Talk:R. B. McDowell

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[edit] Importance rating

Importance low? If the criteria on the scale for high importance is/are: "Must have had a large impact in their main discipline, across a couple of generations. Had some impact outside their country of origin.", then he qualifies for high. I'll agree that the article page is a bit slim.Red Hurley (talk) 12:42, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that he qualifies for high-importance, because his significance is largely as a historians' historian -- he hasn't achieved a wider significance outside that discipline (except as an apparently permanent fixture within TCD!), which tends to be required for high importance. So I have uprated him to mid-importance.

However, the article still needs a lot of work. It squeezes in as start-class because of the bibliography, but the text is brief and doesn't take a very encyclopedic tone, and says very little about his academic work. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 17:00, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

It does need a lot of work. Few Irish historians have been mentioned in Harpers; I must find that reference some time.Red Hurley (talk) 22:18, 30 April 2008 (UTC)