Talk:Jim Powell (historian)

message: I have two concerns about this bio:
1: it was obviously written by a fan and I think the favorable POV, while not heavy-handed, is clearly present.  For example, the subject’s clear political bias on the right is never spelled out.  The article also does not mention critics of his work.
2: is this author important enough to warrant a bio?   If so, fine, but then I think the issues I mention under #1 need to be addressed.
Hanover81 00:25, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: Much of what is found on internet résumés is close to factual, but noticeably spun; this article was based almost solely on the résumé material from the Cato Institute. This résumé is clearly promotional. 
To make this worse, very little material other than book promotion material exists on the web; none factual as regards Powell views or, interestingly, even critical of his work. 
I’ve done what I can with it and this still reads like a puff piece. But it is closer to Wiki-standards. I turn this over to you fellow editors for further improvements. Williamborg (Bill) 02:22, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: thank you.  I added a bit more.  Powell is not a professional historian and has no training in that area, but his books are popular among his fellow libertarians so I tried to edit it a bit so that new readers would know that he writes from a particular perspective.  As for critical perspectives, other than comments made to me from my fellow historians, I have not located any reviews of his books by academic journals.  I will continue looking, however.  Hanover81 02:26, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article still reads like a "puff peice"  (& I did try)  

message: Based on most recent edits, I've removed the NPOV tag. Edit on!  Williamborg (Bill) 03:05, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  NPOV tag removed  

message: I removed the following sentence. "Unlike political historians and biographers, who focus on personalities, speeches, election campaigns and other aspects of a political story, Powell draws on research by economists, environmentalists, business historians, military historians and so on, with evidence about consequences"   I'm sorry, but only someone not trained as a historian would think this was unusual.  It's bragging that he follows a standard practice, although I note it does not mention that he uses original sources.  
I also re-added the sentence about his publisher.  Since Powell claims to be a historian I think it's importantant that his works are not published by academic presses but by a political publishing house with a particular ideological direction.  If mentioning Ann Coulter is a problem, then perhaps replace her with another author publsihed by the same press.
re-added sentence about his publisher AGAIN.  Since Powell wants to be considered a serious historian I think it's important that some sentence is necessary about his publisher being not an academic press, but a political press with a specific political leaning.  I did delete the mention of Ann Coulter.  Please stop just re-deleting this information.  Readers deserve to know if an author publishers his works using a particular press if that press has a specific agenda. Hanover81 01:44, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Funny how surveys of real historians from both left and right never agree with your assessments.  No doubt that's due to THEIR bias and not yours.   Hanover81
The truth hurts, doesn't it Hanover81?
===Publisher descriptions===
From the long comment above: Why doesn't Wikipedia mention the interests and biases of other publishers. Since most trade publishers mainly issue books expressing a liberal point of view, they might be reasonably labelled as liberal publishers. In any case, these big liberal publishers occasionally publish conservative or libertarian authors, so what does the prevailing point of view of such publishers say about the authors? I could quibble with some of that (I thought most US trade publishers put out books that are likely to make money), but on reflection I agree with the general point you're making. Whatever we'd say about FSG, Norton, etc., we'd both agree that most of Noam Chomsky's non-linguistics books are published by companies that deal with books that are left of center; a quick look at articles on this doesn't show any comment on (or indeed mention of) the publishers. -- Hoary 08:28, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  removed slam on historians 

message: From the long comment above: Why doesn't Wikipedia mention the interests and biases of other publishers. Since most trade publishers mainly issue books expressing a liberal point of view, they might be reasonably labelled as liberal publishers. In any case, these big liberal publishers occasionally publish conservative or libertarian authors, so what does the prevailing point of view of such publishers say about the authors? I could quibble with some of that (I thought most US trade publishers put out books that are likely to make money), but on reflection I agree with the general point you're making. Whatever we'd say about FSG, Norton, etc., we'd both agree that most of Noam Chomsky's non-linguistics books are published by companies that deal with books that are left of center; a quick look at articles on this doesn't show any comment on (or indeed mention of) the publishers. -- Hoary 08:28, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Publisher descriptions

message: This is a pretty ridiculously complete list. This is not Jim Powell's resumé. Imagine if we did this for Paul Erdös who wrote over 1500 mathematical articles in his lifetime! Pascal.Tesson 21:01, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. -- Hoary 11:14, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  what's with the list of articles? 

message: hey jim powell  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.8.212.137 (talk) 13:08, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  hey 

message: Can someone find out Jim Powell's full name? Could he write those infamous articles? Eyesighter (talk) 03:40, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is Jim Powell the same James B. Powell author of some Ron Paul's financial newsletters? 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Jim Powell (historian). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20041208164023/http://www.libertystory.net:80/LSABOUTJIMPOWELL.htm to http://www.libertystory.net/LSABOUTJIMPOWELL.htm
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thread_title:  External links modified