The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 18 February 2022 [1].


The May Pamphlet[edit]

Nominator(s): czar 19:18, 9 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

One spring day in New York City, the irascible Paul Goodman marched into his World War II draft interview with these anarchist essays under his arm as a prop or perhaps totem that would show his country just how unfit for service he was. While the military immediately understood, it would take another 15 years for his country to hear. While largely forgotten today, Goodman was namechecked in Annie Hall as a prevailing public intellectual of the American mid-century: Dutch uncle to the 1960s counterculture, philosopher of the New Left, and the country's most prominent living anarchist. Goodman's career consisted of revealing mystic truths about the need to live out one's own animal instinct and the larger society's unfulfilled duty in fostering those impulses. The May 1945 essays that became known as the May Pamphlet outline Goodman's application of Reichian psychological theory to anarchist politics in the interregnum between the social revolutionary class warfare of turn-of-the-century classical anarchism and the rise of personal politics-focused, late-20th century contemporary anarchism. You can see Goodman bridge the twain in these very essays as he confronts the impossibility of large-scale social change by calling not for a massive social revolution but for an inward reformation: to instead realize one's own innate, individual powers and form a new society by living intentionally within the shell of the old.

Hopefully that's enough exposition to convince you to read this little article I've been incubating for the past several years, with debts to reviews from @Eddie891, Z1720, and Grapple X. It is part of a larger project to better cover Goodman's works and other major written landmarks of anarchism on Wikipedia. Let me know what you think? czar 19:18, 9 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Quick comments:

This looks very good and I look forward to reading it properly (along with the book itself) in the coming weeks.

Source review - spotchecks not done. Version reviewed

@Nikkimaria, thanks and updated! Goodway 1999 is the same as the linked Google Books reprint. (Earthscan is a Routledge company.) I only linked Google Books for ease of verification but can either remove the link or instead swap the reference for Goodway 2006, which repeats the same claim verbatim, if preferable. Let me know if you would like scans of any of the sources. czar 16:19, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Would suggest clarifying in the citation that it's a reprint. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:25, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The citation is not a reprint though—it's correct as written. Only the link is a reprint, and it has the exact same page numbering. Most citation links are a courtesy. I wouldn't remove the page numbers if I linked a web version without page numbers, etc. czar 02:00, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Vaticidalprophet[edit]

This is a fascinating article! Saving my spot.

