Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 May 7

Humanities desk
< May 6	<< Apr | May | Jun >>	May 8 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

May 7

Check figures in Nohlen et al.'s Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook (Oxford Univ. Press)?

Can some with access to books.google.co.uk, Oxford Scholarship Online, or another way; please check chapter 46 of Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook by Dieter Nohlen, Bernard Thibaut, and Michael Krennerich (1999), Oxford Univ. Press, Print ISBN-13: 9780198296454, doi:10.1093/0198296452.001.0001 for the number of seats and votes per party for the 1915 South African general election?

According to our article, sourced to Nohlen et al., the Unionist Party for instance won 39 seats with 49917 votes.

However the online and free-to-read (PDF) source used in another article here on WP: PDF page 5, volume page 75 of All splendid, but horrible: The Politics of South Africa's Second "Little Bit" and the War on the Western Front, 1915-1918 by Van der Waag (2012) Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, doi:10.5787/40-3-1040 which cites Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika by B.M. Schoeman (1977) Aktuele Publikasies ISBN-13: 978-0620023689; states the the Unionist Party for instance won 40 seats with 48034 votes.

Also, any ideas on which source is better for theses stats? Oxford Univ. Press, or the local Scientia Militaria (which has a typo right in the table header: "Vvotes")? -- Jeandré, 2022-05-07t12:07z (Or of course better sources that are online and free to read. -- Jeandré, 2022-05-07t12:28z)

I have checked the Nohlen book. The Unionist Party received 49,917 votes and won 39 seats. In terms of which one is more reliable, I have no idea, but one is a book specifically dedicated to election results while the other is a paper from a journal on military studies. Number 57 12:36, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Poulson's ill-health

John Poulson, architect and crook, was excused service in the Second World War on medical grounds, and was released early from prison in 1977, following a campaign by Lord Longford, on grounds of ill-health. He died a mere 15 years later at the tragically young age of 82. So - what was wrong with his health, or did he just bribe his way out as he did with everything else in life? (I should make it clear I don't suspect Longford of corruption, just his usual well-meaning idiocy). Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 23:22, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

When Russell was 48 years old, he fell ill, and for a fortnight the doctors thought every evening that he should be dead before morning.^[1] Yet he lived on till more than twice that age. His case is not unique; there have been more reported occurrences in history of people recovering from health issues.  --Lambiam 08:59, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

See also Ernest Saunders' remarkable recovery from Alzheimer's disease Chuntuk (talk) 17:02, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

According to this, he died in hospital being treated for Parkinson’s disease. Alansplodge (talk) 08:53, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Spanish Civil War question

During the Spanish Civil War, was the Spanish working class split at all between the Republicans and Nationalists or were they almost all Republican in nature? 777burger ^{user talk contribs} 23:50, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

There were certainly some working class elements in the Nationalist camp. Here you have a ref that outlines that among Falange Española de las JONS groups in villages across Andalusia in 1936, 19% were agricultural labourers, 6% workers, 22% employees, 12% artisans, 10% professionals, 5% traders, 4% students, 3% landowners, 1% small-scale farmers... The Republican side dominated industrial working class, but did not have monopoly on working class politics. --Soman (talk) 02:10, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

The tensions between the Catholic Church and the Republic brought devout Christians to the Nationalist side. Our article, Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic, describes the numerous atrocities against clergy and destruction of church buildings in the early stages of the war and notes that " Catholic heartland areas, with the exception of the Basque territory, largely supported Francisco Franco's rebel Nationalist forces against the Popular Front government". Alansplodge (talk) 07:39, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

The profoundly religious and conservative Navarrese peasants provided Franco with his best and most courageous crack troops, the Requetés. [2] Alansplodge (talk) 07:53, 8 May 2022 (UTC)