text:
Bartleby, the Scrivener

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine and reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in 1856. In the story, a Wall Street lawyer hires a new clerk who, after an initial bout of hard work, refuses to make copies or do any other task required of him, responding to any request with the words "I would prefer not to."

The story likely takes place between 1848 and 1853, during the Antebellum Period in American history.

Numerous critical essays have been published about the story, which scholar Robert Milder describes as "unquestionably the masterpiece of the short fiction" in the Melville canon.

Plot
The narrator is an unnamed elderly lawyer who works with legal documents and has an office on Wall Street in New York. He already employs two scriveners, Turkey and Nippers, to copy documents by hand, but an increase in business leads him to advertise for a third. He hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the other two, each of whom displays an irascible temperament during an opposite half of the day. An errand boy nicknamed Ginger Nut completes the staff.

At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work, but one day, when asked to help proofread a document, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to." To the dismay of the narrator and the irritation of the other employees, Bartleby begins to perform fewer and fewer tasks and eventually none. He instead spends long periods of time staring out one of the office's windows at a brick wall. The narrator makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby or to learn something about him, but never has any success. When the narrator stops by the office one Sunday morning, he discovers that Bartleby is living there. He is saddened by the thought of the life the young man must lead.

Tension builds as business associates wonder why Bartleby is always present in the office yet does not appear to do any work. Sensing the threat to his reputation, but emotionally unable to evict Bartleby, the narrator moves his business to a different building. The new tenant of his old office comes to ask for help in removing Bartleby, and the narrator tells the man that he is not responsible for his former employee. A week or so after this, several other tenants of the narrator's former office building come to him with their landlord because Bartleby is still making a nuisance of himself; even though he has been put out of the office, he sits on the building stairs all day and sleeps in its doorway at night. The narrator agrees to visit Bartleby and attempts to reason with him. He suggests several jobs that Bartleby might try and even invites Bartleby to live with him until they figure out a better solution, but Bartleby declines these offers. The narrator leaves the building and flees the neighborhood for several days, in order not to be bothered by the landlord and tenants.

When the narrator returns to work, he learns that the landlord has called the police. The officers have arrested Bartleby and imprisoned him in the Tombs as a vagrant. He goes to visit Bartleby, who spurns him, and bribes a cook to make sure Bartleby gets enough food. The narrator returns a few days later to check on Bartleby and discovers him dead of starvation, having preferred not to eat.

Months later, the narrator hears a rumor that Bartleby had once worked in a dead letter office and reflects on how this might have affected him. The story ends with the narrator saying, "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"

Composition
Melville's major source of inspiration for the story was an advertisement for a new book, The Lawyer's Story, printed in the Tribune and the Times on February 18, 1853. The book, published anonymously later that year, was written by popular novelist James A. Maitland. This advertisement included the complete first chapter, which started: "In the summer of 1843, having an extraordinary quantity of deeds to copy, I engaged, temporarily, an extra copying clerk, who interested me considerably, in consequence of his modest, quiet, gentlemanly demeanor, and his intense application to his duties." Melville biographer Hershel Parker said nothing else in the chapter besides this "remarkably evocative sentence" was notable. Critic Andrew Knighton said Melville may have been influenced by an obscure work from 1846, Robert Grant White's Law and Laziness: or, Students at Law of Leisure, which features an idle scrivener, while Christopher Sten suggests that Melville found inspiration in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays, particularly "The Transcendentalist", which shows parallels to "Bartleby".

Melville may have written the story as an emotional response to the bad reviews garnered by Pierre, his preceding novel. Financial difficulties may also have played a part: Moby-Dick and Pierre sold so poorly that Melville was in debt to his publisher Harper & Brothers.

Publication history
The story was first published anonymously as "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street" in two installments in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, in November and December 1853. It was included in Melville's The Piazza Tales, published in by Dix & Edwards in the United States in May 1856 and in Britain in June.

Interpretation
The narrator and the text do not explicitly explain the reason for Bartleby's behavior, leaving it open to interpretation.

Bartleby's demeanour
A 1978 article in ELH posits that Bartleby shows classic symptoms of depression, such as his lack of motivation. He is a passive person, and good at the work he agrees to do. He refuses to divulge any personal information to the narrator. Bartleby's death is consistent with depression—having no motivation to survive, he refrains from eating until he dies.

Function of narrator
Bartleby has been interpreted as a "psychological double" for the narrator that criticizes the "sterility, impersonality, and mechanical adjustments of the world which the lawyer inhabits." Until the end of the story, Bartleby's background is unknown and may have sprung from the narrator's mind. The narrator screens off Bartleby in a corner, which has been interpreted as symbolizing "the lawyer's compartmentalization of the unconscious forces which Bartleby represents."

Psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas says the main focus of the story is the narrator, whose "willingness to tolerate [Bartleby's] work stoppage is what needs to be explained ... As the story proceeds, it becomes increasingly clear that the lawyer identifies with his clerk. To be sure, it is an ambivalent identification, but that only makes it all the more powerful."

Autobiography
Scholars have long explored the possibility that Bartleby serves as an autobiographical portrait. Lawrence Buell suggested that the scrivener may reflect Melville as disenchanted writer or artist, Leo Marx connected the story's theme of alienation with Melville's experiences and feelings of isolation, and Giles Gunn posited that Melville's personal struggles and disillusionment with the literary world influenced his portrayal of Bartleby as a withdrawn and passive character.

Free will and ethics
"Bartleby, the Scrivener" alludes to Jonathan Edwards's "Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will" and Jay Leyda, in his introduction to The Complete Stories of Herman Melville, comments on the similarities between Bartleby and The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity by Joseph Priestley. Both Edwards and Priestley wrote about free will and determinism. Edwards states that free will requires the will to be isolated from the moment of decision, in which case Bartleby's isolation from the world would allow him to be completely free. He has the ability to do whatever he pleases. The reference to Priestley and Edwards in connection with determinism may suggest that Bartleby's exceptional exercise of his personal will, even though it leads to his death, spares him from an externally determined fate.

"Bartleby" is also seen as an inquiry into ethics. Critic John Matteson sees the story (and other Melville works) as explorations of the changing meaning of 19th-century "prudence." The story's narrator "struggles to decide whether his ethics will be governed by worldly prudence or Christian agape." He wants to be humane, as shown by his accommodations of the four staff and especially of Bartleby, but this conflicts with the newer, pragmatic and economically based notion of prudence supported by changing legal theory. The 1850 case Brown v. Kendall, three years before the story's publication, was important in establishing the "reasonable man" standard in the United States, and emphasized the positive action required to avoid negligence. Bartleby's passivity has no place in a legal and economic system that increasingly sides with the "reasonable" and economically active individual. His fate, an innocent decline into unemployment, prison, and starvation, dramatizes the effect of the new prudence on the economically inactive members of society.

Reception
Though no great success at the time of publication, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is now among the most noted of American short stories. Albert Camus, in a personal letter to Liselotte Dieckmann published in The French Review in 1998, cites Melville as a key influence.

On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed "Bartleby, the Scrivener" on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

Adaptations

 * The York Playhouse produced a one-act opera, Bartleby, composed by William Flanagan and James J. Hinton Jr. with a libretto by Edward Albee, from January 1 to February 28, 1961.
 * The first filmed adaptation was by the Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation in 1969. It was adapted, produced, and directed by Larry Yust and starred James Westerfield and Patrick Campbell, with Barry Williams of The Brady Bunch fame in a small role. The story has been adapted for film four other times as Bartleby: in 1970, starring Paul Scofield; in France, in 1976, by Maurice Ronet, starring Michel Lonsdale; in 1977, by Israel Horovitz and Michael B Styer for Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting, starring Nicholas Kepros, which was an entry in the 1978 Peabody Awards competition for television; and in 2001, by Jonathan Parker, starring Crispin Glover and David Paymer.
 * The BBC Radio 4 adaptation dramatised by Martyn Wade, directed by Cherry Cookson, and broadcast in 2004 stars Adrian Scarborough as Bartleby, Ian Holm as the Lawyer, David Collings as Turkey, and Jonathan Keeble as Nippers.
 * In 2009, French author Daniel Pennac read the story on the stage of La Pépinière-Théâtre in Paris.
 * The story was adapted for the stage in 2020 by Juhan Ulfsak for Von Krahl Theatre in Estonia as Pigem ei (literal translation: "Rather not").

Literature

 * Bartleby: La formula della creazione (1993) by Giorgio Agamben and Bartleby, ou la formule by Gilles Deleuze are two philosophical essays reconsidering many of Melville's ideas.
 * Abdulrazak Gurnah references Bartleby, the Scrivener throughout his 2001 novel By the Sea. The protagonist Saleh Omar quotes Bartleby's mantra to explain his decision to abstain from speaking English on seeking asylum in the UK.
 * Jeff Smith's comic book series Bone features a "rat creature" named Bartleby who declines to partake in the violence and savagery of his feral brethren. The Melville connection is reinforced by the fact that Moby Dick is the series protagonist's favorite novel.

Film and television

 * Bartleby (1970 film)'' is an adaptation of the story.
 * In 2001, Crispin Glover starred in a modernized adaptation, Bartleby.
 * In 2011, French director Jérémie Carboni made the documentary Bartleby en coulisses around Daniel Pennac's reading of "Bartleby the Scrivener".

