Editing David Irving (section)

===Irving's work in the late 1970s and early 1980s===
Months after the release of ''Hitler's War'', Irving published ''The Trail of the Fox'', a biography of ''Generalfeldmarschall'' [[Erwin Rommel]]. In it Irving attacked the members of the [[20 July plot]] to assassinate Hitler in 1944, branding them "traitors", "cowards", and "manipulators", and uncritically presented Hitler and his government's subsequent revenge against the plotters, of which Rommel was also a victim. In particular, Irving accused Rommel's friend and Chief of Staff General [[Hans Speidel]] of framing Rommel in the attempted coup. The British historian [[David Pryce-Jones]], in a book review of ''The Trail of the Fox'' in the edition of 12 November 1977 of ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', accused Irving of taking everything Hitler had to say at face value.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pryce-Jones |first=David |title=With Apologies to Adolf Hitler |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/20/archives/with-apologies-to-adolf-hitler-hitler.html |date=20 November 1977 |archive-date=13 November 2020 |access-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113015438/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/20/archives/with-apologies-to-adolf-hitler-hitler.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="adl profile"/>

In 1978, Irving released ''The War Path'', the companion volume to ''Hitler's War'' which covered events leading up to the war and which was written from a similar point of view. Again, professional historians such as [[Donald Cameron Watt]] noted numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Despite the criticism, the book sold well, as did all of Irving's books up to that date. The success of his books enabled Irving to buy a home in the prestigious [[Mayfair]] district of London, own a [[Rolls-Royce]] car and enjoy an affluent lifestyle.<ref>{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=52}}.</ref> In addition, Irving, despite being married, became increasingly open about his affairs with other women, all of which were detailed in his self-published diary. {{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=51}}. Irving's first marriage ended in divorce in 1981.<ref name="Independent Duff 2006">{{cite news |last1=Duff |first1=Oliver |title=David Irving: An anti-Semitic racist who has suffered financial ruin |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/david-irving-an-antisemitic-racist-who-has-suffered-financial-ruin-346741.html |access-date=9 March 2025 |work=The Independent |date=21 February 2006}}</ref>

In the 1980s, Irving started researching and writing about topics other than Nazi Germany, but with less success. He began his research on his three-part biography of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="Southern Poverty Law Center">{{cite web |title=David Irving |url=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/david-irving/ |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |access-date=9 March 2025}}</ref> After publication Irving's work on Churchill received at least one bad review from Professor [[David Cannadine]] (then of the [[University of London]]):

{{blockquote|It has received almost no attention from historians or reviewers ... It is easy to see why ... full of excesses, inconsistencies and omissions ... seems completely unaware of recent work done on the subject ... It is not merely that the arguments in this book are so perversely tendentious and irresponsibly sensationalist. It is also that it is written in a tone which is at best casually journalistic and at worst quite exceptionally offensive. The text is littered with errors from beginning to end.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/ |title=David Irving: Britain's Holocaust "revisionist" |publisher=Nizkor.org |access-date=2 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812023313/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/ |archive-date=12 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

In 1981, he published two books. The first was ''The War Between the Generals'', in which Irving offered an account of the Allied High Command on the Western Front in 1944–45, detailing the heated conflicts Irving alleges occurred between the various generals of the various countries and presenting rumours about their private lives. The second book was ''Uprising!'', about the [[1956 Hungarian Revolution|1956 revolt in Hungary]], which Irving characterised as "primarily an anti-Jewish uprising", supposedly because the Communist regime was itself controlled by Jews. Irving's depiction of Hungary's Communist regime as a Jewish dictatorship oppressing [[Gentiles]] sparked charges of [[antisemitism]].<ref name="Guttenplan 47">{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=47}}.</ref> In addition, there were complaints that Irving had grossly exaggerated the number of people of Jewish origin in the Communist regime and had ignored the fact that [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]] Communists who did have a Jewish background like [[Mátyás Rákosi]] and [[Ernő Gerő]] had totally repudiated Judaism and sometimes expressed antisemitic attitudes themselves.<ref name="observer 1981"/> Critics such as [[Neal Ascherson]] and [[Kai Bird]] took issue with some of Irving's language that seemed to evoke antisemitic imagery, such as his remark that Rákosi possessed "the tact of a [[kosher]] butcher".<ref name="Guttenplan 47" />

In 1982, Irving described himself as an "untrained historian" and argued that his lack of academic qualifications did not mean that he could not be considered a historian. He listed [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Tacitus]] as examples of historians without university training.<ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2002|pp=11–12}}</ref>