Article is simplistic

I was happy to see the Daily Forty-Niner run Crystal Whiters article ("The big payback - reparations are due" published in the University of Illinois Daily Illini) in the Sept. 11th edition, though it is rather simplistic and contains a number of inaccuracies. The topic of official apologies and restitution for historical injustices is indeed part of a wave of revisionism that focuses on the victims and has resulted, in some instances, in  (usually limited) efforts to recompense or correct past injustices.

A very carefully researched and extensive new study has just been published by a history professor at Claremont Graduate University, Elazar Barkan: "The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices" (Norton).

Barkan gives a well-balanced and fascinating account of the most important restitution claims in recent decades.

--Dr. Jutta Birmele
german studies professor