Talk:American history wars

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Title concern

The title of the article doesn't seem well-supported by the body of the article. There is one NYTimes ref that uses the phrase in a headline (nowhere in the body of its article), and the other sources are specific to single issues. The article lacks any strong sources that address the title-topic as a whole, leading to the impression that the specifics in the body were solely selected by the editor as examples. It seems to be a WP:COATRACK. Schazjmd (talk) 13:30, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I added further references that directly use the term, including articles by its name in the Economist, the Yale Law Journal. I agree that this term is not vastly popular, but its use is undoubtedly used enough to warrant an article, particularly because of the History wars disambiguation page that contains articles about Australia's and Canada's history wars, which contain similar references (if perhaps in slightly larger quantity). Let me know if this needs further substantiation! User409584302 (talk) 01:49, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even with additional sources, this reads very much like a WP:ESSAY and a coatrack picking and choosing topics. Most of this is covered, and encyclopedically so, under Historiography of the United States. Dclemens1971 (talk) 02:23, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I just rewrote this to only discuss topics that are mentioned in sources specifically about the American history wars. I now think this justifies itself as an article as it covers the term much more specifically, and is a complement to Historiography of the United States. It is a bit short now, but it does its job. User409584302 (talk) 02:49, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But the article does not define what defines an "American history war." The current language ("ongoing academic and popular debates surrounding the character and culture of the United States") is basically the work of historiography. What is the reliably sourced, pre-existing standard (not original research) for deciding what is an "American history war"? Dclemens1971 (talk) 02:53, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How about the opening sentence in this cited article? It's the memetic extrapolation of Historiography of the United States: how it's taught, how it is used beyond. I don't see anything that Australian history wars is doing that this article isn't. Do you have suggestions? Is it just a better worded first sentence? User409584302 (talk) 03:37, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]