Interned Minds: Issues of Historical Interpretation in Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment

This essay discusses the controversial work by Michelle Malkin (2004) entitled In Defense of Internment. Malkin is an ex-FOX news commentator in the United States who supports racial profiling in the war on terrorism. Malkin explores historical questions related to Japanese-American internment during World War II as a justification for a new policy on racial profiling. Her book offers us a chance to look at how history can be used to buttress anti-democratic policies. Sharply rebuked by many American historians, this treatise possesses problematic methodological issues and raises serious questions in terms of the direction that democracy should take with civil liberties. As part of the open debate that she promotes, this paper addresses some of the more critical errors in her historical analysis and polemical work, which she continues to promulgate on her personal website in rationalizing the concept of objective discrimination.