The 100 most influential figures in American history.
Harry Hope
From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
The Top 100
The most influential figures in American history.
1 Abraham Lincoln
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s
second founding.
2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but
by declining to become one himself.
3 Thomas Jefferson
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All
men are created equal.”
4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he
proved it.
Advertisement
Also see:
In Their Own Words
Of the 100 Americans selected by our panel of historians, thirty-one
contributed to The Atlantic. Browse a selection of their writings.
5 Alexander Hamilton
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian
nation’s transformation into an industrial power.
6 Benjamin Franklin
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat,
inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
7 John Marshall
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the
equal of the other two federal branches.
8 Martin Luther King Jr.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to
make it real.
9 Thomas Edison
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most
prolific inventor in American history.
10 Woodrow Wilson
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
11 John D. Rockefeller
The man behind Standard Oil set the mold for our tycoons—first by
making money, then by giving it away.
12 Ulysses S. Grant
He was a poor president, but he was the general Lincoln needed; he
also wrote the greatest political memoir in American history.
13 James Madison
He fathered the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights.
14 Henry Ford
He gave us the assembly line and the Model T, and sparked America’s
love affair with the automobile.
15 Theodore Roosevelt
Whether busting trusts or building canals, he embodied the “strenuous
life” and blazed a trail for twentieth-century America.
16 Mark Twain
Author of our national epic, he was the most unsentimental observer of
our national life.
17 Ronald Reagan
The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the
Cold War’s end.
18 Andrew Jackson
The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a
democracy.
19 Thomas Paine
The voice of the American Revolution, and our first great radical.
20 Andrew Carnegie
The original self-made man forged America’s industrial might and
became one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists.
21 Harry Truman
An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic
Age and then the Cold War.
22 Walt Whitman
He sang of America and shaped the country’s conception of itself.
23 Wright Brothers
They got us all off the ground.
24 Alexander Graham Bell
By inventing the telephone, he opened the age of telecommunications
and shrank the world.
25 John Adams
His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to
republicanism made it succeed.
26 Walt Disney
The quintessential entertainer-entrepreneur, he wielded unmatched
influence over our childhood.
27 Eli Whitney
His gin made cotton king and sustained an empire for slavery.
28 Dwight Eisenhower
He won a war and two elections, and made everybody like Ike.
29 Earl Warren
His Supreme Court transformed American society and bequeathed to us
the culture wars.
30 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
One of the first great American feminists, she fought for social
reform and women’s right to vote.
31 Henry Clay
One of America’s greatest legislators and orators, he forged
compromises that held off civil war for decades.
32 Albert Einstein
His greatest scientific work was done in Europe, but his humanity
earned him undying fame in America.
33 Ralph Waldo Emerson
The bard of individualism, he relied on himself—and told us all to do
the same.
34 Jonas Salk
His vaccine for polio eradicated one of the world’s worst plagues.
35 Jackie Robinson
He broke baseball’s color barrier and embodied integration’s promise.
36 William Jennings Bryan
“The Great Commoner” lost three presidential elections, but his
populism transformed the country.
37 J. P. Morgan
The great financier and banker was the prototype for all the Wall
Street barons who followed.
38 Susan B. Anthony
She was the country’s most eloquent voice for women’s equality under
the law.
39 Rachel Carson
The author of Silent Spring was godmother to the environmental
movement.
40 John Dewey
He sought to make the public school a training ground for democratic
life.
41 Harriet Beecher Stowe
Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin inspired a generation of abolitionists and set
the stage for civil war.
42 Eleanor Roosevelt
She used the first lady’s office and the mass media to become “first
lady of the world.”
43 W. E. B. DuBois
One of America’s great intellectuals, he made the “problem of the
color line” his life’s work.
44 Lyndon Baines Johnson
His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us
Vietnam.
45 Samuel F. B. Morse
Before the Internet, there was Morse code.
46 William Lloyd Garrison
Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he became the voice of
abolition.
47 Frederick Douglass
After escaping from slavery, he pricked the nation’s conscience with
an eloquent accounting of its crimes.
48 Robert Oppenheimer
The father of the atomic bomb and the regretful midwife of the nuclear
era.
49 Frederick Law Olmsted
The genius behind New York’s Central Park, he inspired the greening of
America’s cities.
50 James K. Polk
This one-term president’s Mexican War landgrab gave us California,
Texas, and the Southwest.
51 Margaret Sanger
The ardent champion of birth control—and of the sexual freedom that
came with it.
52 Joseph Smith
The founder of Mormonism, America’s most famous homegrown faith.
53 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Known as “The Great Dissenter,” he wrote Supreme Court opinions that
continue to shape American jurisprudence.
