Talk:Oswald Garrison Villard

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While there are problems with the Wikipedia article for journalist Oswald Garrison Villard, the article suffers from a lack of details and organization. In comparison, the companion American National Biography text “Villard, Oswald Garrison” by Robert L. Gale includes far more information about Villard’s life and accomplishments.

Gale does a far better job of describing Villard’s early life and career. He describes Villard’s early career in academia, when he served as a teaching assistant and could have continued to pursue a career in education. Villard instead turned to journalism, first working for the Philadelphia Press, but he grew unhappy with the newspaper’s deferring to advertisers and the Republican Party. Villard soon joined his father’s newspaper, the Evening Post.

Gale also goes further when examining Villard’s activism and advocacy. He explains that Villard was very anti-war and anti-imperialism and his beliefs were encouraged by the publications he worked for. In 1910, Villard joined with W.E.B. Du Bois and others in forming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Gale also mentions that Villard participated in the first women’s suffrage parade in New York City in 1911. Overall Gale’s text is much better at illustrating Villard’s early activism, which is only covered superficially in the Wikipedia article

Gale devotes a considerable amount of space towards describing Villard’s interactions with and opinions of President Woodrow Wilson. Villard originally endorsed Wilson in the 1912 election and used interview time with the president to argue for more support for African Americans. Eventually however Villard turned away from Wilson, using his newspapers to editorialize against the president and supporting his political opponents. Gale argues that Villard was disappointed and disgusted by Wilson’s refusal to support African Americans, and therefore turned against the president. The Wikipedia article does not mention Woodrow Wilson at all, even though he was an important subject of Villard’s writing.

While the Wikipedia article does mention Villard’s political beliefs, it does not examine them to great depth like Gale’s text does. Villard was a pacifist, and many of his editorials focused on pacifist issues and causes. He was also an early believer in racial equality, as shown by his work with the NAACP and his lobbying of President Wilson. Villard showed in interest in examining issues and figures through non-traditional lenses. Gale describes how Villard wrote a celebrated biography of 19th century abolitionist John Brown in which he regarded Brown as an American hero. In response to anti-German propaganda which portrayed them as subhuman, Villard also wrote books about German society and culture that urged Americans to acknowledge German accomplishments and to attempt to better understand the German people. Villard would champion liberal causes throughout his career, including amnesty for conscientious objectors, birth control, and anti-corruption efforts. The Wikipedia article neglects to explore many of Villard’s beliefs and actions, but does have a thorough examination of Villard’s economic policy beliefs, as he moved from a staunch laissez-faire advocate to a supporter of the New Deal and nationalized industries.

The Wikipedia article could also spend more time discussing Villard’s work as a journalist. Gale describes how Villard’s first meaningful work as a journalist came at his father’s Evening Post, where he worked under Edwin Lawrence Godkin, who had cofounded The Nation. Villard would later describe Godkin as “the greatest editorial writer in the history of American journalism.” Villard inherited the controlling ownership for both publications upon his father’s death in 1900, and the publications became his primary mouthpieces. Villard was forced to sell the Evening Post in 1918 due to declining revenue, but also bought the Nautical Gazette in the same year. Gale argues that Villard “reveals himself best” in his writings about journalism. In a series of books published later in his career Villard examined and critiqued his contemporary newspapers and journalists while reflecting on his own body of work. Villard eventually broke away from The Nation in 1940 when it embraced intervention in the war. The Wikipedia article only touches upon these events in a perfunctory manner. The Wikipedia article only briefly touches upon the late stages of Villard’s career. Villard would continue to write until the end of his life, as described by Gale. The journalist recounted his father’s early struggles and successes, citing him as a major inspiration. Villard would then complete an autobiography, which would be lauded by many reviewers as “the best autobiography of a journalist-editor ever written.” Villard also continued to publish many of his articles and addresses, which discussed various topics including militarism, music, the Garrison family, and racial discrimination. He died on October 1st, 1949 in New York City. The Wikipedia article adequately gives a brief overview of Villard’s life, although it does display a lack of organization, as it jumps backwards and forwards on the timeline of Villard’s life and consists of only one section, labeled “Life and Career”. It also contains very few citations, and only lists two books as references, neither of which are biographies of Villard. The three sources cited seem credible, although one of them seems only tangentially related to Villard, and was used only to cite one of Villard’s quotes. All three sources are books. The first two are about World War I pacifists and Ayn Rand, respectively, while the third is an encyclopedia of historical quotes. The majority of the article’s content is not cited.

An examination of the revision history shows that the article has gone through very few improvements or changes. There have been no major edits, and the main addition to the article was a picture of Villard. There is very little discussion on the article’s talk page, which contains only two comments. The first comment labels the article as merely a propaganda piece and states that the article should either be revised or deleted. The second commenter claims to be Villard’s granddaughter and asserts that the article is historically accurate.

Overall, the Wikipedia article needs a large expansion of content, as it fails to capture Oswald Garrison Villard’s full life and accomplishments. By neglecting to explore Villard’s beliefs and advocacy efforts, or his prolific and wide amount of writings, the Wikipedia article is woefully inadequate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sohan.shah13 (talk • contribs) 04:19, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Untitled
This article is nothing short of a propaganda piece and needs either drastic revision or a delete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.38.71.75 (talk) 02:25, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Oswald Garrison Villard
This is the history as I know it. I am OGV's grandaughter. Svillard33 (talk) 19:07, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

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