A fact from Walter LaFeber appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 9 January 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments4 people in discussion
This entry has nearly 1200 words about how much LaFeber's students loved him and what a great teacher he was, etc. There is of course a time and a place for such writing (such as a Festschrift, or in the Diplomatic History celebration of his career which is cited already), but is there any reason this section should not be significantly shortened, other than the fact that someone has taken a great deal of time to include citations for such facts that he taught half-time in 1989 and that his past colleagues have a great deal of respect for him? — Preceding unsigned comment added by StarkHistorian (talk • contribs) 21:21, 8 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
wikipedia reports what the reliable sources actually say. If they are all positive then that's what we report. Our critic does not cite any reports that are especially negative--I suppose he has not found any. so we do not have a case of "hagiography" but of simple reporting. Rjensen (talk) 21:28, 8 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
Agree with Rjenson. This is not hagiography, but simply describing an academic career of a professor who has many markers for having been a great and influential teacher. His class lectures were much-written-about events; he was the first professor at his university to give a commencement address; many of his students went into government and academia; his final lecture was delivered to 3,000 colleagues and former students who filled a large theatre located four hours away from the university's campus. Maybe there is another professor somewhere whose teaching is that acclaimed, but I haven't heard of anything comparable. And given that academics are often described more regarding their research and publishing than their teaching, I think it's especially important for a WP article to focus on teaching when that focus is merited. Wasted Time R (talk) 22:38, 8 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
While I agree that this article devotes most of its space to an almost hagiographic description of the career of the subject, and to the high respect in which he was seemingly universally held, I nevertheless found it one of the most interesting Wikipedia articles I have read. The reason is that it describes so well the kind of inspirational professor I wish I had had at university but sadly, never did.
Where I think the article could be strengthened is through addition of more material covering Dr. LaFeber's core ideas, and (possibly as separate articles) summaries of the content of his various major publications, without cutting the existing material. FurnaldHall (talk) 18:13, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
