Talk:Josiah Harlan

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Josiah Harlan article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Pennsylvania Low‑importance

	Pennsylvania portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pennsylvania, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Pennsylvania on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PennsylvaniaWikipedia:WikiProject PennsylvaniaTemplate:WikiProject PennsylvaniaPennsylvania articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

India Stub‑class Low‑importance

	India portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of India-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.IndiaWikipedia:WikiProject IndiaTemplate:WikiProject IndiaIndia articles
Stub	This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article was last assessed in April 2012.

Biography: Royalty and Nobility

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by WikiProject Royalty and Nobility.
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool because one or more other projects use this class. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

Central Asia Low‑importance

	Asia portal Josiah Harlan is part of WikiProject Central Asia, a project to improve all Central Asia-related articles. This includes but is not limited to Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang and Central Asian portions of Iran, Pakistan and Russia, region-specific topics, and anything else related to Central Asia. If you would like to help improve this and other Central Asia-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.Central AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Central AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Central AsiaCentral Asia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

About the references[edit]

Aren't the two references by Macintyre referring to the same book, just with different titles? I think the book was published with a differen title in the US than my UK(?) copy. The full title of the first reference is Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man Who Would Be King. Havard 13:33, 29 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Death?[edit]

How did he die? It isn't mentioned in the article. I would have thought this was a necessary part of a biographical article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 137.122.200.251 (talk) 05:13, 7 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Also, "Harlan now proposed to raise a regiment" ... and then what? What happened to that regiment? This article is not complete!

I don't have any sources on hand, so I won't be contributing, but from memory:

Harlan's regiment performed well, although his officers attempted to carry out a mutiny, which the soldiers defeated. He then travelled out west, eventually dying as a doctor in California, his possessions containing a priceless carved ruby, a golden sword, and the papers proclaiming him the Prince of Ghor. Along the way, he attempted to import camels to the US.

If I get my hands on a copy of Mackintyre's book again, I'll update the article with the information. Timothy Kew 212.159.30.215 21:59, 7 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Date of Death[edit]

If the external link to an online biography is correct, Mr. Harlan died on October 21, 1871 in San Francisco, California.

204.65.104.135 22:36, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Inaccuracy[edit]

It seems from the summary that he never provided the military aid he promised to Ghor. So it seems unlikely that anyone would have accorded him or descendants the title 'prince of Ghor' after he left without returning.

As a result, this line should likely be removed from the trivia section: "Scott Reiniger, star of cult classic 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead, is Harlan's great-great-great-grandson, and thus (as of 2004) heir to the title Prince of Ghor." – SJ + 12:01, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Also, we have no reason to believe Reiniger would take precedence over other descendants. I will remove it. Gvros8 (talk) 20:56, 7 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I also agree, and am taking the same action on Scott Reiniger's page. Theturbolemming (talk) 14:05, 27 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Misleading Heading?[edit]

My only expertise is based on reading the book a few years ago. But the book did not suggest, as the first paragraph states, that Harlan went "travelling to Afghanistan and Punjab with the intention of making himself a king." He certainly aspired to Generalship, but it was only on visiting the Hazaras and finding them congenial (and interested in a mutually beneficial relationship) that the prospect of kingship was raised.

Junckerg (talk) 13:16, 19 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Language Needs Some Major Cleanup[edit]

This article reads to me like it was written by a non-native English speaker. I've made several small corrections (misuse of principle/principal, odd spellings like tee-toiler for teetotaler, etc), but the whole thing could use an overhaul to make it read like an encyclopedia article.Mpaniello (talk) 18:38, 14 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Copy editor notes[edit]

Cut out some lengthy stuff about his broken heart, etc. Still just looking at language. Going to tag as refimprove; nothing wrong with the one source, but it could use more. Elinruby (talk) 19:31, 30 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Tartan is not a color; always multi-colored; can be predominantly blue, green, or red. I changed the reference to “print”. If anybody has the book *which* tartan is rather important Elinruby (talk) 09:33, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

first-pass copy edit finished, concentrating on verbs and slightly wrong wording. For example, he was invalided out of the Union Army, not invalidated. Likely missed some of this, as there was a lot of it, and it should also get an edit for length and focus. A lot of time is spent on one slave’s castration, for example, of which Harlan was merely a horrified witness Elinruby (talk) 10:39, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]