54 Bill Gates
The Rockefeller of the Information Age, in business and philanthropy
alike.
55 John Quincy Adams
The Monroe Doctrine’s real author, he set nineteenth-century America’s
diplomatic course.
56 Horace Mann
His tireless advocacy of universal public schooling earned him the
title “The Father of American Education.”
57 Robert E. Lee
He was a good general but a better symbol, embodying conciliation in
defeat.
58 John C. Calhoun
The voice of the antebellum South, he was slavery’s most ardent
defender.
59 Louis Sullivan
The father of architectural modernism, he shaped the defining American
building: the skyscraper.
60 William Faulkner
The most gifted chronicler of America’s tormented and fascinating
South.
61 Samuel Gompers
The country’s greatest labor organizer, he made the golden age of
unions possible.
62 William James
The mind behind Pragmatism, America’s most important philosophical
school.
63 George Marshall
As a general, he organized the American effort in World War II; as a
statesman, he rebuilt Western Europe.
64 Jane Addams
The founder of Hull House, she became the secular saint of social
work.
65 Henry David Thoreau
The original American dropout, he has inspired seekers of authenticity
for 150 years.
66 Elvis Presley
The king of rock and roll. Enough said.
67 P. T. Barnum
The circus impresario’s taste for spectacle paved the way for
blockbuster movies and reality TV.
68 James D. Watson
He codiscovered DNA’s double helix, revealing the code of life to
scientists and entrepreneurs alike.
69 James Gordon Bennett
As the founding publisher of The New York Herald, he invented the
modern American newspaper.
70 Lewis and Clark
They went west to explore, and millions followed in their wake.
71 Noah Webster
He didn’t create American English, but his dictionary defined it.
72 Sam Walton
He promised us “Every Day Low Prices,” and we took him up on the
offer.
73 Cyrus McCormick
His mechanical reaper spelled the end of traditional farming, and the
beginning of industrial agriculture.
74 Brigham Young
What Joseph Smith founded, Young preserved, leading the Mormons to
their promised land.
75 George Herman “Babe” Ruth
He saved the national pastime in the wake of the Black Sox scandal—and
permanently linked sports and celebrity.
76 Frank Lloyd Wright
America’s most significant architect, he was the archetype of the
visionary artist at odds with capitalism.
77 Betty Friedan
She spoke to the discontent of housewives everywhere—and inspired a
revolution in gender roles.
78 John Brown
Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the
Civil War.
79 Louis Armstrong
His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to
Broadway, television, and beyond.
80 William Randolph Hearst
The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the
Spanish-American War.
81 Margaret Mead
With Coming of Age in Samoa, she made anthropology relevant—and
controversial.
82 George Gallup
He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened.
83 James Fenimore Cooper
The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of
the frontier.
84 Thurgood Marshall
As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of
the civil-rights revolution.
85 Ernest Hemingway
His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo
a cliché.
86 Mary Baker Eddy
She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised
spiritual healing to all.
87 Benjamin Spock
With a single book—and a singular approach—he changed American
parenting.
88 Enrico Fermi
A giant of physics, he helped develop quantum theory and was
instrumental in building the atomic bomb.
89 Walter Lippmann
The last man who could swing an election with a newspaper column.
90 Jonathan Edwards
Forget the fire and brimstone: his subtle eloquence made him the
country’s most influential theologian.
91 Lyman Beecher
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s clergyman father earned fame as an
abolitionist and an evangelist.
92 John Steinbeck
As the creator of Tom Joad, he chronicled Depression-era misery.
93 Nat Turner
He was the most successful rebel slave; his specter would stalk the
white South for a century.
94 George Eastman
The founder of Kodak democratized photography with his handy rolls of
film.
95 Sam Goldwyn
A producer for forty years, he was the first great Hollywood mogul.
96 Ralph Nader
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W.
Bush the president.
97 Stephen Foster
America’s first great songwriter, he brought us “O! Susanna” and “My
Old Kentucky Home.”
98 Booker T. Washington
As an educator and a champion of self-help, he tried to lead black
America up from slavery.
99 Richard Nixon
He broke the New Deal majority, and then broke his presidency on a
scandal that still haunts America.
100 Herman Melville
Moby Dick was a flop at the time, but Melville is remembered as the
American Shakespeare.
______________________________________________________
For more lists, and information about how the selections were made.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200612/influentials-main
Your Turn: Who are the Most Influential Americans?
http://www.theatlantic.com/influentials/follow-up.mhtml
Harry
John Brockbank
< "Harry Hope" <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote>
List omitted.
Not a bad set of choices, but I would replace Ronald Reagan with Cassius
Clay /Muhammed Ali.
