebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 
end of the war, the way the war ended— 
with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki—was not considered by 
many people to be a celebratory event. 
Therefore, any display of the plane had 
to provide the public with information 
and artifacts that placed the Enola Gay’s 
mission within its historical context and 
that recognized the impact its mission had 
not only on the Japanese city it destroyed, 
but also on modern life around the world. 

NASM curators, working with advi­
sors from the academic community, from 
veterans organizations, and from Japan, 
created an exhibit that made accessible to 
the public the latest scholarship on this 
period, much of it based on recently de­
classified documents. The exhibit hon­
ored the men and women of the U.S. 
armed forces who served in the war, and 
treated with sensitivity the tragedy and 
horror of the atomic bombings. It also 
challenged several deeply held beliefs 
about the use of the atomic bomb. This 
challenge proved intolerable to a few 
individuals and organizations, and it is 
to Harwit’s credit that he presents the case 
in an even-handed and considerate man­
ner. The book maps in fine detail the in­
terplay during the exhibit’s planning be­
tween “five old men” (vets initially con­
cerned with the physical restoration of the 
Enola Gay) and the Smithsonian; between 
these men, veterans organizations, and 
members of Congress; between the 
Smithsonian Institution and the NASM; 
between the academic community and 
the museum; and between all of these and 
the media. 

In one revealing chapter, “The Media 
and a National Museum’s Defenses,” 
Harwit quotes from an interview given 
to the editor of Defense Week by the Air 
Force Association’s chief of media rela­
tions, Jack Giese. The AFA, an organiza­
tion that lobbies Congress on behalf of the 

Air Force and has a membership consist­
ing of veterans and military contractors 
(Boeing, Corning, McDonnell Douglas, 
GE, Unisys, etc.), was the main opponent 
of the NASM exhibit. In the interview, 
Giese describes how the AFA strategically 
fed the media with sound bites that sup­
ported its “spin” on the exhibit. Giese 
even boasts that although the AFA was 
free to feed its version of the debate to 
the press, Congress, and the public, the 
NASM was hampered (by rationality!) in 
responding to AFA criticisms. “I [Giess] 
come on the Today show. I’ve got my 
sound bites, boom they go to him [un­
named Smithsonian spokesperson]. He 
starts building a clock, talking about 
‘Well, you have to understand,’ He’s get­
ting no points across. He’s doing a ratio­
nal discussion. He does not know the 
media he is in.” The extent to which the 
media permitted itself to be force-fed by the 
AFA is indicated by a Defense Week editor writ­
ing in the American Journalism Review: 

The controversy was largely fueled 
by media accounts that uncritically 
accepted the conventional rationale 
for the bomb, ignored contrary his­
torical evidence, and reinforced the 
charge that the planned exhibit was 
a pro-Japanese, anti-American tract. 
. . . After members of Congress in­
tervened, the story, as covered by 
the media, degenerated into a shout­
ing match. . . . Reporters, columnists 
and editorial writers often used 
criticism by the AFA, the American 
Legion and other veterans’ groups 
as a club to beat on the museum. 
And while the public was continu­
ally informed about the veterans’ 
groups’ take on the exhibit plans, 
news organizations failed to report 
that a number of historians had ac­
tually praised the museum for its 
efforts. 

One of the important aspects of 
Harwit’s book is that it fully documents 
the ebb and flow of support given the 
exhibit, not only by academic historians, 



592 College & Research Libraries 

but also by military historians and 
Smithsonian administrators. Although he 
later would ignore the fact and campaign 
fiercely against the exhibit, Air Force his­
torian Richard Hallion, commenting in a 
February 1994 memo to Harwit on the 
first draft of the exhibit script, wrote: 
“Overall, this is a most impressive piece 
of work, comprehensive and dramatic, 
obviously based upon a great deal of 
sound research, primary and secondary.” 

Harwit also recounts the manner in 
which criticism from the academic and 
peace communities played into the hands 
of the AFA. Soon after the NASM cura­
tors announced they would be consult­
ing with the American Legion over 
changes to the exhibit script, several his­
torians voiced opposition to such collabo­
ration. Harwit writes: 

I felt the historians and pacifists had 
not been helpful. They criticized us 
for submitting to pressures from 
veterans’ groups without knowing 
what we had done or why. And they 
failed to make their own 
countervailing views known 
through the media or in Congress. 
That combination of criticism and 
political inactivity acted to add to 
the criticism advanced by the Air 
Force Association and other detrac­
tors, who often claimed that neither 
they nor the historians were happy 
with the exhibition. 

As one of the few people fortunate to 
have read both the first and final script 
for the exhibit, this reviewer shares 
Harwit’s aggravation toward the groups 
that should have rallied to support the 
NASM. The input from veterans groups 
did not pressure curators into betraying 
historical facts. The exhibit was greatly 
strengthened by all those who reviewed 
it, and NASM curators proved valiant in 
their determination to present the public 
with a comprehensive and objective ex­
hibit of a turning point in world history. 

An Exhibit Denied is recommended as 
a rare and fair eyewitness account of an 

November 1998 

important case of censorship. It will also 
provide educators with a fascinating 
glimpse of the battles waged within the 
contested terrain of public history. Les­
sons learned from the Enola Gay contro­
versy should guide librarians, educators, 
and all others who oppose censorship to 
be mindful of the tactics of censors and 
to be prepared to rapidly organize anti­
censorship forces when the opportunity 
arises.—Elaine Harger, W. Haywood Burns 
School, New York City. 

Research Misconduct: Issues, Implications, 
and Strategies. Eds. Ellen Altman and 
Peter Hernon. Greenwich, Conn.: 
Ablex, 1997. 206p. $73.25, cloth (ISBN 
1567503403); $39.50, paper (ISBN 
1567503411). LC 97-18061. 

This collection of eight essays explores the 
uncomfortable topic of research miscon­
duct from the perspective of its impact on 
libraries and librarians. Whether it is 
called research misconduct, academic dis­
honesty, or just plain fraud, the subject 
goes well beyond simple plagiarism and 
includes the intentional fabrication and 
falsification of scientific, medical, or aca­
demic research generally. This disconcert­
ing phenomenon seems to be occurring 
with increasing frequency among profes­
sionals of the intellect, but it is not a sub­
ject that university administrators or the 
heads of learned societies relish discuss-

Index to advertisers 
AIAA 499 
ACRL 571 
Archival Products 522 
BIOSIS 495 
Blackwell’s Book Srvcs 496 
R.R. Bowker cover 2 
Columbia University Press 584 
Endocrine Society cover 3 
Greenwood Publishing 585 
Haworth Press 534 
Library Technologies 511 
Minolta 544-545 
OCLC 502 
PNAS 523 
Primary Source Media cover 4