Other

 * The electronic text archive Bartleby.com is named "after the humble character of its namesake scrivener, or copyist—publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge."
 * The British newspaper magazine The Economist maintains a column named Bartleby focused on managers trying to understand how to motivate their employees and to empathize with employees who "carry out their bosses' often bewildering orders, even when they would 'prefer not to'."
 * The 92nd Street Y presented a livestreamed and on-demand reading of the story by actor Paul Giamatti in November 2020. A December 3, 2020 conversation between Giamatti and Andrew Delbanco is archived on YouTube.

title: Bartleby, the Scrivener


text:
Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referendums are decided. In modern politics, the most high-profile political campaigns are focused on general elections and candidates for head of state or head of government, often a president or prime minister.

Campaign message

The message of the campaign contains the ideas that the candidate wants to share with the voters. It is to get those who agree with their ideas to support them when running for a political position. The message often consists of several talking points about policy issues. The points summarize the main ideas of the campaign and are repeated frequently in order to create a lasting impression with the voters. In many elections, the opposition party will try to get the candidate "off message" by bringing up policy or personal questions that are not related to the talking points. Most campaigns prefer to keep the message broad in order to attract the most potential voters. A message that is too narrow can alienate voters or slow the candidate down with explaining details. For example, in the 2008 American presidential election John McCain originally used a message that focused on his patriotism and political experience: "Country First"; later the message was changed to shift attention to his role as "The Original Maverick" within the political establishment. Barack Obama ran on a consistent, simple message of "change" throughout his campaign.

Campaign finance
Fundraising techniques include having the candidate call or meet with large donors, sending direct mail pleas to small donors, and courting interest groups who could end up spending millions on the race if it is significant to their interests.

Organization
In a modern political campaign, the campaign organization (or "machine") will have a coherent structure of personnel in the same manner as any business of similar size.

Campaign manager
A campaign manager's primary duty is to ensure marketing campaigns achieve their objectives. They work with the marketing manager to create, execute and monitor the performance of campaigns and provide all the resources required to meet sales targets.

Political consultants
Political consultants advise campaigns on virtually all of their activities, from research to field strategy. Consultants conduct candidate research, voter research, and opposition research for their clients.

Activists
In the context of political campaigns, activists are "foot soldiers" loyal to a campaign's cause. As supporters, they promote the campaign as volunteer activists. Such volunteers and interns may take part in activities such as canvassing door-to-door and making phone calls on behalf of the campaigns.

Techniques
A campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily resourced group of professionals) must consider how to communicate the message of the campaign, recruit volunteers, and raise money. Campaign advertising draws on techniques from commercial advertising and propaganda, also entertainment and public relations, a mixture dubbed politainment. The avenues available to political campaigns when distributing their messages is limited by the law, available resources, and the imagination of the campaigns' participants. These techniques are often combined into a formal strategy known as the campaign plan. The plan takes account of a campaign's goal, message, target audience, and resources available. The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters at the same time as getting its message across. The modern, open campaign method was pioneered by Aaron Burr during the American presidential election of 1800.

Another modern campaign method by political scientist Joel Bradshaw points out four key propositions for developing a successful campaign strategy. "First, in any election the electorate can be divided into three groups: the candidate's base, the opponent's base, and the undecided. Second, past election results, data from registered voter lists, and survey research make it possible to determine which people fall into each of these three groups. Third, it is neither possible nor necessary to get the support of all people. Fourth, and last, once a campaign has identified how to win, it can act to create the circumstances to bring about this victory. In order to succeed, campaigns should direct campaign resources— money, time, and message— to key groups of potential voters and nowhere else."

Campaign communication
Election campaign communication refers to party-controlled communication, e.g. campaign advertising, and party-uncontrolled communication, e.g. media coverage of elections.

Campaign advertising
Campaign advertising is the use of paid media (newspapers, radio, television, etc.) to influence the decisions made for and by groups. These ads are designed by political consultants and the campaign's staff.

Media management
Media management refers to the ability of a political campaign to control the message that it broadcasts to the public. The forms of media used in political campaigns can be classified into two distinct categories: "paid media" or "earned media".

Paid media refers to any media attention that is directly generated from spending. This form of media is commonly found through political advertisements and organized events. An advantage of paid media is that it allows political campaigns to tailor the messages they show the public and control when the public sees them. Campaigns often prioritize spending in contested regions and increase their paid media expenses as an election approaches. Electoral campaigns often conclude with a "closing argument ad", an advertisement that summarizes the campaign's core themes and explains the candidate's vision for the future. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden's "Rising" ad starts with him saying "we're in a battle for the soul of this nation" and a worker in Donald Trump's Pennsylvania ad stated "that will be the end of my job and thousands of others" if Trump lost.

Earned media describes free media coverage, often from news stories or social media posts. Unlike paid media, earned media does not incur an expense to the campaign. Earned media does not imply that the political campaign is mentioned in a positive manner. Political campaigns may often receive earned media from gaffes or scandals. In the 2016 United States Presidential Election, a majority of the media coverage surrounding Hillary Clinton was focused on her scandals, with the most prevalent topics being topics related to her emails.

Experts say that effective media management is an essential component of a successful political campaign. Studies show that candidates with higher media attention tend to have greater success in elections. Each form of media can influence the other. Paid media may raise the newsworthiness of an event which could lead to an increase in earned media. Campaigns may also spend money to emphasize stories circulating through media networks. Research suggests that neither form of media is inherently superior. A 2009 study found that media coverage was not significantly more effective than paid advertisements.

Modern technology and the internet
The internet is now a core element of modern political campaigns. Communication technologies such as e-mail, websites, and podcasts for various forms of activism enable faster communications by citizen movements and deliver a message to a large audience. These Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, community building, and organizing. Individual political candidates are also using the internet to promote their election campaign. In a study of Norwegian election campaigns, politicians reported they used social media for marketing and for dialogue with voters. Facebook was the primary platform for marketing and Twitter was used for more continuous dialogue.

Signifying the importance of internet political campaigning, Barack Obama's presidential campaign relied heavily on social media, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and new media channels to engage voters, recruit campaign volunteers, and raise campaign funds. The campaign brought the spotlight on the importance of using internet in new-age political campaigning by utilizing various forms of social media and new media (including Facebook, YouTube and a custom generated social engine) to reach new target populations. The campaign's social website, my.BarackObama.com, utilized a low cost and efficient method of mobilizing voters and increasing participation among various voter populations. This new media was incredibly successful at reaching the younger population while helping all populations organize and promote action.

Now, online election campaign information can be shared in a rich information format through campaign landing pages, integrating Google's rich snippets, structured data, social media open graphs, and husting support file formats for YouTube like .sbv, .srt, and .vtt. High proficiency and effective algorithmic integration will be the core factor in the framework. This technology integration helps campaign information reach a wide audience in split-seconds. This was successfully tested and implemented in the 2015 Aruvikkara election and the 2020 Kerala elections. Marcus Giavanni, social media consultant, blockchain developer and second place opponent in the 2015 Denver mayoral election, was first to file for the 2019 election. Marcus Giavanni used advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence, and voice indexing predictions to box in campaigns.

Husting
A husting, or the hustings, was originally a physical platform from which representatives presented their views or cast votes before a parliamentary or other election body. By metonymy, the term may now refer to any event, such as debates or speeches, during an election campaign where one or more of the representative candidates are present.

Other techniques

 * Writing directly to members of the public (either via a professional marketing firm or, particularly on a small scale, by volunteers)
 * By distributing leaflets or selling newspapers
 * Through websites, online communities, and solicited or unsolicited bulk email
 * Through a new technique known as microtargeting that helps identify and target small demographic slices of voters
 * Through a whistlestop tour - a series of brief appearances in several small towns
 * Hampering the ability of political competitors to campaign, by such techniques as counter-rallies, picketing of rival parties' meetings, or overwhelming rival candidates' offices with mischievous phone calls (most political parties in representative democracies publicly distance themselves from such disruptive and morale-affecting tactics, with the exception of those parties self-identifying as activist
 * Organizing political house parties
 * Using endorsements of other celebrated party members to boost support (see coattail effect)
 * Using a campaign surrogate - a celebrity or person of influence, campaigning on a candidate's behalf.
 * Remaining close to or at home to make speeches to supporters who come to visit as part of a front porch campaign
 * Vote-by-mail, previously known as "absentee ballots" have grown significantly in importance as an election tool. Campaigns in most states must have a strategy in place to impact early voting
 * Sale of official campaign merchandise (colloquially known as swag, in reference to the baiting technique) as a way of commuting a competitor's popularity into campaign donations, volunteer recruitment, and free advertising

Informational campaign
An informational campaign is a political campaign designed to raise public awareness and support for the positions of a candidate (or her/his party). It is more intense than a paper campaign, which consists of little more than filing the necessary papers to get on the ballot, but is less intense than a competitive campaign, which aims to actually win election to the office. An informational campaign typically focuses on low-cost outreach such as news releases, getting interviewed in the paper, making a brochure for door to door distribution, organizing poll workers, etc.

Paper campaign
A paper campaign is a political campaign in which the candidate only files the necessary paperwork to appear on the ballot. The purpose of such a token effort may be simply to increase name awareness of a minor political party, to give voters of a certain ideology an opportunity to vote accordingly, or to ensure that the party has candidates in every constituency. It can be a cost-effective means of attracting media coverage. An informational campaign, by contrast, may involve news releases, newspaper interviews, door-to-door campaigning, and organizing polls. As the level of seriousness rises, the marginal cost of reaching more people rises accordingly, due to the high cost of TV commercials, paid staff, etc. which are used by competitive campaigns. Paper candidates do not expect to be elected and usually run simply as a way of helping the more general campaign. However, an unexpected surge in support for the party may result in many paper candidates being unexpectedly elected, as for example happened to the New Democratic Party in Quebec during the 2011 federal election.