JA
"John Brockbank" <wag...@screaming.net> wrote in message
news:45635b23$2...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
says a lot about you
Matt
Why's that? It says influential. I would say Ali was a hugely
influential person
in history. He changed not only the boxing world but also the sports
world and
culture in general.
I would add Dylan and Herbert Hoover.
Matt
Gr
"JA" <Liberals-R...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:_YI8h.7911$y92...@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
What's with the insults prick? I thought you were here to have an
intellegent discussion. Just like the rest of the neocon sheeples.
>
>
Itchy
news:_YI8h.7911$y92...@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:
I'd replace Ronald Reagan with micky mouse.. unless you are talking
INFAMOUS.
Gr
"Matt" <mattt...@sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:1164140376.8...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Don't disagree with JA, He's always right, yet always wrong. But I really
think JA thinks he's wrong and gave him the little amatuer shot because Clay
took a Muslim name. I'd have to agree with you on this. I'm not sure where
I'd put Ali but he did more than just box and annoy people. Him and Cosell
broke some racial barriers together.
>
Matt
I thought about Howard, since the entire American populace hated him at
one time (I had one of those foam bricks the radio stations gave out to
throw
at your TV when he was on...) but he really wasn't what I would call
influential.
Now, Madonna...
Matt
Gr
stealing babies.
Stern created shock radio, but that influenced a handful to do the same not
really a populous.
JA
"Gr" <gre...@wareandparsons.com> wrote in message
news:12m6osm...@corp.supernews.com...
I would like to try but posts like that prove that it's useless.
>
>
JA
Matt
True. I was thinking more of her influence on pop culture and dress. Of
course,
you could say the same of any of the rap artists.
>
> Stern created shock radio, but that influenced a handful to do the same not
> really a populous.
Not sure I would say Stern created it, there were others before him
that did shock
radio back in the day. Alan Berg was there, as were others.
Come to think of it, were the Beatles on the list? They aren't
American, but then
several others weren't on there. I didn't look and don't have the list
in front of me.
Elvis was there, I noticed that.
Picking a list of "influential" people is always hard. Wouldn't Hitler
be considered
influential? Not in a good way, certainly, but he changed the way we
viewed the
world.
Matt
Lloyd King
"Harry Hope" <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:82k6m25khggthbcaq...@4ax.com...
>
> From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>
> The Top 100
>
> The most influential figures in American history.
>
> 1 Abraham Lincoln
> He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's
> second founding.
Presided over America's second founding? What does that mean? The Civil
War ended on April 9, 1865 and Lincoln was shot 5 days later. I would think
the "second founding" of the country (if there was any such thing) came
*after* the war, during Reconstruction. I would agree that Lincoln presided
over the *preservation* of the nation, but I don't know about any "second
founding".
>
> 2 George Washington
> He made the United States possible-not only by defeating a king, but
> by declining to become one himself.
>
> 3 Thomas Jefferson
> The author of the five most important words in American history: "All
> men are created equal."
The Big Lie upon which this country was founded. Along with, "...And are
endowned by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are
the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - those words were
written by a man who owned slaves.
>
> 17 Ronald Reagan
> The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the
> Cold War's end.
LOL! Yeah, right... Reagan just happened to be president as the USSR
imploded (and actually, it was Bush who was president when it finally
collapsed). To give Reagan credit for it is to give the rooster credit for
the sunrise.
Raymond
> From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>
> The Top 100
>
> The most influential figures in American history.
>
> 1 Abraham Lincoln
> He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's
> second founding.
>
> 2 George Washington
> by declining to become one himself.
>
> 3 Thomas Jefferson
> The author of the five most important words in American history: "All
> men are created equal."
>
> 4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
> He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then he
> proved it.
>
> Advertisement
>
>
>
>
> Also see:
>
> In Their Own Words
> Of the 100 Americans selected by our panel of historians, thirty-one
> contributed to The Atlantic. Browse a selection of their writings.
>
> 5 Alexander Hamilton
> Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian
> nation's transformation into an industrial power.
>
> 6 Benjamin Franklin
> inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
>
> 7 John Marshall
> The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the
> equal of the other two federal branches.
>
> 8 Martin Luther King Jr.
> His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to
> make it real.
>
> 9 Thomas Edison
> It wasn't just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most
> prolific inventor in American history.
>
> 10 Woodrow Wilson
> He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
>
> 11 John D. Rockefeller
> permanently linked sports and celebrity.
>
> 76 Frank Lloyd Wright
> America's most significant architect, he was the archetype of the
> visionary artist at odds with capitalism.
