Template:Did you know nominations/Gerald Feldman

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by BlueMoonset (talk) 23:13, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Gerald Feldman

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... that Gerald Feldman, an American historian, conducted research and published books on the role of business in Nazi Germany?

Created by Pass3456 (talk). Nominated by Orlady (talk) at 05:07, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Subject is notable, article is new and long enough, and hook is supported by inline citations. I would suggest that the article could be expanded in these areas (1) A statement in the lead paragraph about his area of specialization as a historian; (2) A statement in the body of the article specifying his university degree (I gather he had a doctorate in history), and the fact that he became preeminent in the field of business history although he had no formal training in economics (citations 1 and 3 mention this); (3) A statement in the body of the article concerning his publications (citation 3 mentions 'more than 27 books (some co-authored or edited), and more than 100 scholarly articles; (4) Perhaps something on the personal level (several cited articles mention his passion for opera and his qualities as a lecturer and mentor of students). I would also suggest that under the heading 'Books', the titles should be italicized, and full bibliographic information should be provided, as this is an article about an academic. NinaGreen (talk) 17:36, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the review. Normally, DYK doesn't insist that articles be thoroughly developed before they are nominated -- although I (as well as others) have been known to insist that a biographical article needs to include more than stub-level documentation of the subject's notability. This article definitely could be expanded, but I think it's adequate for DYK. Particularly considering that this is the article creator's first new article (after a lot of experience here at Wikipedia), I'm not inclined to nitpick over niceties of formatting or inclusion of additional interesting details. Regarding the specific suggestions made: (1) The lead already includes the statement "specialized in 20th-century German history". (2) Good point -- I added information about his doctorate and corrected some misinformation about his dissertation. I don't think his lack of formal training in economics is a necessary element of his biography. (3) I added an introductory sentence to the "Books" section in the article, to make it clear that the list is incomplete. I don't see a value in saying that he published more than a hundred scholarly articles -- that's not at all unusual for a notable academic, and article count is not by itself an indicator of notability. (4) Regarding his personal life, I did add family details and cause of death (details that good bios usually include, when the info is available), but I don't see passion for opera as a vital important element of his bio. --Orlady (talk) 18:49, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Formatted bibliography. --Pass3456 (talk) 20:56, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Fair enough. Good to go, although I'm inclined to think formatting of the bibliography of an academic's publications is important, and I'm also inclined to think that an article should be as fully developed as possible before a DYK nomination because Wikipedia is showcasing it. But I'm new to reviewing, so I'll keep your comments in mind in future reviews. NinaGreen (talk) 19:38, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
Pass3456, thanks for formatting the bibliography. It makes for a professional product. I was glad to learn about Feldman via your article. NinaGreen (talk) 02:04, 5 January 2013 (UTC)