Effects
A 2018 study in the American Political Science Review found that campaigns have "an average effect of zero in general elections". The study found two instances where campaigning was effective: "First, when candidates take unusually unpopular positions and campaigns invest unusually heavily in identifying persuadable voters. Second, when campaigns contact voters long before election day and measure effects immediately — although this early persuasion decays."

One reason why it is hard to judge the effectiveness of an election campaign is because many people know who they want to vote for long before the campaigns are started. Voters are more likely to vote for a nominee based on whose values align closest with theirs. Studies suggest that party flips come from the analysis of how a voter sees their parties performance in the years before a campaign even begins.

Another study suggests that at the 2017 Austrian legislative election, 31% of voters admitted to either developing of changing their party preferences during the election campaign. The study provides data that shows how the main parties within Austria had differing levels of voters flipping toward them, thus proving that an election campaign has some level of effectiveness that differs between parties, depending on factors such as media presence.

Spending
In presidential campaigns in the United States, research indicates that a $10 million advantage in spending in an individual states leads to approximately 27,000 more votes for the campaign in the state, which can be sufficient to win a close race. In down-ballot races, spending matters more. Scholars have estimated that a $2 million advantage can net a Senate campaign 10,000 votes.

Presidential campaigns
A large body of political science research emphasizes how "fundamentals" – the state of the economy, whether the country is at war, how long the president's party has held the office, and which candidate is more ideologically moderate – predict presidential election outcomes. However, campaigns may be necessary to enlighten otherwise uninformed voters about the fundamentals, which thus become increasingly predictive of preferences as the campaign progresses. Research suggests that "the 2012 presidential campaigns increased turnout in highly targeted states by 7–8 percentage points, on average, indicating that modern campaigns can significantly alter the size and composition of the voting population".

National conventions
A consensus in the political science literature holds that national conventions usually have a measurable effect on presidential elections that is relatively resistant to decay.

Presidential and vice-presidential debates
Research is mixed on the precise impact of debates. Rather than encourage viewers to update their political views in accordance with the most persuasive arguments, viewers instead update their views to merely reflect what their favored candidate is saying.

Presidential primaries
The fundamentals matter less in the outcome of presidential primaries. One prominent theory holds that the outcome of presidential primaries is largely determined by the preferences of party elites. Presidential primaries are therefore less predictive, as various types of events may impact elites' perception of the viability of candidates. Gaffes, debates and media narratives play a greater role in primaries than in presidential elections.

Strategies
Traditional ground campaigning and voter contacts remain the most effective strategies. Some research suggests that knocking on doors can increase turnout by as much as 10% and phone calls by as much as 4%. One study suggests that lawn signs increase vote share by 1.7 percentage points. A review of more than 200 get-out-the-vote experiments finds that the most effective tactics are personal: Door-to-door canvassing increases turnout by an average of about 2.5 percentage points; volunteer phone calls raise it by about 1.9 points, compared to 1.0 points for calls from commercial phone banks; automated phone messages are ineffective. Using out-of-state volunteers for canvassing is less effective in increasing turnout than using local and trained volunteers.

According to political scientists Donald Green and Alan Gerber, it costs $31 to produce a vote going door to door, $91-$137 to produce a vote by sending out direct mailers, $47 per vote from leafletting, $58-$125 per vote from commercial phone banking, and $20-$35 per vote from voluntary phone banking. A 2018 study in the American Economic Review found that door-to-door canvassing on behalf of the Francois Hollande campaign in the 2012 French presidential election "did not affect turnout, but increased Hollande's vote share in the first round and accounted for one fourth of his victory margin in the second. Visits' impact persisted in later elections, suggesting a lasting persuasion effect." According to a 2018 study, repeated get-out-the-vote phone calls had diminishing effects but each additional phone call increased the probability to vote by 0.6-1.0 percentage points. Another 2018 study found that "party leaflets boost turnout by 4.3 percentage points while canvassing has a small additional effect (0.6 percentage points)" in a United Kingdom election.

A 2016 study found that visits by candidate visits to states have modest effects: "visits are most effective in influencing press coverage at the national level and within battleground states. Visits' effects on voters themselves, however, are much more modest than consultants often claim, and visits appear to have no effects outside the market that hosts a visit." The authors of the study argue that it would be more effective for campaigns to go to the pockets of the country where wealthy donors are (for fundraising) and hold rallies in the populous states both to attract national press and raise funds. A 2005 study found that campaign visits had no statistically significant effect, after controlling for other factors, on voter turnout in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 elections. On the other hand, a 2017 paper of the 1948 presidential election provides "strong evidence that candidate visits can influence electoral returns". Other research also provides evidence that campaign visits increase vote share.

Campaigns may also rely on strategically placed field offices to acquire votes. The Obama 2008 campaign's extensive use of field offices has been credited as crucial to winning in the states of Indiana and North Carolina. Each field office that the Obama campaign opened in 2012 gave him approximately a 0.3% greater vote share. According to one study, the cost per vote by having a field office is $49.40.

According to a 2020 study, campaign spending on messaging to voters affects voter support for candidates. Another 2020 study found that political advertising had small effects regardless of context, message, sender, and receiver. A 2022 study found that voters are persuadable to switch support for candidates when they are exposed to new information.

Political science research generally finds negative advertisement (which has increased over time) to be ineffective both at reducing the support and turnout for the opponent. A 2021 study in the American Political Science Review found that television campaign ads do affect election outcomes, in particular in down-ballot races. According to political scientists Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, negative ads do succeed at driving down overall turnout though. A 2019 study of online political advertising conducted by a party in the 2016 Berlin state election campaign found that the online-ad campaign "increased the party's vote share by 0.7 percentage points" and that factual ads were more effective than emotional ads.

History
Political campaigns have existed as long as there have been informed citizens to campaign amongst. Democratic societies have regular election campaigns, but political campaigning can occur on particular issues even in non-democracies so long as freedom of expression is allowed. Often mass campaigns are started by the less privileged or anti-establishment viewpoints (as against more powerful interests whose first resort is lobbying). The phenomenon of political campaigns are tightly tied to lobby groups and political parties.

The first modern campaign is often described as William Ewart Gladstone's Midlothian campaign in 1878–80, although there may be earlier recognizably modern examples from the 19th century. The 1896 William McKinley presidential campaign laid the groundwork for modern campaigns.

History of election campaigns in America
Political campaigns are forever changing and evolving with the growth of technology. In the nineteenth-century candidates were not traveling the country in search of votes. That is until the American presidential race of 1896 when William McKinley recruited the help of Marcus A. Hanna. Hanna devised a plan to have voters come to McKinley. McKinley won the race with 51% of the votes.

The development of new technologies has completely changed the way political campaigns are run. In the late twentieth-century campaigns shifted into television and radio broadcasts. The early 00s brought interactive websites. By 2008 the world of campaigns was available to millions of people through the internet and social media programs. 2008 marks a new era of digital elections because of the fast-paced movement of information.

World

 * Barnes, S. H., and M. Kaase Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies. Sage, 1979.
 * Blewett, Neal. The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910. London: Macmillan, 1972.
 * Hix, S. The Political System of the European Union. St. Martin's Press, 1999.
 * Katz, Richard S., and Peter Mair (eds.), How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies. Sage Publications, 1994.
 * LaPalombara, Joseph and Myron Wiener (eds.), Political Parties and Political Development. Princeton University Press, 1966.
 * Panebianco, A. Political Parties: Organization and Power. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
 * Paquette, Laure. Campaign Strategy. New York: Nova, 2006.
 * Poguntke, Thomas, and Paul Webb, eds. The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies. Oxford University Press. 2005 online
 * Ware, Alan. Citizens, Parties and the State: A Reappraisal. Princeton University Press, 1987.
 * Webb, Paul, David Farrell, and Ian Holliday, Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford University Press, 2002
 * Ware, Alan. Citizens, Parties and the State: A Reappraisal. Princeton University Press, 1987.
 * Webb, Paul, David Farrell, and Ian Holliday, Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford University Press, 2002

United States

 * Bruce A. Bimber and Richard Davis, Campaigning Online: the Internet in U.S. Elections. Oxford University Press, 2003.
 * Cunningham, Sean P. Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010.
 * Robert J. Dinkin. Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practice. Westport: Greenwood, 1989.
 * Kirsten A. Foot and Steven M. Schneider, Web Campaigning. The MIT Press, 2006.
 * John Gerring, Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
 * Lewis L. Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans. New York: Random House, 2003.
 * Justin A. Gravely. Campaigning on American Soil and the Rules of the American Government. Cambridge University Press, 2014
 * Gary C. Jacobson. The Politics of Congressional Elections (5th edition). New York: Longman, 2000.
 * Richard Jensen, The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.
 * L. Sandy Meisel, ed. Political Parties and Elections in the United States: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1991.
 * Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., ed. History of American Presidential Elections. 4 vols. New York: Chelsea House, 1971.
 * James A. Thurber, Campaigns and Elections American Style (2nd edition). New York: Westview Press, 2004.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Political campaign


text:
Grady

United States

 * Grady, Alabama, an unincorporated community
 * Grady, Arkansas, a city
 * Grady, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
 * Grady, New Mexico, a village
 * Grady, Oklahoma, an unincorporated community
 * Grady, Virginia, an unincorporated community
 * Grady County, Georgia
 * Grady County, Oklahoma

Poland

 * Grądy (disambiguation)

People and fictional characters

 * Grady (given name)
 * Grady (surname)
 * Grady, Sophie's adoptive father in the KOTLC series by Shannon Messenger

Arts and entertainment

 * Grady (band), an American cowboy metal band
 * Grady (British TV series), a 1970 British television series
 * Grady (American TV series), a 1975 American television comedy series that is a spinoff of Sanford and Son
 * Grady, an alternative musical artist based in California.