The first comment I'll have to give, unfortunately, is that I completely agree with Indopug about the "libertarian (anarchist)[a]" repetition -- it consistently dragged me out of the article as I read. The use in the lead is good, because it contextualizes why a term confusing to a modern audience was applied to this part of concept-space. The following uses would all be net improvements if substituted with "anarchist" (or "libertarian socialist", depending which is contextually preferred for each mention). Vaticidalprophet 05:48, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Vaticidalprophet, thank you! And that's fair. I've reworded where context permits and kept the translation/repetition to the few parts where it's necessary to historicize Goodman's words. Tricky stuff, this. czar 06:45, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, it's a tricky balance. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets tweaked again a few times in the course of FAC; there are a few ways one could defensibly put it, and not many good models at FA level of articles with similar terminology issues (though I know some at GA level). I'll come back to start leaving comments in...the next couple days at most, hopefully; I'm reviewing a couple articles at GAN too so I'm between a few places, but feel free to drop a note on my talk I don't currently have pings on and I'm not sure if or when I'll put them back if I'm not here by the end of the week. Vaticidalprophet 21:08, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved comments
General[edit]
  • Image query: You mentioned to Indopug earlier that there are no free images of Goodman, but are we actually sure of that? His life overlaped suitably with the periods where image copyright was much harder to secure than it is now, and I imagine anarchists weren't dotting the Is and crossing the Ts of every copyright notice -- you've already been able to find some other PD images under the same principle. Calling this a query, not any sort of request, because it's more of an idea of something that if it pans out could be used to improve the article's illustration than an actual point of contention -- but it'd certainly be nice if it panned out.
    • There are no dust jacket or inside author portraits in the HathiTrust (public domain) scans and the Library of Congress didn't have anything easy on file when I checked. I've been to all of his major archives and no images jumped out as being potentially public domain. These early libertarian/anarchist journals are a little different in that they were tiny so had a high chance of not having their copyright renewed but they also didn't print illustrations (because they were small). I'd like to reach out to his estate eventually and ask but just wanted a little more to show for it first. czar 22:40, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • Very thorough -- certainly this article and the main Goodman one are high enough quality that you'll have quite a bit to show them :) No worries. Vaticidalprophet 05:01, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • The footnote dips momentarily into parenthetical referencing, which is no longer good practice.
    • Its a footnote in a footnote so I can just drop the parentheses and leave it with no brackets, if that's better. czar 22:40, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • Sensu stricto the deprecated style is putting the reference in the flow of text at all, but as you say, footnote in a footnote -- I'm not the sort to press on that kind of detail. Vaticidalprophet 05:01, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Lead[edit]
  • Again, a query: would some reference to the genesis in Goodman's draft interview be due here?
    Eh, I'd consider it trivia for the lede. Perhaps a good hook for FAC, though :) czar 23:12, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • You have some heavy repetition of "anarchist" here (which is an improvement on heavy repetition of "libertarian (anarchist)[a]", but nonetheless worth keeping an eye on). The reader can be assumed, from the fact the article opens with "is a collection of six anarchist essays", to know the subject matter. I'm specifically looking at the line The anarchist essays were not well known, which is better rendered as simply The essays were not well known.
    Yes, that's leftover from yesterday's changes. I've dialed it down. czar 23:12, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Do small, New York and small, anarchist need those commas? (Also look for later uses of similar sentence structure -- I've spotted it in some of the other sections, but not yet combed through them.) This might be a matter of individual dialect, so I'm not certain, but at least from my dialect's eye it looks off.
    It's stylistic. I used to not include commas between adjectives but was once taken to task for that at a FAC many moons ago, so now I do because why not—it adds a little clarity. Nothing in the MoS that I know of, though. czar 23:12, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Later sections to come. Vaticidalprophet 21:20, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Publication[edit]
  • The listing of the two bluelinked journals beside each other in the list of three creates somewhat of a MOS:SEAOFBLUE -- at first glance I read Politics, Why? as the name of one journal (certainly sounded a plausible one...). I note Retort (journal) exists as a redirect, and while not in-depth, there's enough in the way of basic names-and-dates to get value from the link. Alternatively, you could move the names around to prevent the sea.
    Politics, Why? is an acceptable summary of this article. Rephrased. czar 05:46, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is one-man publisher re. Vinco supposed to be read as meaning it was essentially Goodman's personal imprint he published his own books under, or that it was a (very) small press run by someone else publishing multiple authors, or some intermediate point?
    As small as a press can be, as in barely a press. Do you think it needs further clarification? czar 05:46, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    I wasn't so much confused as to how many people were involved with it (the "one-man" part was clear) as to whether the one man was Goodman himself, self-publishing with an imprint, or if it was a different sole proprieter running a small press. The linked source is useful clarification, so it might be nice to add some of that in the article, as it also serves the purpose of explaining why Vimco went out of business/why other people were publishing its unsold books. Vaticidalprophet 06:45, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    Done czar 03:33, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(Finding I don't have too many comments :) ) Vaticidalprophet 05:01, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Synopsis[edit]

Sorry about the gap -- I've had inconsistent computer access for the past week, but it should improve soon. This section is in good shape (and I find the list of essays defensible; I'm at pre-FAC PR for an essay collection myself, and it really is difficult to figure out how to format that kind of thing). My only query here regards "Revolution, Sociolatry, and War", the fifth essay, was first published in Politics as an anarchist response to Marxist theory typical for the magazine -- should this be read as saying Marxism was the typical allegiance of the magazine, and Goodman was writing an anarchist response to its usual takes, or that the usual take was anarchist interpretations of Marxism? The current phrasing is slightly unclear. Vaticidalprophet 00:35, 27 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Good point—rephrased czar 04:06, 27 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Inclined to support. I read through the remaining sections and couldn't spot any nits I want to pick. This is excellent work and a good read. Vaticidalprophet 01:50, 28 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments Support from Kavyansh[edit]

That is it. Excellent work on the article! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:09, 24 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Appreciate the review, @Kavyansh.Singh! Believe I've addressed your points in the text, when you have a moment to review. czar 03:33, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Great work! I am satisfied with the changes made. Happy to support! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 16:15, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source review - pass[edit]

