Talk:Natalie Zemon Davis

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Summer 2007 Assessment Drive

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 22:19, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Neutrality
The opening paragraph contains the sentence "She is a hero to many historians and academics, as "one of the greatest living historians", constantly asking new questions and taking on new challenges, the second woman president of the American Historical Association (the first, Nellie Neilson, was in 1943) and someone who "has not lost the integrity and commitment to radical thought which marked her early career." The source for this sentence is an interview with the subject herself. Calling oneself a hero, or being called one by a hagiographic interviewer, is hardly an unbiased view. This sentence, at the very least, should be struck from the entry. Moreover, the entire article ought to be checked for neutrality, since it has clearly at least once been significantly edited by someone who has problems remaining neutral about the subject.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.84.124.99 (talk) 13:40, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

Name
As far as I know and according to standard authorities, Natalie Zemon Davis's last name is Davis, not Zemon Davis. -Acjelen 18:16, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Zemon was her maiden name and Davis is the name of her husband. I do argee that she is usually listed in the D section of books, but all of her books and articles state they are by Zemon Davis. If you resolve this enigma, more power to you.

I am holding in my hand a copy of The Return of Martin Guerre and Society and Culture in Early Modern France, neither of which indicates it is "by Zemon Davis". I do not have any other monographs or any articles from history journals with me, but I do not believe they state so as well. I hope my unsigned friend above can indicate which works by the historian specifies they are "by Zemon Davis". -Acjelen 05:15, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Slaves on Screen" is written by Natalie Zemon Davis and she provides a foward to the memory of Julian Leon Zemon and Horace Bancroft Davis

Most historians shorten her full name to 'Davis' see Finlay's 'Refashioning Martin Guerre' in American Historical Review Vol.93(June, 1988) Also, the book came about as a result of the film not visa versa, so I'm gonna change that bit. =) Dragonfang88 (talk) 15:02, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Possible Hoax on List of Works
As of 10/30/2006, this entry contained the following text on the "Works" list:

Microhistory: The Crazy Trend in the 90s, Bullbridge, BS:Jackson University Press 2002

This was added to the list by an anonymous editor coming from IP address 196.46.67.181 on May 7, 2006. The following things lead me to think that this may be a hoax:


 * I can find no record of this book on Amazon.com, OCLC WorldCat, or Google
 * A Google search for Jackson University Press turns up only references to the University of Mississippi Press in Jackson, and the only Jackson University I found appears to be a small, specialized school without a press.
 * BS is not a recognized state abbreviation in the US, and has other, more profane meanings
 * Given that Davis is generally classified as a microhistorian, a book that calls this a "crazy trend" could be someone's idea of a joke.

Given the above, I am removing this book from the list -- if someone can point to a verifiable source stating that it was actually published, I'll gladly admit my mistake.

--Dmdwiggi 06:42, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Integrate?
I reverted the wholesale changes that User MNavarro made because they deleted so much of Davis' life and career. I suggest that this user or others add in germane material, rather than cutting. Bellagio99 (talk) 20:51, 7 May 2009 (UTC).


 * I just added a good deal of material to the article in a long series of edits. And her last name is "Davis" (I asked her; pls forgive the WP:OR ;-)) Bellagio99 (talk) 20:11, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Kroner > Cdn Dollars
I get a higher figure, although it depends on which date the prize was awarded. So I reverted the edit, until more specific details provided. I think I made the $$ edit, and I took the C$ number from the newspaper. Yahoo conversion suggests its plausible. Sorry Id didn't explain this in the reversion. And Canadian dollars might well be used, as that is where she lives. Bellagio99 (talk) 22:59, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

I edited it to include the actual value of the prize, $4.5 million Norwegian kroner, as well as the conversion. I think that value should be included. As for the currency, I don't think using CAD is reasonable, since we should be concerned about conveying knowledge to the reader and not the subject of the entry. Many readers will be American and assume that $ means USD. At the very least you should specify that it is CAD and not USD. For the conversion, I checked Yahoo! Currency Converter to back convert and got (768000 Canadian Dollar (CAD) = 4835602.5255 Norwegian Krone (NOK)), which is a significant 7% off. Forward conversions give: 4500000 Norwegian Krone (NOK) = 714698.9402 Canadian Dollar (CAD) 4500000 Norwegian Krone (NOK) = 694219.466 United States Dollar (USD) I would say that you the entry should include the actually value in NOK and any conversion should be accurate. If something is in the newspaper but is demonstrably false, it should not be included. Rybo (talk) 14:13, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Old Natalie Zemon Davis interview
Interview with Natalie Zemon Davis in: "Visions of History. Interviews with E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawn, Sheila Rowbotham, Linda Gordon, Natalie Zemon Davis, William Appleman Williams, Staughton Lynd, David Montgomery, Herbert Gutman, Vincent Harding, John Womack, C. L. R. James, Moshe Lewin; by Marho, the Radical Historians Organization. Pantheon, 1984. Pdf online. The whole book is very interesting (or was to me, when I still was kind of left-wing). The interview of Natalie Zemon Davis is on pages 99- 122. It's from 1981 and was conducted by two people from Yale.

Davis had been a member of the American Youth for Democracy (p. 101), while at Smith, obviously a CP front. Davis stresses throughout the interview that both she and her husband Chandler, a mathematician, were nor really Marxists then (or Communists). She met Chandler, a Harvard Graduate School student, at a AYD meeting and married him against the family's wishes and eloped with him, 19 years old. He was neither rich, nor Jewish and "It was illegal to get married at Smith without permission", but she, an all-A student, "wasn't going to get kicked out" (p.102). When Davis worked in French archives, she also met a lot of later famous people in left-wing groups. "Frantz Fanon was in our gang on Lyon" (p. 105). On return to the USA, their passports were confiscated by the State Department (Davis later had to work extensively with rare books from the 16th century, rather than with manuscriptes). Her husband and some of his friends had their HUAC trial in 1953 using the free speech argument. He was fired by his university and blacklisted, because he would not take the loyalty oath or similar action denouncing the CP. The First Amendment defense strategy before the HUAC didn't work with the Supreme Court and he spent ("only") six months in prison (good conduct). The couple went to Toronto afterwards (in 1962), Chandler had been offered a professorship at U of T.--Ralfdetlef (talk) 05:00, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for all your work on this. This is all very interesting information (the basics of which seem to be there already somehow). As your using reliable sources feel free to edit the page as you see fit to incorporate this more detailed information. Thank you, warshy (¥¥) 15:39, 1 November 2023 (UTC)