Other uses

 * Grady Gang, a criminal group led by John D. Grady in New York in the 1860s
 * Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia
 * Grady Memorial Hospital (Ohio), Delaware, Ohio

title: Grady


text:
User:Fridaeklof

Hi! I'm a MSc student at BI Norwegian School of Management, majoring in IT management. I did my Bachelors degree at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

I’ve lived the largest part of my life in the Swedish ski resort Åre, but have also lived in Rhodes in Greece, Murcia in Spain, Copenhagen in Denmark and in Brighton and Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.

title: User:Fridaeklof


text:
User talk:Sannse/Dogs

<User:Sannse/Dogs

I used your Australian Shepherd, Puli, and Smooth Collie images in articles. Three down, five zillion to go. ;-) ...  Elf 16:06, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks Elf, feel free just to move them up into the "Used in articles" section as a way of letting me know if you like (or just leave it and see if I notice ;) I'm glad you used the puli, that's one of my favourites -- sannse (talk) 20:08, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Puli is a nice one. Hard to get a photo that shows the cords nicely; I also like shots that show the dog's face, too, which yours does nicely.  I also just used your Sheltie photo as the primary photo for that breed & moved th casual picture that was there off to the side.  Elf 20:25, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Nice new bulldog photo. Did you mean it to be inline rather than xref? :-) I'm heading out for the weekend for agility again--as usual--with cameras in tow. Elf | Talk 23:52, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

Oops, yes I did - thanks :) Have fun this weekend! -- sannse (talk) 08:43, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sannse/Dogs


text:
Paeania

Paeania or Paiania (Παιανία) were two demoi of ancient Attica, divided into Upper Paeania and Lower Paeania, that were situated on the eastern side of Hymettus, near the modern village of Liopesi renamed to Paiania. It was the deme of Demosthenes.

Notable people

 * Demades (380–318 BCE), orator and demagogue.
 * Demosthenes (384–322 BCE), orator and demagogue.
 * Philippides of Paiania (293 BCE), archon Basileus and son of Philomelos.

title: Paeania


text:
Iodide

An iodide ion is the ion I−. Compounds with iodine in formal oxidation state −1 are called iodides. In everyday life, iodide is most commonly encountered as a component of iodized salt, which many governments mandate. Worldwide, iodine deficiency affects two billion people and is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability.

Structure and characteristics of inorganic iodides
Iodide is one of the largest monatomic anions. It is assigned a radius of around 206 picometers. For comparison, the lighter halides are considerably smaller: bromide (196 pm), chloride (181 pm), and fluoride (133 pm). In part because of its size, iodide forms relatively weak bonds with most elements.

Most iodide salts are soluble in water, but often less so than the related chlorides and bromides. Iodide, being large, is less hydrophilic compared to the smaller anions. One consequence of this is that sodium iodide is highly soluble in acetone, whereas sodium chloride is not. The low solubility of silver iodide and lead iodide reflects the covalent character of these metal iodides. A test for the presence of iodide ions is the formation of yellow precipitates of these compounds upon treatment of a solution of silver nitrate or lead(II) nitrate.

Aqueous solutions of iodide salts dissolve iodine better than pure water. This effect is due to the formation of the triiodide ion, which is brown:
 * I− + I2 ⇌

Redox, including antioxidant properties
Iodide salts are mild reducing agents and many react with oxygen to give iodine. A reducing agent is a chemical term for an antioxidant. Its antioxidant properties can be expressed quantitatively as a redox potential :

 * 2I− ⇌ I2 +      E° = 0.54 volts (versus SHE)

Because iodide is easily oxidized, some enzymes readily convert it into electrophilic iodinating agents, as required for the biosynthesis of myriad iodide-containing natural products. Iodide can function as an antioxidant reducing species that can destroy ozone and reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide:
 * 2 I− + peroxidase + H2O2 + tyrosine, histidine, lipid, etc. → iodo-compounds + H2O + 2 e− (antioxidants).

Natural occurrence
Iodargyrite—natural, crystalline silver iodide—is the most common iodide mineral currently known. Iodide anions may sometimes also be found combined with mercury, copper and lead, but minerals with such compositions are even more scarce.

Other oxoanions
Iodine can assume oxidation states of −1, +1, +3, +5, or +7. A number of neutral iodine oxides are also known.

title: Iodide


text:
J. Harold Grady

Joseph Harold Grady (February 27, 1917 – January 9, 2002) was a judge and the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1959 to 1962.

Prior to running for mayor, he was an FBI agent and state's attorney for Baltimore city.

title: J. Harold Grady


text:
Reg Prentice

Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice, PC (16 July 1923 – 18 January 2001) was a British politician who held ministerial office in both Labour and Conservative Party governments. He was the most senior Labour figure ever to defect to the Conservative Party.

Education and war service
Reg Prentice was born in Croydon, Surrey, and educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon, then at the London School of Economics. He served in Austria and Italy during World War II.

Early politics
Prentice joined the staff of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1950.

He was a councillor for Whitehorse Manor in the then-County Borough of Croydon from 1949, having stood unsuccessfully in Thornton Heath ward in 1947. He served on the Housing, Libraries, Planning & Development, Water and Reconstruction Committees.

He first stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament in Croydon North in 1950 and 1951, then Streatham in 1955. As Labour Member of Parliament from 1957 for East Ham North, later Newham North East, he was a minister of state in Harold Wilson's first government at Education and Science (1964–66), then as Minister of Public Buildings and Works (1966–67), and finally was put in charge of the still-new Ministry of Overseas Development (1967–69).

In the 1971 Shadow Cabinet election, Prentice just missed out on being elected, finishing in 13th place in the ballot for 12 available places. However, in April 1972 the resignations from the shadow cabinet of Harold Lever and George Thomson saw Prentice and 14th placed candidate John Silkin join the body in their place. At the next shadow cabinet election, Prentice topped the poll and he was again re-elected in 1973, this time finishing in third place.

When Labour regained power, he was Secretary of State for Education and Science between 1974 and 1975, subsequently becoming Minister for Overseas Development with a seat in the cabinet until 1976.

In 1975, after his Constituency Labour Party had been infiltrated by Trotskyist Militants, he was deselected. He appealed unsuccessfully from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection.

Switch of party
In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists and joined the Conservative Party.

He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Daventry in the 1979 general election. Lady Hesketh was instrumental in him standing for Daventry. He was a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Security in Margaret Thatcher's government between 1979 and 1981. He left the government owing to ill health. He was knighted in 1987, the year he stepped down as an MP. On 30 January 1992, he was created Life Peer as Baron Prentice, of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire.

In the last few years before his death at age 77, he was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.

Death and legacy
Prentice died at his home in Mildenhall, Wiltshire. His daughter, Christine, followed her father as a London Borough of Croydon councillor for Coulsdon East ward from 1992 to 1998.

A biography, which provides an in-depth account of Prentice's party-political transition during the 1970s, was published in 2015: Geoff Horn, Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy.

Archives

 * Catalogue of the Prentice papers Archives Division, London School of Economics

title: Reg Prentice


text:
Wikipedia talk:Requests for review of administrative actions

Untitled
Too many page moves...head hurting...→Raul654 16:19, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC)

 * I refactored the page, Anthony reverted, I re-reverted. I deem that I have used up my self-imposed "one revert per day" quota for this page.

 * If I took out too much sarcasm or nastiness, or otherwise misquoted you, please use the page diff to restore your remarks. --Uncle Ed 13:53, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I assume this whole page is a joke, anyway, so I'll let your re-reversion stand. Anthony DiPierro 14:10, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually, it's the replacement for Requests for de-adminship (see what links here). --Uncle Ed 14:15, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I know what it is, but neither page has accomplished anything. Anthony DiPierro 14:28, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * The proliferation of admin pages did quite work out right somehow. When Requests for adminship starting being overrun by DE-adminship stuff, I created Possible misuses of admin privileges to be what I thought was catch-all. Then someone decided there needed to be Requests for de-adminship anyway. (I am not sure why there could ever be de-adminship issues without being misuse of admin privileges, but there you go. Now this page has been renamed Requests for review of admin actions, which to my mind is a virtual synomyn of Possible misuses of admin privileges. Maybe they should be merged. Here endeth the Wikipedia history lesson. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 14:35, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I think it makes sense to have them separate now. Possible misuses of admin privileges is about what to do if someone has abused their powers, while this page can just be the list of current problems. Angela. 22:23, Mar 15, 2004 (UTC)

 * But I just found there is also De-adminship, so now I'm confused. Maybe I'll merge De-adminship with Possible misuses of admin privileges, and Requests for review of admin actions can stay as the list.

