Talk:John Winthrop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Christianity Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.
Assessment comments The following comments were left by the assessors: (edit · refresh) It seems to me that commentary of the type exeplified by the text excerpted below is inappropriate for an article which is ostensibly a biography of an historical figure. <<Unfortunately, however, praise of Winthrop fails to note his strident anti-democratic political tendencies. Winthrop stated, for example, "If we should change from a mixed aristocracy to mere democracy, first we should have no warrant in scripture for it: for there was no such government in Israel ... A democracy is, amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government. [To allow it would be] a manifest breach of the 5th Commandment."[3]>> However "unfortunate" the author may think John Winthrop's opinions of democracy to be, a encyclopedic biography is not the place to say so. Readers of Winthrop's excerpted comments on democracy may decide for themselves if he is indeed "strident." The commentary also betrays a point of view on the part of the author that is at least as miopic as Winthrop is accused of having. To expect Winthrop to hold a view of democratic government which resembles that held by the author is to require him to champion what he had never experienced, had no context for understanding in the way the author presumably does, and had no interest in promoting not because he was "strident(ly) anti-democratic" in contradiction of all good reason, but because he believed that the world was naturally hierarchical and that to deny this was not only preposterous but dangerous. Respectfully submitted Arucuan 20:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)Arucuan

	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]
More information about this article... The following comments have been left for this page: It seems to me that commentary of the type exeplified by the text excerpted below is inappropriate for an article which is ostensibly a biography of an historical figure. <<Unfortunately, however, praise of Winthrop fails to note his strident anti-democratic political tendencies. Winthrop stated, for example, "If we should change from a mixed aristocracy to mere democracy, first we should have no warrant in scripture for it: for there was no such government in Israel ... A democracy is, amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government. [To allow it would be] a manifest breach of the 5th Commandment."[3]>> However "unfortunate" the author may think John Winthrop's opinions of democracy to be, a encyclopedic biography is not the place to say so. Readers of Winthrop's excerpted comments on democracy may decide for themselves if he is indeed "strident." The commentary also betrays a point of view on the part of the author that is at least as miopic as Winthrop is accused of having. To expect Winthrop to hold a view of democratic government which resembles that held by the author is to require him to champion what he had never experienced, had no context for understanding in the way the author presumably does, and had no interest in promoting not because he was "strident(ly) anti-democratic" in contradiction of all good reason, but because he believed that the world was naturally hierarchical and that to deny this was not only preposterous but dangerous. Respectfully submitted Arucuan 20:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)Arucuan (edit)

	Calvinism Portal John Winthrop falls within the scope of WikiProject Calvinism, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Calvinism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page so as to become familier with the guidelines.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale. See comments
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

	Massachusetts Portal John Winthrop is part of WikiProject Massachusetts, an effort to create, expand, and improve Massachusetts-related articles to a feature-quality standard. For more information on this project or to get involved see the WikiProject Massachusetts project page.
Start	rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale

[edit] Cambridge agreement

"_he_ signed the Cambridge agreement" Does this refer to Winthtop signing the Cambridge agreement? I suspect so. If so, it should be edited by replacing the pronoun "he" with Winthrop's name. As it stands now (2006-01-03), the pronoun "he" refers to Charles I of England, according to the normal rules of English grammar.

Fixed by 150.208.201.1 on January 23^rd.

--Arcking 21:35, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Minor update suggested

"Contemporary American politicians, like Ronald Reagan" - Ronald Reagan is no longer a "contemporary politician" in my opinion. Maybe this should be changed to reflect a more modern time frame. Nitrous231 19:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV- Steal Land?

The following line: "Winthrop eventually had sex with hundreds of Pequot Indians so that the Puritans could steal more lands," seems like it may have a POV error, among others. While probably a fair assesment, it is not how a true encyclopedia would word the action. Additionally, it lacks citation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.216.23 (talk) 20:15, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This is not neat.

This is a very confusing and convulated pargraph, it needs some major editing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Limvot (talk • contribs) 20:37, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Not sure which paragraph you mean. To what are you referring? AlphaEta ^{T / C} 05:49, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

I myself would refer to ALL of them..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.184.207.29 (talk) 04:03, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 14:04, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Birthplace?

I came in to correct the spelling and punctuation on "dundin new zeland," and having done so, followed the link thus established and found that Dunedin wasn't founded till the mid-1800s. I think this may be an error...

Zander nyrond (talk) 15:15, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Statement on Smallpox

The website listed as a citation doesn't seem to be the most reliable, and a text search in "Life and Letters of John Winthrop" and "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society" does not turn up anything. Anyone have a definitive source on this? I am trying to find this for a paper... Konamaiki (talk) 21:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)