Talk:A Tale of Two Nations

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Uncle Sam duels John Bull

• ... that scholars debate whether A Tale of Two Nations (cover pictured) was not at all, mildly, or incredibly antisemitic?
  • Source:Hofstadter, Richard (1979). "Free Silver and the Mind of "Coin" Harvey". The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays. Internet Archive. University of Chicago Press. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-226-34817-9. "The mild note of anti-Semitism in Harvey's book" Pollack, Norman (1964). "Handlin on Anti-Semitism: A Critique of "American Views of the Jew"". The Journal of American History. 51 (3): 397. doi:10.2307/1894892. ISSN 0021-8723. "The book is anti-English and not anti-Semitic." Harap, Louis (1974). The Image of the Jew in American Literature: From Early Republic to Mass Immigration. Internet Archive. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 423. ISBN 978-0-8276-0054-6. "an aura of anti-Semitism about the novel. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Harvey exploits anti-Semitism in this novel."
  • ALT1: ... that A Tale of Two Nations (cover pictured) has been called not antisemitic and credited with popularizing virulent antisemitism in the United States?
  • Source: Dobkowski, Michael N. (1979). The Tarnished Dream: The Basis of American Anti-Semitism. Internet Archive. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-313-20641-2. "Harvey clearly presented an anti-Semitic portrait in this novel, Norman Pollack notwithstanding, and contributed to the burgeoning image of a Jewish financial conspiracy." Harap, Louis (1974). The Image of the Jew in American Literature: From Early Republic to Mass Immigration. Internet Archive. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. pp. 418–423. ISBN 978-0-8276-0054-6. "Handlin and Hofstadter argue that responsibility for the new level of overt and articulate anti-Semitism that developed in American life toward the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth rested primarily with the anti-Semitic agitation of the Populist movement. Let us first look at the supportive evidence for this assertion [23 paragraphs about the novel]"
  • ALT2: ... that the roman à clef A Tale of Two Nations (cover pictured) hero received the Democratic Party's presidential nomination two years after it was published?
  • Source: Gollan, Robin (1968). The Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Origins and Early History. Internet Archive. Canberra: Australian National University Press. p. 46. "handsome but rough-hewn congressman from Nebraska (a 100 per cent silver man) who stands between him and the object of his desire. The Nebraskan is a thinly disguised but idealised version of William Jennings Bryan."
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Helen_Essary
  • Comment: I'm not sure the hooks are as interesting as can be. Will add sources to nom in a bit, can't on mobile.

Moved to mainspace by 1brianm7 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 15 past nominations.

1brianm7 (talk) 04:30, 16 July 2026 (UTC).

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:A Tale of Two Nations/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: 1brianm7 (talk · contribs) 01:06, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: A.Cython (talk · contribs) 21:17, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

I will review this one as part of GARC#105.A.Cython(talk) 21:17, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Thank you! This is my first GA nom. I can provide access to any of the sources if needed, but they are all available freely through WP:TWL and print-disabled access at the Internet Archive. 1brianm7 (talk) 01:15, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

I enjoyed reading the article about a book published in late 1800s concerning a banking conspiracy. Overall, the article is well written and sourced. I only have some minor comments, which are listed below. A.Cython(talk) 18:44, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

• @A.Cython: I have responded to and hopefully resolved everything. 1brianm7 (talk) 20:17, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Various

• No edit wars
• Neutral
• Broad and focused
• Figures have appropriate licences and relevant figure captions
• No copyright issues detected, Earwig's Copyvio Detector gives 8.3%, flagging titles

Prose and MoS

• silver leaving circulation consider wikilinked to Silver standard

  That is something different.

• probably selling several → probably sold several

  Done

• In 1869, British Jew banker Baron Rothe hatches a scheme to demonetize silver in the United States and Europe, increasing the wealth of gold owners, ensuring British supremacy over the U.S., and stratifying society into the rich and the poor. This is a long sentence, consider breaking it into two.

  Done

• Baron Rothe is a Rothschild consider wikilinking Rothschild

  Done, since some readers may skip the background where it is linked

• naive and untalented should be in "..." since these are the words of the author as stated in the source

  Done

• you refer to the novel as Nations, but its title is A Tale of Two Nations. For a moment I thought you were referring to a different book. Either use the full title or provide an explanation as to why you use a shorter version, preferably the former. The same thing with the Column

  Made the full titles. Most sources do "Nations" since the title is rather long and it's repetitive to mention. Same with how you often see "The New York Times uncovered a conspiracy to increase the price of eggs. Times reporters spent three months in deep undercover."

  • [AC] So long there is an explanation so that the reader does not get confused, it is ok in book to shorten the title.

Sources

Spot check: 3, 9, 10, 16, 29

• Hofstadter called the novel propagandistic, its plot melodramatic, and noted his amusement at the concept of a roman à clef about the gold standard. I do not see the "amusement" part in the relevant pages. It does say that he considers it a conspiracy theory.

  I interpreted "possibly the only roman a clef ever written about the gold standard" as being amused at where the genre was applied"

• Harvey claimed it sold 500,000 copies overall, which is doubtful. This does not appear to be supported by citation#21. Perhaps it is not needed at all since the following sentence sets the record. If you have a source that explicitly provides Harvey's claim and drop which is doubtful

  I had cited it to the next cite and accidentally cited the wrong page. Hofstatder goes "and while we may not accept his own estimation of a circulation of 500,000". I can find some other sources that are more explicit and detailed than Hofstatder in these claims, but I think they are all intellectually derivative of him.

Final comments

Thank you for making the changes. Congratulations are in order not only for bringing a novel to the GA family but also because it is the first GA of 1brianm7. Well done! A.Cython(talk) 20:51, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.