I will review over the coming week. As a first comment, I think that the footnote should be better sourced. I'm sure that we can find academic and footnoted works explaining the relationship between "libertarianism" and "anarchism". JBchrch talk 18:19, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, @JBchrch—looking forward to it! Let me know if you need copies of any of the sources.
re: the footnote, I believe I've picked the best source for the job and I linked to the full article I wrote on the definition for those who want further detail. czar 18:38, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much for your offer @Czar. Fortunately I have institutional access to a lot of online sources and a good library close-by so I don't expect to be bothering you too much.
I was hoping you would accept my suggestion because, unless I've missed something, the claim During the time of The May Pamphlet and as invoked by Goodman, "libertarian" was synonymous with anarchism, does not seem to be verified in Marshall 1992. What I’m reading is "The word 'libertarian' has long been associated with anarchism" and below "For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchist". The concept of the two words being synonymous in America in the 40s does not appear to be clear from the source. JBchrch talk 21:21, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I see. Would this addition satisfy your suggestion? czar 22:05, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks it does. Do we still need to leave During the time ... with anarchism (anti-authoritarian socialism). in footnote b then? Could it be removed? Also, as a suggestion for improvement, perhaps consider paraphrasing Cohen in footnote instead of a straight quote. JBchrch talk 00:41, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done czar 01:30, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I'm going to be a bit more of an annoyance than Vaticidalprophet above and suggest that you put the last part of the footnote between <ref></ref> tags. WP:PARREF is not entirely explicit on this point, but Template:Harvard citation no brackets#Usage interprets the RfC as saying that harv citations may only be used inside of such tags. JBchrch talk 01:31, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The RfC was about inline parenthetical referencing, not how ((harvnb)) (nb = no parentheticals) could be used. For all intents and purposes, it already is within ref tags—i.e., it already is a footnote—the same as a standard harv footnote just with extra text, similar to how scholarly monographs do it. If you prefer, I can shove the full citation into the note instead of using the short footnote? But having a footnote within a footnote would be an inelegant solution. czar 01:53, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The thing is that the template docs for both Template:Harv and Template:Harvnb were updated to reflect a deprecation of their use outside of ref tags (the latter being a transclusion of the former), seemingly without controversy, and thus seem to reflect the implicit consensus on what the rules are... and I'm just the guy doing the source review 🤷‍♂️. I really don't see the issue about references inside of footnotes, though. Looks at this recent FA, for instance: Louis_Rwagasore#Notes. JBchrch talk 02:18, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I went poking through the harv template talk page to see if this was raised before (it was) and what the solution was (this). By that read, use of shortened/harv text within ((efn)) is kosher. (To the issue of references inside of footnotes, I've done this myself in other articles, but it then takes three clicks to get from article text to efn to sfn to full citation, which is what I meant by inelegant, hence why I'd want our readers to avoid that experience.) czar 04:12, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for linking to this discussion, which I had missed. I'm going to accept that the state of the consensus on harv references outside of refs tags but inside of a Template:efn is not clear, and "pass" that specific citation form. However, I will definitely push for a clarification of the docs after this. JBchrch talk 14:11, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Czar sorry for the delay, but I've not forgotten this. I'm planning on finishing the overall review tonight and do spot checks over the week-end. JBchrch talk 15:11, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Three comments:

Spot checks[edit]

Stoehr 1977b

Stoehr 1994a

Widmer 1980

Honeywell 2011

Cornell 2016

Genter 2002

Smith 2001

Additional spot checks:

Widmer 1980

King 1972

Cornell 2016

Source review is a pass. JBchrch talk 00:59, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Image review[edit]

All images have a copyright tag indicating that they were produced without a copyright notice. The source URL doesn't show any notice but I am not sure if they show the cover page of the pamphlets/journals which is where I would expect the tag if there were one. Is there some kind of structure to image placement? ALT is passable but slightly longish. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 12:37, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, @Jo-Jo Eumerus. There are full issues of the journals available online too, which I checked for copyright notices. Politics was the only one with such a notice but I did not find a renewal in the Stanford search. re: structure to placement, I put covers in the lede for basic identification and title pages of the essays near the contents in the order in which they appeared. czar 14:47, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
OK, that only leaves the ALTs. Can they be made shorter? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 15:06, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Jo-Jo Eumerus, yes, done! czar 03:15, 1 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like this is a pass image review wise. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:50, 1 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Bilorv[edit]

Finally found the time to look at this one.

Overall, the writing is quite clear and I (think I) understood a lot of ideas that were previously unfamiliar to me. No concerns about structure, scope, sourcing etc. A thought-provoking read. — Bilorv (talk) 21:58, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the kind words, @Bilorv. Addressed your points here. czar 04:19, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support: passes the FA criteria. Thanks for the speedy fixes. — Bilorv (talk) 09:25, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Serial[edit]

Placeholder. It's hard to believe that it's near four years since Czar was kind enough to comment on my own foray into a slightly earlier aspect of anarchist history. Looking forward to this. SN54129 20:16, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

SN 1492#5, any further thoughts? Gog the Mild (talk) 15:30, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yo Gog, just an FYI, but pings to user talk pages don't give alerts, only user pages themselves. Cheers, SN54129 15:56, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Gog the Mild and Gog: I note that Czar has successfully—with subtlety and delightful politeness—refused to action any of my points. Hah! Imagine if Czar came to my current FAC and I did the same thing, there'd be uproar  :) in any case, my suggestions in these proceedings are rarely more than that—suggestions—so there was certainly no pressure to use them, and indeed, their reasoning for their decision seems sound, so I'm pleased to support this article's promotion. SN54129 16:14, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.