Talk:Georges Clemenceau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	France Portal Georges Clemenceau is within the scope of WikiProject France, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to France and Monaco on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please join the project and help with our open tasks.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the Project's quality scale. [FAQ] (If you rated the article, please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
	This article is supported by the Politics and government work group.

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- 1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points are appropriately cited. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- 2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain major omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- 3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- 4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- 5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Related task forces (nations and regions): French military history task force

Could someone clarify his role in the Paris Commune? For those who don't know much about French history (like me), they will be puzzled at who the "central committee" is, why the French government almost arrested him, and all of that business. ugen64 01:51, Dec 15, 2003 (UTC)

• Done. Even if it is a few years later! Rusty2005 15:51, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

==

I believe the correct spelling is «Clemenceau», and «Clémenceau» is a common mistake. This second spelling should therefore be removed from the page, and maybe a note about this difficulty added. Other example of such a trap: Grevisse (not Grévisse).

[edit] Cleanup tag

I think this article should be divvied up into sections.-Grick(^{talk to me})

I agree, more like Woodrow Wilson.

Just added the tag. It doesn't even have a "career box," showing his positions and times in office. Any takers? - Darkhawk (30 Mar, 2006 @ 0:25 EST)

[edit] Article review

The author of this article tries to persuade the reader that Georges Clemenceau was a politician as well as a newspaper owner/editor who took sides in various situations. He sided with different governments before he became premier himself; he also advocated the Versailles treaty which one might say led to the rise of Nazism in Germany. But more about the implications of the treaty later. The author is trying to persuade the reader that Clemenceau was one of the main reasons for the “events that led to World War II.” The author lists a good number of Clemenceau’s political decisions and pays special attention to his publishing Zola’s letter “J’accuse.” As a matter of fact, the author does not make that much of an implicit assumption. It is somewhat explicit even: Clemenceau was the contrary of what you might call a political opportunist. If he did not like something, he resigned from office. The most convincing argument the author makes is, like I said above, one of Clemenceau as an astute political actor (if not politician himself). His influence helped some people to power as well as some people off of that position of power. Clearly the man can be a Radical, a Socialist Radical etc. He also could advise people not to vote for certain candidates, a sure sign of a powerful and influential figure. The least convincing argument is the one of Clemenceau being responsible for WWII. “Since most people believe the effects of his decision contributed to the events that lead to World War II, Clemenceau's historical reputation can be argued to have suffered as a result.” This statement seems to come out of a dark pit of knowledge. I really would like to know who these “people” are. Surely Clemenceau was not the only supporter of the Versailles treaty. About the sources, the author does not include any sources whatsoever. This seriously jeopardizes the article. Arguably, everything that I have said above (about the “people”) could have been better supported with better references. It seems unlikely though that the author somehow knew all these facts about Clemenceau, so there must be sources; it might only have been a mistake. It seems that the author is deeply convinced that supporting Dreyfus was a good thing. He says that publishing Zola’s letter was “an active and honourable part as supporter of Emile Zola and an opponent of the anti-Semitic and Nationalist campaigns.” I understand the good intentions of the author, but this makes his article highly biased. It is the view of the author himself, not the view of an anti-Dreyfusard. Even if they were anti-Semitic views, the people who considered themselves anti-Dreyfusards had the right to do so. The article only briefly mentions that after undertaking the direction of L’Aurore, Clemenceau “campaigned for the revision of the Dreyfus affair, and for the separation of Church and State.” It does not seem that obvious, but the separation of Church and State in France was an extremely important change. I would have liked learn more about Clemenceau’s implication in the process. It would seem that the lack of sources/references did not allow the author to write about this specific subject.

[edit] Please amplify the "Wilson scandal"

I have found the following at another web site on the Wilson scandal:

"Meanwhile, Daniel Wilson, the son-in-law of President Grévy, was discovered to have trafficked in medals of the Legion of Honor, and the so-called Wilson scandal forced Grévy from office (Dec. 2, 1887)"

I think that inclusion of this information in some form would help the article on Clemenceau. The article mentions this scandal, but I imagine that very, very many people have no idea about what it was, and some will associate it with Woodrow Wilson, even though he was still a college professor in 1887.

It was a minor scandal. Daniel Wilson was his son-of-law, as you just mentionned, so why confuse him with Woodrow? Not every Wilson, even scandalous, leads to him! Tazmaniacs 00:16, 28 July 2006 (UTC)