Proxy war
What is this? A proxy war of anti-H's? One for each new attempt? - Texture 22:23, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * If you're unfamiliar with our old friend Michael, read up on him sometime. He has an unhealthy fixation on Hephaestos for reasons best known to Michael.  He reappears sometimes, and is a bizarre chapter in Wikipedia's history. Jwrosenzweig 22:25, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Seriousness
I am reposting this here, because I thin it is more relevant ;)

I agree that the purpose of this page is to review admin actions and, if necessary, hold them accountable. I think that the "good", "doubleplusgood" etc comments undermine the credability of something that should be taken seriously. We should not let our personal feelings about the complainants spill over onto this page, which should be solely for 'reviewing the actions of admins'. We should restrict ourselves here to discussions of the merits of lack thereof of the complaint or the action. A simple "this is without merit" does not do justice to even the most frivilous complaint. A one sentence explanation of an action does not seem to much to ask, and it does seem reasonale that, instead of simply saying that it is "good" that the questioned action took place, we should either keep our counsel, or contribute something more constructive. Mark Richards 16:31, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I have made an expanded response to Wik's claim in accordance with Mark's request that I believe was implied by other responders. - Tεx τ urε 16:48, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Notice to the accused
It is elementary due process to give notice to the accused that their actions are under review. In the matter of Stevertigo, not sure they even know they are listed. Fred Bauder 14:56, May 15, 2004 (UTC)

Use WP:RFC instead?
I believe we should use the WP:RFC page for these matters. There is nothing special about admins that should warrant a different procedure for complaints. This page predates WP:RFC and really should be merged with it. I believe that the procedures at WP:RFC, such as requiring two users to "certify" a listing, would help prevent some of the abuses that have occured recently here. These include retaliatory listings and listings that appear to be unsupported by anyone other than the affected user. UninvitedCompany 19:00, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Exactly - take this to Requests for Comment. john 19:29, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * As someone fairly involved in maintaining the RfC page, I'm currently agnostic about whether reviews of admin actions should be added there. UninvitedCompany makes an excellent point, however, about the usefulness of requiring "certification", which I think has helped cut down (though not eliminate) the pettiness there. Before I support consolidation, I would like to see opinions on one question - if we do consolidate, should we maintain a separate section for conduct related to admin privileges, or should all disputes be handled under one category? --Michael Snow 20:37, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

I think that there is value in putting disputes about admins using admin powers on a separate page. There is no value in putting complaints about user conduct by users who happen to be admins on this page. Which seems to be what has been happening lately. john 20:49, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * In my opinion, administrators should be held to higher standards than ordinary users. Ergo, administrators need to be treated differently. -- John Gohde 06:53, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, I understood UninvitedCompany's proposal to be that all matters should be on RfC, instead of having a separate page. But I certainly agree that people have been using this page a lot for what should be RfC user conduct disputes, if they can qualify. I don't know how closely you follow RfC, but the certification requirement has improved things, in my opinion, and could be beneficial if applied here as well. Naturally, the easiest way to impose a certification requirement is probably to fold admin-related matters directly into the existing page where that requirement already exists. And though I'm not enthusiastic about the increased maintenance RfC might need, I am sympathetic to the view that admins are not fundamentally different from other users, and should not be given different treatment. --Michael Snow 21:06, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Maybe if this page were renamed something using the phrase "Misuse of administrative power" to make clearer that this is not the place for article content disputes that have you mad at an administrator? Snowspinner 21:09, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * As long as we have a separate page for admins, it will be a magnet for people who want to target admins. Especially if the threshold to keep a dispute open is lower than it is on RfC. --Michael Snow 21:19, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Is having admins under a higher standard of review a bad thing? Snowspinner 21:29, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * No. However, having a higher threshold to open a dispute discussion in the first place is not tantamount to a higher standard of review.  I don't think it's too much to ask that the complaining party find someone else who agrees with their sentiments before bringing them to the whole community.  UninvitedCompany 21:44, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Right. I think it might indirectly lead to a higher standard review actually, as presently valid signal might be lost amongst the great deal of noise that currently prevails on this page. - Hephaestos|§ 21:48, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * UninvitedCompany beat me to the answer. There's some inherent tension in the system here. On one hand, we try to keep adminship from becoming a status symbol, which for intellectual consistency demands that admins be treated the same as everyone else. On the other hand, admins have certain technical abilities that should only be used with good judgment and discretion, which suggests that we should hold admins to higher expectations.

 * I think the place to hold admins to a higher standard is when considering how to view their conduct (and what discipline to apply, if it comes to that). Such a standard is primarily relevant after the complaint has shown it has a legitimate basis. As a result, I don't think using different thresholds to "certify" a complaint does very much to create a higher standard of review. --Michael Snow 22:04, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Not at all, for those admins who were aware this "higher" (one might as easily say "double") standard when they agreed to accept the position. But, with the strict exception of their admin powers, no such standard was stated, and to impose one now, particularly in the absence of consensus to do so, seems like bait-and-switch. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:43, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

A proposal
Forgive this for being long. I've been writing a Masters thesis, and I forget how to be short. I think that administrators ought to be held to a higher standard, first of all - after all, the vote of the community that they would make a valuable administrator amounts to a vote that they already achieve a higher standard - the obligation is not to some previously unwritten set of rules, but to the community - one should continue to be worthy of the responsibility that one has been given.

That said, a higher standard and continual aggravation are not the same thing. I think that what happened to this page yesterday, with a bunch of people putting specious requests for review that were motivated purely out of being mad about being brought to arbitration (again) needs to not happen. Irismeister, and, frankly, Mr. Natural-Health both had no real complaints.

However, I do think it's important that administrative actions be under closer watch - regardless of the attitude that admins are normal users. And I think that there's a case to be made that all administrator actions are, by their nature, administrative - having an edit disagreed with by an administrator takes on a different tone than having it disagreed with by a regular user - simply put, no matter how nice and good the administrator is, the fact that they can block you if you edit war with them is always there. (Note: This is not some criticism that any of the administrators are irrational. To be honest, I can't think of an out-and-out bad administrator we have right now. It's just that, well, administrators have power, and that's one of the results of having power)

Accordingly, I think that this page should survive, but with some major changes to its format. First of all, submissions to it should have to ascribe to a format - name of administrator, name of complainant(s), actions in question, articles in question, comments by complainant, comments by administrator, general discussion. Secondly, I think this page should have a certification procedure, much like RfC. However, whereas RfC demands that the certifier also have raised the issue, I think here it should be sufficient that the certifier has looked at the articles and agrees that the actions of the administrator are questionable. If no one does this within 48 hours, the complaint is deleted. All certified complaints, however, should be archived.

This is not a massively higher standard - this page should not be given the power to strip administrators of their status or anything like that. What it does do, however, is that it makes it easier for users who feel like administrators are pushing them around - whether through explicit means like deletions and blocks, or through implicit means like forceful statements saying "Stop doing this." (Which can carry an unintended "or else" when they come from administrators) - to get people to look at the situation. The effect is that it becomes easier to get people to look at an admin's actions, without it becoming easier to punish the admin.

Thoughs? Snowspinner 15:00, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I agree - this might reduce the number of spurious harrassment claims, while providing assurance that real complaints will really be dealt with. We should also use this as a forum to review actions, not vent about what we feel about a specific user. Mark Richards 19:48, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

 * AOL! I think Snowspinner's proposal has a great deal of merit. After some of my experiences on requests for comment disputes, I found that a format that channels complaints to specific violations of specific policies can and does cut down on baseless complaints and unfocused whinging.

 * A bit of history is also instructive. When I arrived here, the only centralized place to discuss user conduct disputes was Problem users (later renamed Conflicts between users). That page resembled this one very closely: anyone could bitch about anyone else in whatever fashion they pleased, for whatever reason they chose; complaints lingered forever; and nothing meaningful was done. Unsurprisingly, the page was nothing but a flamepit and was eventually replaced by RFC and the rest of the dispute resolution process, which turned out to be more effective (albeit not perfect).

 * Therefore I have worked up a template (mostly based on Requests for comment/Example user) for this page, and I would like comments on it. —No-One Jones 19:57, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Proposed template
In order to remain listed at Requests for review of administrative actions, at least two people need to show that they tried to resolve a dispute with this sysop and have failed. This must involve the same dispute, not different disputes. The persons complaining must provide evidence of their efforts, and each of them must certify it by signing this page with ~. If this does not happen within 48 hours of the creation of this dispute page (which was: ), the page will be deleted.

Please note: This page is for review of actions that are limited to use by administrators only, specifically these actions and their converses:

 * protection
 * deletion
 * blocking users

For all other matters (such as edit wars and page moves) please see Dispute resolution.

 * (Example sysop | talk | contributions)

Statement of the dispute
This is a summary written by users who dispute this sysop's conduct.

 * Description:

Powers misused

 * Protection (log):

 * Deletion (log):

 * Blocking (log):

Applicable policies

 * Protection policy

 * Deletion policy

 * Blocking policy

 * Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute (provide diffs and links)

 * Users certifying the basis for this dispute (sign with ~ ):

 * Other users who endorse this dispute (sign with ~ ):

Response
This is a summary written by the sysop whose actions are disputed, or by other users who think that the dispute is unjustified and that the sysop's actions did not violate policy

Users who endorse this summary (sign with ~ ):

Outside view
This is a summary written by users not directly involved with the dispute but who would like to add an outside view of the dispute.

Users who endorse this summary (sign with ~ ):

Discussion
All signed comments and talk not related to a vote or endorsement, should be directed to this page's discussion page.

