Talk:Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs as eugenicist
If you are determined to have this part of the Wiki article on the great folklorist - please get a better reference - a vague mention of a "Mr. Jacobs" (it is after all quite a common surname) at the end of an article on the subject is really neither specific nor reliable enough. If Joseph Jacobs really was interested in eugenics then there is very likely to be a published record of this - in fact unless he actually published something on the topic himself it is probably not sufficiently notable anyway. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 19:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)


 * The article says Joseph Jacobs, not just Jacobs. Are we reading the same article? It is also clear that it is the fairy tale writer Joseph Jacobs, as the findings of the study on the Jewish children were published in the Jewish Encyclopedia which the fairy tale writer helped edit. I'll bring more sources though. (Unsigned comment:  actually by --Comradesandalio (talk))


 * Oops! found the reference to "Joseph Jacobs" on the previous page! Missed that in my first reading. Yes, I do accept we are talking about the same person!! But finding a mention of his name in an article on a subject is not conclusive, what we would want would be a copy of the text of the paper J.J. read. He may even have concluded from the results of the experiment that there WAS no "Jewish type", or that his interest was purely in the facial features of the boys (not necessarily from an eugenic point of view). In any case this is very highly peripheral to a case linking eugenics and J.J. As for the second reference - it is a very fleeting and most inconclusive reference in a review - it might pay to get hold of a copy of the work reviewed? If it is in fact authoritative enough to serve as an encyclopediac source.  --Soundofmusicals (talk) 21:46, 28 May 2008 (UTC)