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The IHR publishes the Journal of Historical Review, which its critics accuse of being pseudo-scientific. When Noam Chomsky published in the journal it led to great controversy, though Chomsky insists he was defending Dr. Robert Faurisson's right to free speech rather than any specific claim.
For a period of time, the IHR publicly offered a reward of $50,000 for verifiable "proof that gas chambers for the purpose of killing human beings existed at or in Auschwitz." This reward was subsequently paid to an Auschwitz survivor, Mel Mermelstein, who took the IHR to court for breach of contract for initially ignoring the plaintiff's evidence.
The Institute for Historical Review was originally founded by Willis Carto, the head of the now-defunct Liberty Lobby, who eventually lost control of the IHR in an internal takeover struggle. Liberty Lobby was best known for publishing a newspaper, The SPOTLIGHT, now reorganized as the American Free PressThe American Free Press is a weekly newspaper in the United States. It was founded in 2001 by Willis Carto as the successor to The Spotlight which ceased publication in 2001 when its parent company, Liberty Lobby, was forced into bankruptcy. Like The Spot.