Talk:Rexford Tugwell

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What is the point of the Rexford Tugwell in Fiction section? These popular culture references throughout the Wikipedia articles are almost juvenile.Lestrade 17:17, 4 April 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

I'm going to trim it as I agree with you to some extent.--T. Anthony 14:42, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I always hesitate to make edits, and just mention them in the talk section in case I'm wrong. I think the first paragraph is implying that members of the Brain Trust all attended Columbia. I don't think that's true. Aptitude 22:04, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editorial comment in article

I removed this text from the article:

In the summer of 1927, a group of future New Dealers including Tugwell, were received by Stalin for a full six hours when they traveled on a junket to the Soviet Union. Romantic leftist ideas strongly influenced Tugwell. After leaving office, Tugwell, even created his very own version of Animal Farm in Casa Grande, Arizona. As in the Orwell book, the farmers revolted. ^[1]

I don't understand what this bit about "his very own version of Animal Farm" refers to. Any actual details about what this project was (a collective farm? a utopian commune?) and how and why it failed would be welcome. -Steve207.6.224.49 01:01, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't know, either, but Tugwell & colleagues meeting with Stalin is well-documented and notable. I deleted the Animal Farm bit, and reinstated the rest. Cheers, Pete Tillman 01:19, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Looks better but could use more detail. Was Tugwell visiting the Soviet Union on behalf of the government, or was the trip for private or academic research? Also, I have one issue with the current text where it says "Romantic leftist ideals influenced Tugwell". I'd be inclined to drop the "romantic" part because in context the term is possibly misleading. The WSJ article suggests that Tugwell and his colleagues romanticized economies of scale to the point where they dismissed the role of small producers. But the Romantic movement which influenced many on the left was about the opposite: it romanticized small producers and dismissed the potential of large-scale industry. Tugwell may have been a romantic, but he was no Romantic, if you see what I mean. So I think the choice of words here is, while strictly correct, too ambiguous - it could easily be read to mean the exact opposite of what's intended. I'd suggest either a different word than "Romantic" or dropping it altogether and just saying "Leftist ideas influenced Tugwell..." and maybe following it up with a bit about his enthusiasm for large-scale centralized industry. -Steve 207.6.224.49 16:32, 28 July 2007 (UTC)