Comments on this template
If we decide to use this format, I'd also like to use subpages for each complaint, for reasons of space and clarity; I don't especially care whether the subpages are linked to RfC or to this page (or both). —No-One Jones 19:59, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This all looks good to me. john k 15:21, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Looks good to me too. - Hephaestos|§ 16:08, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

If the summary is not to be signed, how is anyone else to know whether the author/s has/ve committed the sin of participating in further discussion? --Phil | Talk 16:27, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

I like this in general, though perhaps we can discuss the particulars for a bit before implementing it. I'd like to see some more guidelines on what the second person on the complaint is actually doing: Are they agreeing with the complainant that the administrator abused sysop powers? Are they fact-checking a statement of facts? Are they just saying they don't think the complaint is ridiculously trivial? moink 18:06, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * I yanked that bit straight from Requests for comment/Example user: there, I think its purpose was to prevent every petty conflict of egos from ending up on RfC. Both certifying users had to show evidence of failed attempts to resolve the conflict, thus demonstrating that the user whose conduct was disputed was, in fact, misbehaving. I don't know if it's necessary here: a simple demonstration, by one user, that a sysop misused his or her powers and ignored attempts at discussion, might be sufficient. Sysop-only powers are held to slightly stricter standards than ordinary editing actions, are they not? —No-One Jones 23:26, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Deleting items from the article page
How long does one of these complaints need to stay here before it gets deleted? RickK 23:36, Jun 9, 2004 (UTC)

 * For as long as necessary until you get banned. --Cantus 23:54, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Posting a comment such as this disguised as a minor edit is unacceptable behavior. I dare to stand up against you any day.  RickK 04:28, Jun 10, 2004 (UTC)
 * I would say, Rick, that if a complaint has gone 2 weeks without comment, it should be removed. That's personal opinion only, of course.  The complaint remains in the page history - I don't know if there is any additional archiving being done. Jwrosenzweig 00:11, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Two weeks without activity seems reasonable. Mark Richards 02:02, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Arbitration and de-adminship. Proof of blatant double standards
(moved from project page by —No-One Jones)

Request  here ? was removed. There is ABSOLUTELY NO place in public Wiki space where this can be put without it being immedately removed or redirected by wikipolice to some 'quarantaine'' quarters. On the contrary, if admin complainants care to carry active editors in ludicrous "arbitrations" without trying to resolve dispute first, such complainants are heard and pampered viz. titillated. So they feel encouraged to "admin" even more in such masturbatory styles. Alas, they are also, by this very action, de facto, and automatically requesting review of their own administrative actions, AND desysoping. As I ALREADY stated, redirecting or CUTTING my request is NOT, repeat NOT a REVIEW of admin actions - but Wikipolice "maintanance" as usual. I therefore LEAVE WIKI having made my final point. - Good bye, and good riddance :O) irismeister 14:27, 2004 Jun 11 (UTC)

 * Fascinating as this is, I can't really understand what admin action you are asking folks to review. Can you clarify, or it will be removed from here too. Mark Richards 17:07, 12 Jun 2004 (UTC)

At least two people? Resolution?
Basically I really like this. I have one small issue, and one larger one though. First off, I don't think that two users should need to have tried to resolve the issue. I think it should be enough for one user to have tried and failed. Asking that two do would not really provide much benefit, and be a considerable burden. The purpose should be to provide rapid review of admin actions by a broader slice of the community. Secondly, I would like to see the format move towards a resolution of the issue - ie does the policy support the action, if not what remedy is to be applied? As I said though - I like this. Mark Richards 14:44, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * I agree with Mark in almost all of the above, except for his minor first point. We do have users here who communicate badly.  Sometimes they may have a legitimate issue with an admin, but approach it in a hostile manner that prevents resolution.  Requiring another person to talk to the admin may prevent the case from ever reaching here -- many admins, I think, are willing to admit they've botched something, as long as the person they're talking with isn't out for blood.  Obviously, both people could be out for blood, but we at least increase the chances that the admin has had the opportunity to realistically admit fault and back down.  Furthermore, it means that many of the lone trolls around here will be far less able to bring these requests frivolously -- you've got to get them agreeing, and it's been my experience that most of them don't play well together (with notable exceptions, of course). Jwrosenzweig 16:47, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I see where you are going with that, and wouldn't oppose the two person thing, it just that I think that in practice it would make legitimate claims more difficult and encourage sock puppet trolling for those with frivilous claims. I agree also that a less confrontational way of dealing with this would be great. An admin would find it much easier to deal with 'could you check this please, I think it may benefit from a second glance' than 'I demand you be de-sysopped and banned for this crusade against me!'. Mark Richards 20:30, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * I am finding myself in a personality conflict with an abusive administrator. I no longer trust this person to build consensus. I would ignore this person — as he says I am spamming and ranting — but as of today find it impossible. He deletes my communications to him, and additions to articles I hope to improve. I want someone higher up to watch him and his actions. I have been a contributor in good standing to Wikipedia since November 1, 2003 and find arbitrary editing decisions to be not beneficial to Wikipedia's goals. Is this template something I can use to deal with him? Or is it a work in progress? - Sparky 05:58, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Just chiming in my support for using and enforcing this template for future complaints about admin actions (naturally, since it's based on the template Mav and I designed for RfC). I support the two-person requirement, which I don't think is that much of a burden. For non-frivolous complaints, I expect that some concerned individual will be willing to investigate the issue and certify along with the primary complainant.

As for having the format move toward resolving the issue, I wholeheartedly agree with Mark, and encourage anyone to suggest ideas for this. If we can come up with anything good, it ought to be used for RfC pages too. --Michael Snow 00:02, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I support the template.

I think for this page to build community rather than tear it down, there has to be some way to avoid retaliatory listings from individuals who list every admin that acts against them. Such listings have made this page essentially useless for substantive discussions of genuine problems, because few users take it seriously.

I believe that the best way to do this would be to only allow new listings to be made by other administrators. If a non-administrator has a legitimate complaint, it should not be difficult for them to find a sympathetic administrator who would sponsor the listing. I beleive this would be more constructive than the "two-user" rule, and I believe it would encourage more and better discussion of the few genunine problems we do have since the page as a whole would no longer have the highly polarized flamewars it presently entertains.

UninvitedCompany 16:48, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * I do not feel I can support UninvitedCompany's suggestion that we require admin sponsorship for a listing in place of the two-person requirement. Particularly since the issue here is allegations of improper conduct by admins, allowing only those complaints brought by other admins would promote in many minds the impression that admins are a cabal. While it might not be that difficult to find an admin to sponsor a legitimate complaint, I think it detracts from the appearance of fairness in the process.

 * I recognize that requiring two users to certify a listing is not a complete barrier to frivolous complaints. There may be attempts to use sockpuppets for certification, and there may be instances where different users - all of them nuisances to the community - join forces to register a complaint against a blameless admin (in my opinion, Requests for comment/Theresa Knott is one such case). But sockpuppets can be identified, and as for the second case, I believe the best solution is for the community to express its support for the admin and treat the illegitimate complaint with the contempt it deserves. --Michael Snow 19:01, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

How can sockpuppets be identified? I agree that the most transparent cases can be, but what about more subtle ones? Mark Richards 20:32, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * For the purpose of the template, I would guess most sockpuppets will be transparent enough. Trying to develop a non-obvious sockpuppet for the purposes of making some future complaint about an admin would take too much time and effort for its creator, compared to the amount of disruption the complaint would generate. --Michael Snow 21:26, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Template: When and where?
So everyone seems to agree that this template is a Good Thing, and that we should use it; now the only questions are: When should we convert the page to this format, and should we continue using Requests for review of administrative actions, or should we link these disputes from Requests for comment? —No-One Jones 18:44, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I've redirected the page to RfC, adopted the new template there, and left this discussion (linked on the RfC talk page) for historical purposes. I hope people will find that acceptable. --Michael Snow 20:06, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

redirect target
WP:AN currently says that for "Evasion of blocks, abuse of admin tools, or other incidents" one should go to Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents, yet this redirect currently points to WP:AN. Is there a consensus to re-target the redirect to ANI? betafive 22:22, 15 August 2014 (UTC)


text: User talk:12.15.136.26

title: User talk:12.15.136.26


text:
Agincourt, Toronto

Agincourt is a neighbourhood and former village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Agincourt is located in northeast Toronto, along Sheppard Avenue between Kennedy and Markham Roads (north-south includes lands between Highway 401 and Finch Avenue). Before the creation of the "megacity" of Toronto in 1998, the area was part of Scarborough. It is officially recognized by the City of Toronto as occupying the neighbourhoods of Agincourt South–Malvern West and Agincourt North.

The name Agincourt is often used to refer to a larger area of northwest Scarborough rather than just the officially recognized neighbourhood. The area to the west of Agincourt, officially named Tam O'Shanter–Sullivan is often included as part of Agincourt, and the Agincourt Mall is located in Tam O'Shanter.

The section of Agincourt west of Midland Avenue belongs to the electoral district of Scarborough—Agincourt, while the section to the east is part of Scarborough North (federal, previously Scarborough—Rouge River) or Scarborough—Rouge River (provincial, until the 2018 provincial election, when it will be replaced with Scarborough North).

History
Agincourt was once referred to as "hero town" by the citizens that lived there. The village of Agincourt was officially founded with the establishment of the Agincourt post office, opened in June 1858 by John Hill. The name of the settlement was after the site of Henry V's decisive English victory over French forces in 1415. Local legend has it that the town's name was chosen when Hill requested that the town be given a post office, and the French-Canadian Postmaster agreed, on the condition that it be given a French name, with 'Agincourt' chosen to undermine the Postmaster's intention. The site of the 1415 battle is now known as Azincourt: the namesake of today's Agincourt, Ontario should not be confused with Agincourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The original crossroads of Agincourt is located at Midland Avenue and Sheppard and served a rural agricultural population.

A Presbyterian church (from France) was built on the north-east corner, which is today's Knox United Church. In addition, an Agincourt Public School was built in 1914, which has evolved over time into Agincourt Junior Public School. A secondary school that later evolved into Agincourt Collegiate Institute, was established in 1915 on the second floor of the same building. From 1954 to 1998, the schools were a part of the Scarborough Board of Education.

