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David Irving pada tahun 2003
David John Caldwell Irving (lahir 24 Maret 1938) merupakan salah satu penulis dan sejarawan Britania Raya. Dia telah menulis kurang lebih 30 buku mengenai Perang Dunia II. Buku-buku David Irving banyak yang kontroversial dan kebanyakan orang menganggap ia bukanlah sejarawan namun penulis fiksi.[1] David Irving pada tahun 2006 sempat dipenjara di Austria karena dianggap penyangkal Holocaust. Penyangkalan Holocaust memang dilarang di sebagian negara Eropa, seperti Jerman dan Austria.
"In 1969, after David Irving's support for Rolf Hochhuth, the German playwright who accused Winston Churchill of murdering the Polish wartime leader General Sikorski, The Daily Telegraph issued a memo to all its correspondents. 'It is incorrect,' it said, 'to describe David Irving as a historian. In future we should describe him as an author.'" Ingram, Richard. Irving was the author of his own downfallDiarsipkan 2006-03-23 di Wayback Machine., The Independent, 25 February 2006.
"It may seem an absurd semantic dispute to deny the appellation of ‘historian’ to someone who has written two dozen books or more about historical subjects. But if we mean by historian someone who is concerned to discover the truth about the past, and to give as accurate a representation of it as possible, then Irving is not a historian. Those in the know, indeed, are accustomed to avoid the term altogether when referring to him and use some circumlocution such as ‘historical writer’ instead. Irving is essentially an ideologue who uses history for his own political purposes; he is not primarily concerned with discovering and interpreting what happened in the past, he is concerned merely to give a selective and tendentious account of it in order to further his own ideological ends in the present. The true historian’s primary concern, however, is with the past. That is why, in the end, Irving is not a historian." Irving vs. (1) Lipstadt and (2) Penguin Books, Expert Witness Report by Richard J. Evans FBA, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge, 2000, Chapter 6.
"...Irving has never examined and interpreted facts for the simple reason that he is not a historian. He twists or suppresses evidence to fit a foregone conclusion -- the opposite of what any reputable historian does." Taylor, Charles. Evil takes the standDiarsipkan 2007-10-12 di Wayback Machine., Salon.com, May 24, 2001. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
