These days, once popular Benny Morris is not doing so well on the Norwegian market for historical fact. When he visited Oslo last Saturday, he got one measly mention in the Norwegian press, in little DagenMagazinet. This site has wagered one bottle of whisky that if Ilan Pappe was to drop by, he would make the front page of Dagsavisen the very next day. Sophie, NIJ’s woman in Akersgata – Oslo’s Fleet Street – tells us that it’s a safe bet and that the odds are on our side. Using Retriever, a media analysis tool, Sophie dug out the figures in the table below for you.This table, based on Retriever, shows us all mentions in the paper press the two historians have received.
| First mentioned | Mentioned in 2008 | Mentioned in total | |
| Benny Morris | 1986 | 19 | 96 |
| Ilan Pappe | 2000 | 28 | 58 |
As we can see, Benny Morris has been mentioned 96 times since 1986, averaging an annual 4 mentions. Ilan Pappe meanwhile, has received 58 mentions since 2000, chalking up an impressive 6,4 mentions pr. year. Moreover Mr.Pappe was mentioned a record 28 times in 2008 alone, while Mr.Morris only managed 19. The conclusion of this cursory analysis must neccessarily be that the market for historical fact increasingly prefers those of Mr.Pappe, and decreasingly those of Mr.Morris. Now why is this?
To find the answer to this query we need the 4 P’s of price, product, placement and promotion, for the most well-known works of the two historians. For Benny Morris, this is obviously The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. For Ilan Pappe, more arguably, it must be The Ethnic Clensing of Palestine.
| Author | Benny Morris | Ilan Pappe |
| Book | “The birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.” | “The Ethnic Clensing of Palestine” |
| Price |
NOK 379 |
NOK 153 |
| Product | 664 pages, detailed, primarily for historians. To blame for the Naqba: the 1948 war. | 153 pages, easy on the eye, for tha layman, tells of atrocities. To blame for the Naqba: Israel. |
| Placement |
|
|
|
Academica |
Yes. 12 titles available. |
Yes – in both English and Swedish. 14 titles available. |
|
Haugenbok |
No. |
No – but another title available. |
| Promotion |
See table above |
See table above |
Concluding, we see that Ilan Pappe beats Morris on price, placement and promotion. And as for product? Well, Pappe places the blame for the Naqba squarely on the shoulders of Israel, rather than confuse the issue with unneccessary detail. The fact that Ilan Pappe’s “Ethnic clensing” has been translated into Swedish is worthy of note.
Then again, Ilan Pappe’s increasing popularity among Norwegians might also be attributed to the author’s superior methodology and a higher degree of professional knowledge.