>
> 77 Betty Friedan
> revolution in gender roles.
>
> 78 John Brown
> Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the
> Civil War.
>
> 79 Louis Armstrong
> His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to
> Broadway, television, and beyond.
>
> 80 William Randolph Hearst
> The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the
> Spanish-American War.
>
> 81 Margaret Mead
> controversial.
>
> 82 George Gallup
> He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened.
>
> 83 James Fenimore Cooper
> The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of
> the frontier.
>
> 84 Thurgood Marshall
> As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of
> the civil-rights revolution.
>
> 85 Ernest Hemingway
> His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo
> a cliché.
>
> 86 Mary Baker Eddy
> She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised
> spiritual healing to all.
>
> 87 Benjamin Spock
My choice for the Most Influential Americans list:
Joe Louis was probably the most important American athlete of the last
century. When some called Louis "a credit to his race," sportswriter
Jimmy Cannon responded, "Yes, Louis is a credit to his race -- the
human race. Joe Louis is the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.
..." Joe Louis wasn't only a great African American boxer, he was a
great man. He was a gentleman as well.
The legendary "Brown Bomber," is considered by many to be the finest
heavyweight champion in the history of boxing. He held the world's
heavyweight title from June 22, 1937 until June 25, 1948 and made a
division-record 25 successful title defenses.
Louis won his first 27 fights, 23 by knockout, beating former
heavyweight champions Primo Carnera and Max Baer and contenders Paolino
Uzcudun and Natie Brown. But in his 28th fight, Louis met defeat. He
faced another former heavyweight champ, Max Schmeling at Yankee
Stadium, and was knocked out in the 12th round
In that fight, he was matched with Schmeling, who was thought to be
fading when he upset Louis by a knockout in round 12 in New York.
Schmeling now deserved a fight for the title, but was denied a chance
to challenge the world champion in large part due to his ties to the
German Nazi Party.
After knocking Jimmy Braddock out in round eight and winning the world
heavyweight championship, Louis said after the fight that he would not
feel like a world champion until he beat one man: Schmeling.
The rematch with Schmeling finally took place, on June 22, 1938. This
time the fight was hyped on both sides of the Atlantic, and many fans
around the world saw this fight as a symbol: Louis representing the
American interests and Schmeling, who was wrongly seen as a Nazi,
fighting for Hitler and Germany and white supremacy.
The fight itself ended quickly, with Louis knocking out Schmeling in
just over two minutes of the first round. The fight was widely
celebrated; "Little Bill" Gaither, the jazz guitarist, wrote his
well-known song "Champ Joe Louis" the day after the fight in
celebration.
Joe Louis really broke the color barrier that helped gain blacks
acceptance which eased the eventual integration of blacks and whites.
Not only did he fight for blacks, he fought for whites as well.
An argument could also be made for Jesse Owens as well. Remember the
story about Jesse Owens winning at the 1936 "Hitler Olympics". The
German audience booed Owens at first and Ado;ph Hitler refused to shake
his hand after he won all of his events because he was not of the Aryan
Race. By the end of the Games though, Owens had won over the German
people, and they cheered for him. Hitler never did shake his hand
though.
Yes, Louis was "a credit to his race -- the human race."
--- Raymond
Tim Crowley
he lacks the knowledge to talk about the issues, so he does the one
line lies and attacks. It's all the jACK aSS has.
NuGrass
> From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>
> The Top 100
>
> The most influential figures in American history.
>
> 1 Abraham Lincoln
> He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's
> second founding.
>
> 2 George Washington
> by declining to become one himself.
>
> 3 Thomas Jefferson
> The author of the five most important words in American history: "All
> men are created equal."
>
> 4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
> He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then he
> proved it.
>
> Advertisement
>
>
>
>
> Also see:
>
> In Their Own Words
> Of the 100 Americans selected by our panel of historians, thirty-one
> contributed to The Atlantic. Browse a selection of their writings.
>
> 5 Alexander Hamilton
> Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian
> nation's transformation into an industrial power.
>
> 6 Benjamin Franklin
> inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
>
> 7 John Marshall
> The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the
> equal of the other two federal branches.
>
> 8 Martin Luther King Jr.
> His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to
> make it real.
>
> 9 Thomas Edison
> It wasn't just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most
> prolific inventor in American history.
>
> 10 Woodrow Wilson
> He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
>
> 11 John D. Rockefeller
> permanently linked sports and celebrity.
>
> 76 Frank Lloyd Wright
> America's most significant architect, he was the archetype of the
> visionary artist at odds with capitalism.
>
> 77 Betty Friedan
> revolution in gender roles.
>
> 78 John Brown
> Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the
> Civil War.