Two railway stations were constructed in the second half of the 19th century at Agincourt. One was built just west of the crossroads as part of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway line heading north from Scarborough Junction on the Toronto – Montreal mainline, and greatly improved access. The line eventually became part of Canadian National Railways, and the station operates today as Agincourt Station on the GO Transit Stouffville commuter rail route. A second station was built east of the crossroads, northside of Sheppard Avenue and west of Brimley Road, on what is today CP Rail track that runs from downtown Toronto diagonally northeast through the neighbourhood. Commuter rail service to Toronto's Union Station was offered by the CPR from various service routes such as Lake Ontario Shore Line and Toronto-Peterboro Dayliner (1950s). CP passenger service was discontinued in 1982 but revived briefly in 1985 before being cancelled for good in 1990. The line branches east of a marshalling yard, built by CP in the 1960s between McCowan and Markham Roads on the east of the neighbourhood, into the (Peterborough–) Havelock and Belleville (– Montreal) subdivisions. The neighbourhood saw an influx of Chinese Canadians move into the area during the 1980s.

Agincourt saw an influx of Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese emigrants during the 1980s, especially in the area along Sheppard Avenue near Midland Avenue. Since the development of Chinese-themed shopping centres in the 1980s, it has become a booming suburban Toronto Chinatown and was the vanguard for the proliferation of "Chinese malls", catering specifically to the Chinese community across the GTA.

Economy
Agincourt Mall, an enclosed mall, began a redevelopment in 2018, and is the second-largest active residential application in Toronto.

Education
Four public school boards operate elementary and secondary schools in Agincourt. They include the public secular Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and the public separate school boards, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (CSCM), and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). Toronto's French-language secular public school board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV) now operates a school in the district.

TDSB operates four public secondary schools in the neighbourhood, Agincourt Collegiate Institute, Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, Sir William Osler High School and Delphi Alternative Secondary School. In addition to secondary schools, TDSB also operates institutions which provide primary education. TCDSB operates two public secondary schools in Agincourt, Francis Libermann Catholic High School and Monsignor Fraser College Midland Campus, with the latter housed in the former Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic School.

The following public elementary schools operate in Agincourt (with the managing school board in parentheses):

 * Agincourt Junior Public School (TDSB)
 * C. D. Farquharson Junior Public School (TDSB)
 * Chartland Junior Public School (TDSB)
 * École elémentaire catholique Saint-Jean-de-Lalande (CSCM)
 * École elémentaire Laure-Riese (CSV)
 * Henry Kelsey Senior Public School (TDSB)
 * Iroquois Junior Public School (TDSB)
 * North Agincourt Junior Public School (TDSB)
 * Sir Alexander Mackenzie Senior Public School (TDSB)
 * St. Bartholomew Catholic School (TCDSB)
 * St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Elementary School (TCDSB)
 * St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic School (TCDSB)
 * White Haven Junior Public School (TDSB)

Recreation
The neighbourhood is home to a number of municipal parks, managed by the Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division. In addition to local parks, the Division also operates the Agincourt Recreation Centre (pool and ice rink - damaged in fire in January 2019), located adjacent to Agincourt Park, Albert Campbell Pool (inside Albert Campbell CI) and Commander Park Arena (ice rink) at Commander Park.

 * Agincourt Park
 * Alexmuir Park
 * Brimley Woods Park
 * Chartland Park
 * Chartwell Park
 * Collingwood Park
 * Donalda Park
 * Farquharson Park
 * Havendale Park
 * Iroquois Park
 * Knott Park
 * Metrogate Park
 * McDairmid Woods Park
 * North Agincourt Park
 * Snowhill Park
 * White Haven Park

title: Agincourt, Toronto


text:
Pinnacle (disambiguation)

A pinnacle is an architectural feature.

Pinnacle(s) or The Pinnacle may also refer to:

Architecture

 * The Pinnacle, mid 1960s live music venue also known as the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles
 * The Pinnacle (Atlanta), a business center in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia
 * The Pinnacle (Bristol, Tennessee), a shopping center and commercial development
 * The Pinnacle (Chicago), a residential skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois
 * The Pinnacle (Cleveland), a condominium in downtown Cleveland, Ohio
 * The Pinnacle (Guangzhou), a skyscraper in Guangzhou, China
 * The Pinnacle, Hong Kong, a housing estate in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong
 * The Pinnacle (Nairobi), a skyscraper in Nairobi, Kenya
 * The Pinnacle@Duxton, a residential complex in Singapore
 * The Pinnacle at Symphony Place, a skyscraper in Nashville, Tennessee
 * 22 Bishopsgate, a skyscraper in London, United Kingdom, originally to be named The Pinnacle

Businesses or products

 * Pinnacle Airlines, a U.S. regional airline
 * Pinnacle Armor, a U.S. armor manufacturer
 * Pinnacle Books, a publisher of mass-market paperback books
 * Pinnacle Brands, a former maker of trading cards
 * Pinnacle Entertainment, a gaming and hospitality company
 * Pinnacle Entertainment (United Kingdom), a former UK entertainment group
 * Pinnacle Entertainment Group, a publisher of role-playing games and wargames
 * Pinnacle Financial Partners, a U.S. banking and financial services company
 * Pinnacle Foods, a packaged foods company headquartered in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey
 * Pinnacle Golf
 * Pinnacle Sports, an online gaming website
 * Pinnacle Studio, a video editing application
 * Pinnacle Systems, a digital video producer and distributor
 * Pinnacle vodka

Landforms

 * Pinnacle (geology), a column or spire of rock
 * Pinnacle Islands, disputed islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea
 * Pinnacle Peak (disambiguation), any of several summits
 * Pinnacle Rock (Connecticut), United States, a mountain summit
 * Pinnacle Rock (Galápagos), a famous landmark on Bartholemew Island in the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador
 * Mount Pinacle, sometimes misspelled, in Coaticook, Quebec, Canada
 * Mount Pinnacle, in Frelighsburg, Quebec, Canada
 * The Pinnacle, Battle of Okinawa, a 30 ft spire near Arakachi, Japan
 * The Pinnacle (Cape Breton), a peak in the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia, Canada
 * The Pinnacle (Pennsylvania), United States, a peak
 * Inaccessible Pinnacle, a mountain on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, United Kingdom
 * The Pinnacles (disambiguation), several landforms
 * Putangirua Pinnacles, in Wairarapa, New Zealand
 * Trona Pinnacles, California, United States

Music

 * Pinnacle (album), by the Irv Williams Trio, 2015
 * Pinnacles (Edgar Froese album), 1983
 * Pinnacles (J. J. Johnson album), 1980
 * "Pinnacle", a song by Tone Damli, 2017
 * "The Pinnacle", a song by Kansas from Masque, 1975

Places

 * Pinnacle, Queensland, Australia
 * Pinnacles, Queensland, Australia, a suburb of Townsville
 * Pinnacles Station, a pastoral lease in Western Australia
 * Pinnacle, Montana, United States
 * Pinnacle, North Carolina, United States

Protected areas
In the United States:
 * Pinnacle Rock State Park, Mercer County, West Virginia
 * Pinnacle State Park and Golf Course, New York
 * Pinnacles National Park, California

Other uses

 * Pinnacle (Mayfair Games), a 1986 fantasy role-playing game adventure
 * Pinnacle (TV program), a 1982–2003 American weekend news program on CNN
 * Pinnacle, a reporting flagword in the United States military nuclear incident terminology
 * Pinnacle, a barley variety
 * The Pinnacle (professional wrestling), a professional wrestling stable led by Maxwell Jacob Friedman

title: Pinnacle (disambiguation)


text:
Benjamin F. Grady

Benjamin Franklin Grady (October 10, 1831 – March 6, 1914) was a teacher, US Congressman and author from North Carolina. He represented the state's 3rd district in the U.S. Congress from 1891 to 1895.

Biography
He was born near Sarecta, in Albertson Township, Duplin County, North Carolina, October 10, 1831. He married Olivia Penelope Hamilton on May 30, 1861 in Huntsville, Texas.

He was teaching mathematics and natural sciences at Austin College in Texas when the Civil War began. He left to join the Confederate Army, serving in Company K, 25th Regiment of the Texas Cavalry. He married Mary Charlotte Bizzell on November 10, 1870 in Clinton, North Carolina. In 1890 he defeated African-American Republican John S. Leary in a race for a seat in the US House of Representatives. He was re-elected for a second term, both times serving North Carolina 3rd District. He was Superintendent of Schools, Duplin Co., N.C. In 1899, he published the book The Case of the South Against the North, which uses historical evidence to justify the South's war against the North on the basis of constitutional principles. He died in Clinton, Sampson County, N.C., March 6, 1914.

title: Benjamin F. Grady


text:
Bloomberg

Bloomberg may refer to:

People

 * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
 * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
 * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and mayor of New York City (2002–2013)
 * Ramon Bloomberg (born 1972), American artist and film director

Other uses

 * Bloomberg L.P., financial news and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg
 * Bloomberg News, a news agency
 * Bloomberg Businessweek, weekly business magazine and website
 * Bloomberg Markets, a monthly financial magazine
 * Bloomberg Radio, a business radio network
 * Bloomberg Television, a business news channel
 * Bloomberg TV Canada
 * Bloomberg TV Philippines
 * Bloomberg TV Malaysia
 * Bloomberg Terminal, desktop terminal and software widely used in the financial industry
 * Bloomberg Data, API product using sftp or web service protocols to retrieve market data
 * Bloomberg Government, online news service covering governmental affairs
 * Bloomberg Law, an online legal research service
 * Bloomberg Tower, a skyscraper in New York City containing the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P.
 * Bloomberg Beta, an independent venture capital firm founded by Bloomberg L.P.
 * Bloomberg Philanthropies, American foundation
 * Bloomberg Tradebook, agency broker of Bloomberg L.P.
 * Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID), an open standard, unique identifier of securities
 * Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM), a broadly diversified commodity price index distributed by Bloomberg Indexes
 * Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States
 * BNN Bloomberg, a Canadian business and financial news channel which operates as a partner of Bloomberg Television

title: Bloomberg


text:
Anzin

Anzin (older Ansingen; Ansingn) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt, 2.4 km northwest of Valenciennes, of which it is a suburb.

