Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2013 January 21

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January 21[edit]

Hereditary Democracy article?[edit]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/01/20131201843418977.html

What is the actual name of the Hereditary Democracy article? Hcobb (talk) 02:32, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see anything about that in the link that you provided. What makes you think there is an article? RudolfRed (talk) 02:48, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, given that most Google links refer to the fact that several members of the same family have been prime minister of India it would seem to me to be a made up term to cover that. The closest I could find to something like that is Constitutional monarchy#Executive monarchy versus Ceremonial monarchy. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 13:24, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
A "hereditary democracy" sounds like a modification of the elective monarchy idea: access to the executive position is restricted to members of a certain family. It could also mean that the executive is nominally a democracy, but that members of the same family are repeatedly elected to it. --Jayron32 13:55, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Similar articles we have are Political family and Family dictatorship. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 16:08, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Are there any sources about Tokugawa Ieyasu's palmistry?[edit]

Still troubling with the unreferenced claim that he had a single transverse palmar crease.--Inspector (talk) 03:43, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'd remove it, then. It's hardly an important fact to begin with. AlexTiefling (talk) 10:37, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Agree, plus I suggest placing it in the Talk:Tokugawa Ieyasu page for visibility. There it might attract the attention of an editor willing and able to follow through. -- Deborahjay (talk) 11:07, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Is this picture a valid source?--Inspector (talk) 05:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

West and Johnston publishers[edit]

West and Johnston, Richmond, Virginia, were the publishers of the Confederate version of Les Miserables. What is the history of the company? RNealK (talk) 23:02, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some information in this Google Books preview; Virginia at War, 1864 edited by William Davis and in The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861-1865 By Alice Fahs. Alansplodge (talk) 19:52, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, that's helpful. RNealK (talk) 23:08, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]