>
> 79 Louis Armstrong
> His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to
> Broadway, television, and beyond.
>
> 80 William Randolph Hearst
> The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the
> Spanish-American War.
>
> 81 Margaret Mead
> controversial.
>
> 82 George Gallup
> He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened.
>
> 83 James Fenimore Cooper
> The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of
> the frontier.
>
> 84 Thurgood Marshall
> As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of
> the civil-rights revolution.
>
> 85 Ernest Hemingway
> His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo
> a cliché.
>
> 86 Mary Baker Eddy
> She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised
> spiritual healing to all.
>
> 87 Benjamin Spock
I would add the following:
Music - Carter Family, Earl Skruggs, John Lenon, Chet Atkins, Bill
Monroe
Commedians - Jack Benny, Bill Cosby, George Burns, Red Skelton
Movie Makers - Spielberg, Mel Brooks
Native Americans - Squanto, Sitting Bull, Pocahontas, Geronimo
Authors - Mark Twain, Hemmingway, Poe, Alcott
African Americans - George Washington Carver,
Explorers & Settlers - Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Brigham Young
Television - Johnny Carson, Bob Hope
Astronauts - John Glenn
Humanitarian - Albert Schwitzer
I don't know what catagory - Helen Keller
This is just a few in several catagories and I am sure I missed some
important ones but I think at least some of these names are better than
some on the list like Reagan and Nixon.
David
Itchy
@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:
It sure does buddy. I'd put John Hinkley Jr. up there before Reagan..
WAY before Reagan... I'd put a $20 prostitute before Ronald Reagan.
frisbie...@yahoo.com
> From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>
> The Top 100
>
> The most influential figures in American history.
>
> 1 Abraham Lincoln
> He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's
> second founding.
>
> 2 George Washington
> by declining to become one himself.
>
> 3 Thomas Jefferson
> The author of the five most important words in American history: "All
> men are created equal."
>
> 4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
> He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then he
> proved it.
>
> Advertisement
>
>
>
>
> Also see:
>
> In Their Own Words
> Of the 100 Americans selected by our panel of historians, thirty-one
> contributed to The Atlantic. Browse a selection of their writings.
>
> 5 Alexander Hamilton
> Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian
> nation's transformation into an industrial power.
>
> 6 Benjamin Franklin
> inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
>
> 7 John Marshall
> The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the
> equal of the other two federal branches.
>
> 8 Martin Luther King Jr.
> His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to
> make it real.
>
> 9 Thomas Edison
> It wasn't just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most
> prolific inventor in American history.
>
> 10 Woodrow Wilson
> He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
>
> 11 John D. Rockefeller
> permanently linked sports and celebrity.
>
> 76 Frank Lloyd Wright
> America's most significant architect, he was the archetype of the
> visionary artist at odds with capitalism.
>
> 77 Betty Friedan
> revolution in gender roles.
>
> 78 John Brown
> Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the
> Civil War.
>
> 79 Louis Armstrong
> His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to
> Broadway, television, and beyond.
>
> 80 William Randolph Hearst
> The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the
> Spanish-American War.
>
> 81 Margaret Mead
> controversial.
>
> 82 George Gallup
> He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened.
>
> 83 James Fenimore Cooper
> The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of
> the frontier.
>
> 84 Thurgood Marshall
> As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of
> the civil-rights revolution.
>
> 85 Ernest Hemingway
> His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo
> a cliché.
>
> 86 Mary Baker Eddy
> She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised
> spiritual healing to all.
>
> 87 Benjamin Spock
Martin Luther King, Jr. has got to be in the top ten. He gets much
more credit for the civil rights movement than Lyndon Johnson or Earl
Warren.
And Gorbachev doesn't think Reagan is responsible for the collapse of
the USSR. He liked Reagan. The USSR went bankrupt. Give Reagan maybe
5% of the credit for that.
Besides from that, good list. I'd add Kellogg :-) A little more
seriously, maybe HL Hunt. I used to listen to his broadcasts in the
1960's because they were so weird. Now that thinking is everywhere.
Bernard Spilman
On Usenet that means "I surrender." I've noticecd that
you surrender a lot, dumbass.
WS
WS
zzpat
Reagan created more debt than all the presidents before him combined.
Any group of Great Americans must exclude those who failed us so miserably.
The Soviet Union fell because the people of the former USSR were given
the right to free elections and they voted communists out of office.
--
Pat
Impeach Bush
http://zzpat.bravehost.com/
Articles of Impeachment
Center for Constitutional Rights
http://zzpat.bravehost.com/april_2006/articles_of_impeachment.html
zzpat
>
> This is just a few in several catagories and I am sure I missed some
> important ones but I think at least some of these names are better than
> some on the list like Reagan and Nixon.
