100 Most Influential People In American History

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MrsSpringsteen

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Does anyone have their own choices that didn't make this list?

(Reuters)Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. president who won the Civil War and ended slavery, topped a list of the 100 most influential American figures in shaping U.S. history, a survey released on Tuesday said.

The Atlantic Monthly magazine asked 10 notable historians to rank the Americans they felt had the greatest impact on U.S. history.

Other figures who made the top 10 included U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Also included were Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and inventor Thomas Edison.

More than 30 writers including Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were in the top 100. More contemporary figures included musician Bob Dylan, golfer Tiger Woods and consumer activist Ralph Nader.

Editor James Bennet said in a statement the list was designed to stimulate debate about who had affected the country and how it happened.

For example, he asked, "How can Bill Gates be ahead of Elvis Presley, or Presley ahead of Lewis and Clark," referring to the early 19th century overland expedition to the Pacific Coast by explorers Capt. Meriwether Lewis and 2nd Lt. William Clark.

Those who compiled the list included Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who said she looked for people "who made it possible for people to lead expanded lives -- materially, psychologically, culturally and spiritually."


On Atlantic Monthly site

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials

Not too many women on there
 
Top Living Influentials


Living Americans who received votes from panelists


1. Bill Gates (No. 54 on the
Top 100)
2. James D. Watson (No. 68)
3. Ralph Nader (No. 96)
4. Bob Dylan
5. Steve Jobs
6. Steven Spielberg
7. William F. Buckley Jr.
8. Muhammad Ali
9. Sandra Day O’Connor
10. Oprah Winfrey
11. Billy Graham
12. George Lucas
13. Norman Borlaug (founder
of the “Green Revolution”)
14. Michael Jordan
15. Shirley Temple
16. Walter Cronkite
17. Gloria Steinem
18. Phyllis Schlafly
19. Norman Mailer
20. Sid Caesar (the soul of Borscht Belt comedy)
21–24. Vinton Cerf, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence Roberts (the four “fathers of the Internet”)
25. Helen Gurley Brown (legendary editor of Cosmopolitan magazine; author of Sex and the Single Girl)
26. Stan Lee (founder of Marvel Comics; inventor of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and other superheroes)
26. Bill Cosby (tied)
28. Henry Kissinger
28. Chuck Berry (tied)
28. Bill Clinton (tied)
31. Martha Stewart
31. Clint Eastwood (tied)
33. Tiger Woods
33. Hugh Hefner (tied)
 
Well, the list was certainly influential. Obviously not meant to necessarily be a good influence, lol.
 
bob dylan should have been on there

I'm a little disappointed that not very many musicians are on there
 
Rosa Parks is missing too. She might not have had formal influence but her bravery set events in motion that dwarves the accomplishments of most people on the list.
 
silja said:
Rosa Parks is missing too. She might not have had formal influence but her bravery set events in motion that dwarves the accomplishments of most people on the list.


She's not on it? That's a complete disgrace

I agree with you 100 percent
 
After a quick look, Rosa Parks is an obvious omission. Malcolm X should be there also.
 
Bush Sr. and Jr. aren't on it?
Is the list supposed to be for Americans with POSITIVE impact on the history or what?

If anything, those two made the undeservingly arrogant America is now and there would have never been such a worldwide hatred against America if it wasn't for these two :mad: :madspit:
 
MrsSpringsteen said:

Not too many women on there

"Men discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science."
 
Who said that? And I hope you aren't endorsing that.

The reasons there aren't more women listed would include the fact that our historic and current achievements still aren't equally recognized, and we still aren't afforded the same opportunities and certainly weren't throughout history. We all know that, don't we?
 
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Will Ferrell's character in Anchorman.

Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, I am a professional and I would like to do my job.
Ron Burgundy: Big deal. I am very professional.
Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, you are acting like a baby.
Ron Burgundy: I'm not a baby, I'm a MAN, I am an ANCHORMAN.
Veronica Corningstone: You are not a man. You are a big fat joke.
Ron Burgundy: I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.
 
I like how they left out that Andrew Jackson (#18) signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 into law. Trail of Tears, anyone?
I know they sum up all these people in a sentence, but I think that one was pretty darn influential.
 
Kristie said:
I like how they left out that Andrew Jackson (#18) signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 into law. Trail of Tears, anyone?
I know they sum up all these people in a sentence, but I think that one was pretty darn influential.

Being of Native American heritage....influential yes...absolutely disgusting as well. :sad:
 
Wheres....

Florence Nightingale
Harriet Tubman
Rosa Parks
Georgia O'Keefe
Pochantas
Sasquahanna
Clara Barton
Amelia Earhardt
Sacajewa
Elizabeth Blackwell
Janis Joplin (showed the world its ok for women to rock)

just to name a few more...:mad:
 
BonosSaint said:
Will Ferrell's character in Anchorman.

Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, I am a professional and I would like to do my job.
Ron Burgundy: Big deal. I am very professional.
Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, you are acting like a baby.
Ron Burgundy: I'm not a baby, I'm a MAN, I am an ANCHORMAN.
Veronica Corningstone: You are not a man. You are a big fat joke.
Ron Burgundy: I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.

OK, thanks for the answer. I never saw that movie, I'm too dumb to know how to get to the movie theater :D
 
Had to look it up. Apparently it's become a stock response when the value of men and women is discussed. Google the quote without the quote marks and see how often it's posted, lol.

PS. I thought it was Ralph Kramden. It was such a Ralphie thing to say.
 
The point of posting the quote was to point out the foolishness of such ideas. (As is the point of the line in the movie.)
 
MrsSpringsteen said:


OK, thanks for the answer. I never saw that movie, I'm too dumb to know how to get to the movie theater :D


a woman should never be in a movie theater unaccompanied. she should always be in the company of her parents, her husband, or a potential male suitor.

:shame:
 
I would be cautious with the smaller brain size. Einstein's brain e.g. was only 1.2kg in weight, whereas average male brain size is 1.5kg :)

So, lighter, because more efficient?
 
nathan1977 said:
The point of posting the quote was to point out the foolishness of such ideas. (As is the point of the line in the movie.)

That's what I figured nathan, as I have never observed you expressing such thoughts here in FYM- but it wasn't exactly clear. Given the fact that threads have actually been started here expressing such ideas (and some posts have said same), I hope you can understand my caution and feelings on the matter.

:)
 
BonosSaint said:
Will Ferrell's character in Anchorman.

Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, I am a professional and I would like to do my job.
Ron Burgundy: Big deal. I am very professional.
Veronica Corningstone: Mr. Burgundy, you are acting like a baby.
Ron Burgundy: I'm not a baby, I'm a MAN, I am an ANCHORMAN.
Veronica Corningstone: You are not a man. You are a big fat joke.
Ron Burgundy: I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.

AH! I thought that was familiar! Too lazy to google it though. Isn't it funny how google has now become a verb?
 
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