History
Anzin was once the centre of important coal mines of the Valenciennes basin belonging to the Anzin Company, the formation of which dates to 1717. The commune's first coal layer of the area in 1734. The company of the mines of Anzin (Compagnie des mines d'Anzin) was created in 1757. In 1884 these mines were visited by Émile Zola, who based his novel Germinal upon his observations. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the metallurgical industries of the place were extensive, and included iron and copper founding and the manufacture of steam-engines, machinery, chain-cables and a great variety of heavy iron goods. There were also glass-works and breweries.

Popular culture
Bertrand Tavernier directed his film Ça commence aujourd'hui in Anzin in 1999.

Twin cities

 * 🇹🇳: Masakin

title: Anzin


text:
Mackay Trophy

The Mackay Trophy is awarded yearly by the United States Air Force for the "most meritorious flight of the year" by an Air Force person, persons, or organization. The trophy is housed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. The award is administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association.

The award was established on 27 January 1911 by Clarence Mackay, who was then head of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and the Commercial Cable Company. Originally, aviators could compete for the trophy annually under rules made each year or the War Department could award the trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year.

Awardees
The following is a list of awardees:

title: Mackay Trophy


text:
Grady County

Grady County is the name of two counties in the United States:

 * Grady County, Georgia
 * Grady County, Oklahoma

title: Grady County


text:
James H. Wilson

James Harrison Wilson (September 2, 1837 – February 23, 1925) was an American military officer, topographic engineer and a Major General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He initially served as an aide to Major General George B. McClellan during the Maryland Campaign before joining Major General Ulysses S. Grant's army in the Western Theater, where he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1864, he transferred from engineering to the cavalry, where he displayed notable leadership in many engagements of the Overland Campaign. However, his attempt to destroy Lee’s supply lines failed when he was routed by a much smaller force of Confederate irregulars.

Returning to the Western Theater, Wilson became one of the few Union commanders to defeat Confederate cavalier Nathan Bedford Forrest in battle. He achieved this feat at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864 and again during his raid through Alabama and Georgia in March and April 1865. Wilson ended the war with his men capturing both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Andersonville Prison commandant Henry Wirz in May 1865. At the time of his death in 1925, he was the fourth-to-last living Union Civil War general.

Early life and engineering
Wilson was born in Shawneetown, Illinois. He attended McKendree College for a year and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1860, sixth in his class of 41, receiving a commission as a brevet second lieutenant in the Topographical Engineers. His initial assignment was assistant topographical engineer of the Department of Oregon at Fort Vancouver.

Engineering assignments
After the start of the Civil War, Wilson received promotions to second and first lieutenant and became the topographical engineer for the Port Royal Expeditionary Force, from September 1861 to March 1862. As the topographical engineer for the Department of the South, he took part in the Battle of Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River and received a brevet promotion to major in the regular army for his service. He transferred to the Army of the Potomac in April 1862 and served as its topographic engineer, but also as an aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. He served under McClellan during the Maryland Campaign and was present at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam.

Wilson was transferred to the Western Theater and joined Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee as a lieutenant colonel and topographical engineer. During the Vicksburg Campaign, he was the inspector general of Grant's army. On October 30, 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. He continued on staff duty during the Battle of Chattanooga and was chief engineer of the force sent to relieve Knoxville under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.

Cavalry commands
In 1864, Wilson switched from engineering to the cavalry. On February 17, 1864, he was assigned as chief of the Cavalry Bureau in Washington, D.C. He was an excellent administrator and organizer, but his true talents turned out to be as a combat leader. Grant promoted him to brevet major general on May 6, 1864, and had him assigned to command a division of cavalry under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, which he did with boldness and skill in numerous fights of the Overland Campaign and in the Valley Campaigns of 1864.

General Wilson's ill-fated joint adventure with General Brigadier General August V. Kautz was launched through General Grant's strategy of interdicting Robert E. Lee's supply lines to Petersburg, Virginia. If this could be done, Lee would be compelled to abandon Petersburg. General Wilson was ordered to conduct a cavalry raid that would destroy the tracks of the South Side and Richmond & Danville railroads, and to destroy the key R&D railroad bridge over the Staunton River. The raid began on June 22, 1864, with over 5,000 Cavalry troops and 16 pieces of artillery. During the first three days of their raid, Wilson's cavalry tore up 60 miles of track and burned two trains and several railroad stations. Confederate General W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee pursued the Union raid, but was ineffective. The audacious raid seemed to be wildly successful, though not uncontested, and the Staunton River Bridge loomed as the great objective. The railroad bridge was over a small but deep river, the Staunton. The Confederacy had sensed its strategic importance, putting a small fort there under Captain Benjamin Farinholt, and his 296 reserve troops. A valiant stand by local volunteers of old men and boys, with help from surrounding counties, gathered almost a force of nearly 1,000, which halted the 5,000 well-armed troops. Wilson’s cavalry fought the action dismounted. "Rooney" Lee's cavalry came up during the engagement's end, and routed Wilson's troops. There has been speculation that this damaged an otherwise brilliant career for Wilson.

However, just before Sheridan's decisive Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864, Wilson was upgraded to brevet major general of volunteers and transferred back to the West to become chief of cavalry for the Military Division of the Mississippi under Sherman.

As cavalry chief, he trained Sherman's cavalry (under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick) for the March to the Sea. Rather than accompanying Sherman, however, he and 17,000 troopers were attached to Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland for the Franklin-Nashville Campaign in November and December 1864. His repulse of a flanking attack by Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was instrumental in saving the Union Army at the Battle of Franklin; Wilson was one of only a few Union officers to best the legendary Southern cavalryman. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general in the regular army for his service in the Battle of Nashville. He led the successful Wilson's Raid through Alabama and Georgia, defeating the smaller force of Forrest and capturing Selma, Alabama, along with four other fortified cities. In this campaign, he commanded the troops that burned most of the buildings of the University of Alabama. On Easter Day, 1865, his troops assaulted and captured the city of Columbus, Georgia. His men did enormous damage to the military infrastructure of the South, but they did it with a sense of discipline that usually prevented looting and other collateral damage to civilian property. He was promoted to brevet major general in the regular army for his performance at Selma and received his full promotion to major general on May 6, 1865. In central Georgia, the cavalrymen under Wilson's command captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and Captain Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville, as he fled through Georgia in May 1865. Wilson's administration of post-war Georgia was regarded, in some cases, as enlightened. In his History of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, the historian I.W. Avery remarks:"In many particulars the Federal soldiers acted very cleverly. Gen. [James H.] Wilson turned over to Gen. Ira Foster the Confederate mules, horses, wagons, and harness, for distribution to the poor, and Col. J.H.R Washington of Macon, was associated with Gen. Foster to aid in the distribution." On June 24, 1865, in General Order #31, General Wilson expressed appreciation to Foster and Washington, and relieved them of their authority, placing the task with Capt. R. Carter, A.Q.M., Cavalry Corps Military Division of the Mississippi.

At the end of the war, Wilson reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was assigned to the newly created 35th U.S. Infantry, but his duty assignments continued to be in the Corps of Engineers until he resigned from the Army in December 1870.

Later life and wars
After he left the Army, Wilson worked as a railroad construction engineer and executive. He moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1883. For the next 15 years he devoted his time to business, travel, and public affairs, and wrote on a number of subjects.

Wilson returned to the Army in 1898 for the Spanish–American War, and served as a major general of volunteers in Cuba and Puerto Rico. He also saw service in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1901 as brigadier-general. Retiring from the Army, in 1902 he represented President Theodore Roosevelt at the coronation of Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

He was a Veteran Companion of the District of Columbia Commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) – a military society of Union officers and their descendants. He was assigned MOLLUS insignia number 12106.

Wilson died in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1925, with only three Union Civil War generals living longer. He is buried in the Old Swedes Churchyard in Wilmington.

Works

 * The Life of General U. S. Grant, General of the Armies of the United States (co-authored with Charles A. Dana, 1868)
 * China: Travels and Investigations in the Middle Kingdom—a Study of its Civilization and Possibilities, with a Glance at Japan (1887)
 * Life and Services of Brevet Brigadier-General Andrew Jonathan Alexander, United States Army (1887)
 * Heroes of the Great Conflict: Life and Services of William Farrar Smith, Major General, United States Volunteers in the Civil War (1904)
 * The Life of Charles A. Dana (1907)
 * The Campaign of Chancellorsville (1911)
 * Under the Old Flag: Recollections of Military Operations in the War for the Union, the Spanish War, the Boxer Rebellion, etc. (1912)
 * The Life of John A. Rawlins: Lawyer, Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of Staff, Major General of Volunteers, and Secretary of War (1916)

title: James H. Wilson