>
> David
>
They say Nixon broke the "New Deal" majority. I doubt it. LBJ pushed
through civil rights because it was the signature issue of Kennedy. It
was during this era (the early 60's) that Reagan, Gingrich, and Heston
left the Democratic Party. Without doubt they left because of civil rights.
Nixon is quoted as saying civil rights would haunt the Democratic Party
for a generation - "the southern strategy." He was right. I don't see
how he can be credited for something Democrats did.
zzpat
>
> And Gorbachev doesn't think Reagan is responsible for the collapse of
> the USSR. He liked Reagan. The USSR went bankrupt. Give Reagan maybe
> 5% of the credit for that.
>
You may want to think this through a bit more. Bankruptcy results from
taking on more debt than you can handle. It happens only with capitalists.
It's impossible for a communist country to go bankrupt because they lack
"interest" (the cost of borrowing money.
Bankrupting the Soviet Union is pure myth.
Lloyd King
"zzpat" <zzpa...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ek1vv...@enews4.newsguy.com...
> NuGrass wrote:
>
>>
>> This is just a few in several catagories and I am sure I missed some
>> important ones but I think at least some of these names are better than
>> some on the list like Reagan and Nixon.
>>
>> David
>>
>
> They say Nixon broke the "New Deal" majority. I doubt it. LBJ pushed
> through civil rights because it was the signature issue of Kennedy. It
> was during this era (the early 60's) that Reagan, Gingrich, and Heston
> left the Democratic Party. Without doubt they left because of civil
> rights.
>
> Nixon is quoted as saying civil rights would haunt the Democratic Party
> for a generation - "the southern strategy."
No - that was Johnson, talking about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - he said
that he thought this meant the Democrats would lose the South for a
generation. Nixon's "Southern Strategy" came later, and was the fulfillment
of Johnson's prediction.
Itchy
news:ek1vd...@enews4.newsguy.com:
> Itchy wrote:
>> "JA" <Liberals-R...@yahoo.com> wrote in
>> news:_YI8h.7911$y92...@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:
>>
>>> "John Brockbank" <wag...@screaming.net> wrote in message
>>> news:45635b23$2...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>>>> < "Harry Hope" <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote>
>>>>
>>>> List omitted.
>>>>
>>>> Not a bad set of choices, but I would replace Ronald Reagan with
>>>> Cassius Clay /Muhammed Ali.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> says a lot about you
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'd replace Ronald Reagan with micky mouse.. unless you are talking
>> INFAMOUS.
>
>
> Reagan created more debt than all the presidents before him combined.
> Any group of Great Americans must exclude those who failed us so
> miserably.
>
> The Soviet Union fell because the people of the former USSR were given
> the right to free elections and they voted communists out of office.
>
Hey! You get a gold star! Calling Ronald Reagan a great president is
like calling John Wayne a great computer programmer.. the product of
hype, and nothing but hype, which was the republicrook party. A great
chickenhawk. I think Ronald Reagan was about NOTHIN'. The only thing I
DID like was the WIC program..and I hated the man for what he did to
social programs, like the legal aid programs. A real SON OF A BITCH who
got exactly what he deserved.. too bad it wasn't melanoma in his lung,
or leprosy.
Scotius
wrote:
>
>From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>
>The Top 100
>
>The most influential figures in American history.
>
>1 Abraham Lincoln
>He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s
>second founding.
He also said not long before he died that he feared that he
had "accomplished nothing".
>
>2 George Washington
>He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but
>by declining to become one himself.
Yet despite being one of the men who agreed that all men were
created equal, was a slave owner.
>
>3 Thomas Jefferson
>The author of the five most important words in American history: “All
>men are created equal.”
" ", except he's the guy who wrote it. Of course, the liberals
don't like this being said, but they think he was racially liberal
because he had Black mistresses.
>
>4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
>He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he
>proved it.
There was a US admiral who served in Hawaii who, when hearing
of the attack on Pearl Harbor said "Well, now the son of a bitch has
killed my son". He was referring to FDR. He couldn't prove that FDR
killed his son, although I did watch an interview with the men who
operated the radar station where the Japanese ships were spotted.
They informed their superiors, and they were assured that
everyone up to and including the president had been informed shortly
thereafter. Yet, the planes were all neatly lined up on the tarmac
when the first wave came over the mountains and descended to attack
Pearl Harbor.
Interestingly, although a lot of people think of Japan as the
belligerent nation that started WW II, the Japanese part of the war
actually started when the US government in the late '20s issued a
statement to the government of imperial Japan to the effect that they
must unconditionally acknowledge the sole right of the US to
exploration for resources in Southeast Asia.
