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Stanford history professor questions role of historians as researchers for the defense in such a lawsuit

Four University of Florida graduate students who did research for a tobacco company's legal defense have been caught in a debate over the role of historians in such cases.

The controversy stretches from Gainesville to Palo Alto, Calif., where Stanford University history professor Robert Proctor has publicly identified and criticized historians who work for the tobacco industry. Proctor's discovery that UF graduate students in history were working for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. attorneys led him to e-mail objections to a UF professor, Betty Smocovitis.

Their e-mail exchange caused a legal dispute about whether Proctor tampered with witnesses. Last month, a Volusia County circuit court judge issued a harsh rebuke that said Proctor had intended to harass and humiliate the students to either resign or run the risk of being exposed in national publications...

... Over the past few decades, historians have been witnesses and consultants for tobacco companies. In recent years, Proctor has written about whether historians who lack expertise on the history of tobacco and its health effects should be doing such work.

Proctor is also one of a few historians who testified for plaintiffs suing the tobacco industry. He said the industry was now trying to silence him...
Read entire article at The Gainesville Sun