He has great plans. With 3,000 employees, the National Archives is often lost in the shadows of Washington's high-profile cultural institutions, the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. But it is responsible for keeping track of the official notes, e-mails and other records of American governance. It's the repository for, among other things, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights; the arrest records of Rosa Parks; the first report of the Titanic crashing into an iceberg; and the papers of a dozen presidents.
If the Smithsonian is the nation's attic, the Archives is the nation's sock drawer.
Allen Weinstein, whose appointment has some historians concerned about access, says "the archivist works for the American people."
(Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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"He who controls the archives controls the history," says Rick Shenkman, editor of the History News Network Web site (www.historynewsnetwork.org), which tracks the comings and goings of the profession. Last month Shenkman posted a story on his lively site in which a former university administrator says Weinstein was a "sloppy manager" of a Santa Barbara think tank in the 1980s. Weinstein wrote a reply, calling the charges against him "last-minute, twenty-year-old and reckless allegations" designed to complicate his confirmation.
Many historians are wondering if Weinstein will make sure that the Archives' documents of great historical value -- especially supersensitive presidential papers -- are open and available to all scholars or if he will engage in some sort of politically motivated subterfuge.
"This," Shenkman says, "is a very real debate."
Investigative reporter Scott Armstrong says, "Legally, the archivist has the authority to enforce the law that requires the preservation of government records and to pursue those people who destroy them. It is a felony to destroy public records."
Folks are divided on whether Weinstein will act as an independent archivist.
Jon Wiener has reservations. A history professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of the just-published "Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower," Wiener says Weinstein has not always practiced complete openness with his own archival materials.
"The Haunted Wood," Wiener says, referring to the 1999 book about Soviet espionage Weinstein wrote with a former KGB agent, "has a very peculiar archival base." He explains that Weinstein's publisher, Random House, paid a cadre of retired KGB agents for exclusive access to their archive. Then the archive was closed to other researchers.
"This is a violation of archival ethical guidelines," Wiener says. "It prevents other scholars from being able to check your work." Weinstein says he strongly urged Russian authorities to open the material to all scholars, but they chose not to.
These are the disorderly little things in life that drive historians and archivists batty.
A host of historians are also disturbed by the way that Weinstein got his job in the first place. In a surprising move, Weinstein was chosen last spring while John Carlin -- a Clinton appointee and a former governor of Kansas -- was still in office. Nearly two dozen professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, cried foul. The groups worried about "the politicization of the office," Wiener says.
"My concern was about the process being subverted," says Bruce Craig of the National Coalition for History, an advocacy group for the profession. "There is a law." The 1984 law, which created the National Archives and Records Administration, stipulated that the archivist will serve an indefinite term and can be removed only if the president gives a reason to Congress.
So far, President Bush has not given any reason for Carlin's dismissal and Weinstein's appointment. Speaking from his home in Olney, Carlin says he has no idea why he was fired. "I was assured they had no problem with what I was doing."