>
>Advertisement
>
>
>
>
>Also see:
>
>In Their Own Words
>Of the 100 Americans selected by our panel of historians, thirty-one
>contributed to The Atlantic. Browse a selection of their writings.
>
>5 Alexander Hamilton
>Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian
>nation’s transformation into an industrial power.
And sabotaged the constitution's wording at the last moment to
make it sound as though the document only meant that militia's would
have the right to "bear arms".
>
>6 Benjamin Franklin
>The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat,
>inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
>
>7 John Marshall
>The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the
>equal of the other two federal branches.
>
>8 Martin Luther King Jr.
>His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to
>make it real.
>
>9 Thomas Edison
>It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most
>prolific inventor in American history.
>
>10 Woodrow Wilson
>He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
>
>11 John D. Rockefeller
>The man behind Standard Oil set the mold for our tycoons—first by
>making money, then by giving it away.
He also educated his sons about his business philosophy:
"Competition is a sin".
>
>12 Ulysses S. Grant
>He was a poor president, but he was the general Lincoln needed; he
>also wrote the greatest political memoir in American history.
>
>13 James Madison
>He fathered the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights.
>
>14 Henry Ford
>He gave us the assembly line and the Model T, and sparked America’s
>love affair with the automobile.
>
>15 Theodore Roosevelt
>Whether busting trusts or building canals, he embodied the “strenuous
>life” and blazed a trail for twentieth-century America.
>
>16 Mark Twain
>Author of our national epic, he was the most unsentimental observer of
>our national life.
>
>17 Ronald Reagan
>The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the
>Cold War’s end.
In effect, if not in intent, the first "neo con" president. He
came to DC with supposedly genuine conservative values, thought the
military shouldn't be so huge, or take up so much public money, etc.
Then after he got shot changed his views radically, etc.
Also a very bad environmental record. That's what happens when
you first try to get congress to roll back pollution controls, and
when that doesn't work you simply cut the budget of the EPA.
>
>18 Andrew Jackson
>The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a
>democracy.
>
>19 Thomas Paine
>The voice of the American Revolution, and our first great radical.
>
>20 Andrew Carnegie
>The original self-made man forged America’s industrial might and
>became one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists.
>
>21 Harry Truman
>An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic
>Age and then the Cold War.
Uh, yeah... I think there might be some people who would
therefore object to his inclusion. Anyway, the decision to drop the
atomic bomb on Japan was utterly unnecessary.
>
>22 Walt Whitman
>He sang of America and shaped the country’s conception of itself.
>
>23 Wright Brothers
>They got us all off the ground.
>
>24 Alexander Graham Bell
>By inventing the telephone, he opened the age of telecommunications
>and shrank the world.
>
>25 John Adams
>His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to
>republicanism made it succeed.
>
>26 Walt Disney
>The quintessential entertainer-entrepreneur, he wielded unmatched
>influence over our childhood.
>
>27 Eli Whitney
>His gin made cotton king and sustained an empire for slavery.
Sustaining an empire for slavery, I would think, probably
ought to preclude him from being on the list, unless you want to
segregate him (pun intended) into the "negatively influential" crowd.
>
>28 Dwight Eisenhower
>He won a war and two elections, and made everybody like Ike.
He called Patton and told him to let the Soviets take Berlin,
thus setting the stage for the Cold War.
>
>29 Earl Warren
>His Supreme Court transformed American society and bequeathed to us
>the culture wars.
And his joke of a commission has allowed conspiracy theorists
wet dreams about what angles they'll be able to work.
>
>30 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
>One of the first great American feminists, she fought for social
>reform and women’s right to vote.
>
>31 Henry Clay
>One of America’s greatest legislators and orators, he forged
>compromises that held off civil war for decades.
>
>32 Albert Einstein
>His greatest scientific work was done in Europe, but his humanity
>earned him undying fame in America.
>
>33 Ralph Waldo Emerson
>The bard of individualism, he relied on himself—and told us all to do
>the same.
>
>34 Jonas Salk
>His vaccine for polio eradicated one of the world’s worst plagues.
>
>35 Jackie Robinson
>He broke baseball’s color barrier and embodied integration’s promise.
>
>36 William Jennings Bryan
>“The Great Commoner” lost three presidential elections, but his
>populism transformed the country.
>
>37 J. P. Morgan
>The great financier and banker was the prototype for all the Wall
>Street barons who followed.
If he was decent at all, he was not the prototype for at least
90+% of them.
>
>38 Susan B. Anthony
>She was the country’s most eloquent voice for women’s equality under
>the law.
>
>39 Rachel Carson
>The author of Silent Spring was godmother to the environmental
>movement.
>
>40 John Dewey
>He sought to make the public school a training ground for democratic
>life.
>
>41 Harriet Beecher Stowe
>Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin inspired a generation of abolitionists and set
>the stage for civil war.
??? You think the civil war was fought to free slaves? There
is no point to be made here. If Americans are foolish enough to
believe that horseshit, they'll believe anything.
The US civil war was fought so the businessmen of the North
would be in charge of the country instead of the agribusinessmen of
the South. That's the bottom line.
>
>42 Eleanor Roosevelt
>She used the first lady’s office and the mass media to become “first
>lady of the world.”
You mean she used US assets to aggrandize herself? No wonder a
lot of people thought Hillary was similar to some degree.
>
>43 W. E. B. DuBois
>One of America’s great intellectuals, he made the “problem of the
>color line” his life’s work.
>
>44 Lyndon Baines Johnson
>His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us
>Vietnam.
The civil rights laws were inevitable, and Johnson was still
against them when Kennedy had already been backing them.
And it wasn't his stubbornness that gave the US Vietnam, it
was politics.
>
>45 Samuel F. B. Morse
>Before the Internet, there was Morse code.
>
>46 William Lloyd Garrison
>Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he became the voice of
>abolition.
>
>47 Frederick Douglass
>After escaping from slavery, he pricked the nation’s conscience with
>an eloquent accounting of its crimes.
>
>48 Robert Oppenheimer
>The father of the atomic bomb and the regretful midwife of the nuclear
>era.
>
>49 Frederick Law Olmsted
>The genius behind New York’s Central Park, he inspired the greening of
>America’s cities.
>
>50 James K. Polk
>This one-term president’s Mexican War landgrab gave us California,
>Texas, and the Southwest.
Not for perpetuity, apparently.
>
>51 Margaret Sanger
>The ardent champion of birth control—and of the sexual freedom that
>came with it.
And an unrepentant nazi sympathizer who also said that "80% of
Americans are idiots". By the way, most people don't trust people who
don't feel safe around people who respect themselves. That's why kids
didn't hang with Marg.
>
>52 Joseph Smith
>The founder of Mormonism, America’s most famous homegrown faith.
A lunatic who believed that Jesus Christ came to America and
left the book of Mormon...
>
>53 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
>Known as “The Great Dissenter,” he wrote Supreme Court opinions that
>continue to shape American jurisprudence.
>
>54 Bill Gates
>The Rockefeller of the Information Age, in business and philanthropy
>alike.
Have you seen Windows Vista, or read about it?
Jeffrey Turner
> On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:15:08 GMT, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
>
>>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>>
>>The Top 100
>>
>>The most influential figures in American history.
>>
>>1 Abraham Lincoln
>>He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s
>>second founding.
>
>
> He also said not long before he died that he feared that he
> had "accomplished nothing".
He had a lot of self doubts. So what?
>>2 George Washington
>>He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but
>>by declining to become one himself.
>
> Yet despite being one of the men who agreed that all men were
> created equal, was a slave owner.
He was too busy fighting to sign that document, but, after fighting in
an integrated army, he freed all his own slaves.
--Jeff
--
Whenever morality is based on theology,
whenever right is made dependent on
divine authority, the most immoral,
unjust, infamous things can be
justified and established. --Ludwig Feuerbach
frisbie...@yahoo.com
ccr
"Jeffrey Turner" <jtu...@localnet.com> wrote in message
news:12mb97u...@corp.supernews.com...
> Scotius wrote:
>> On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:15:08 GMT, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>From The Atlantic Monthly -- December 2006
>>
>>>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials
>>>
>>>The Top 100
>>>
>>>The most influential figures in American history.
>>>
>>>1 Abraham Lincoln
>>>He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s
>>>second founding.
>>
>>
>> He also said not long before he died that he feared that he
>> had "accomplished nothing".
>
> He had a lot of self doubts. So what?
>
>>>2 George Washington
>>>He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but
>>>by declining to become one himself.
>>
>> Yet despite being one of the men who agreed that all men were
>> created equal, was a slave owner.
>
> He was too busy fighting to sign that document, but, after fighting in
> an integrated army, he freed all his own slaves.
Washington freed his slaves when he died. Jefferson didn't even do that.
Jeffrey Turner
Sorry, you're right. Though, in Washington's defense, it must be noted
that he lacked control over those slaves his wife had brought to their
marriage, and who, in turn, had formed families with his own.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_and_slavery
--Jeff
--
Poverty is the worst form of
violence. --Mohandas Gandhi