CDZ The 100 Most Influential Americans

[ChrisL]

It's not a great list. It's extremely subjective and I have no idea what criteria they are using.

Obviously there are the infamous listed among the famous, but why Sarah Palin but not Joseph McCarthy?

Why Ronald Reagan and not John F. Kennedy?

Why George W. Bush and not Harry S. Truman?

Why any of the artists listed but not famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady?

Where's George Gershwin? James Cagney? Shirley Temple? Bob Hope? Cole Porter? Miles Davis?

Some of them seem kind of "new" to be on an all-time list. I don't really think Sarah Palin belongs on such a list either. I haven't checked, but a lot of these lists are based on votes by their readers/consumers.

 

[Saigon]

Some names who seem to be missing:

- Hemingway

- Steinbeck

- Philip Roth

- Chomsky

- JFK

- Tiger Woods

 

[Foxfyre]

Remember that the standard is influence......how did this person change the culture, politics, socioeconomic status, etc. of our nation? I don't think that would include the fame or popularity of folks as the only reason to include them. I agree I don't see it in many names on the list though.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacajawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Paul Revere
Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington Carver
Eli Whitney
Samuel Morse
Frederick Douglass
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Albert Einstein (became a US citizen in 1940)
Pocahontas
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Neil Armstrong
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Beecher Stowe
George S. Patton
James Edward Oglethorpe (He was British, but he founded the colony of Georgia and presided over it, so I made an exeption)


(I see inventors as trailblazers, as well as scientists. )

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Norman Rockwell
Stan Lee
Louis Armstrong
Stevie Wonder
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
Frederick Remington
Walt Disney (yes he was an artist too)
William Shatner (I presume acting is a form of art)
Nichelle Nichols
Whoopi Goldberg
Charles Schulz

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Dwight L. Moody
Martin Luther King, Jr

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Nikola Tesla (naturalized as US citizen on July 30, 1891)
Truett Cathy
Lee Iaccoca
John Francis Dodge
Horace Elgin Dodge
Alexander Graham Bell

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Willie McCovey
Willie Mays
Lou Gehrig
Ted Williams
Walter Camp
Brett Favre
Emmitt Smith
Deion Sanders
Hank Aaron
Julius Erving
Hakeem Olajuwon
Dominique Wilkins
Patrick Ewing
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Abner Doubleday
Randy Savage
Ken Griffey, Sr.
Ken Griffey, Jr.

Ah... well that's all I can think of.

 

[Synthaholic]

Definitely Tiger Woods. He single-handedly started the huge golf boom in the early 2000s, with thousands of courses built (and now, sadly, abandoned).

 

[Bush92]

Howard Zinn. He started the movement to rewrite American history with the underlying narrative that the United States is a bad, bad, rotten, evil, racist, nation. Just the type of U.S. history that liberals like to hear.

 

[Foxfyre]

Reminding Bush92 that this is the CDZ. I put this thread here in hopes of avoiding that kind of post. I don't think there is any reason to make this into a partisan thread in any sense. Howard Zinn is worthy of mention as he has affected the culture and how history is told, however controversial that might be.

 

[Foxfyre]

Definitely Tiger Woods. He single-handedly started the huge golf boom in the early 2000s, with thousands of courses built (and now, sadly, abandoned).

I agree that Tiger did regenerate a huge interest in the game of golf. And his fall from grace, as it were, coupled with less than heroic performance since then, seems to have had a similar affect of diminishing that surge of interest. I would consider that influential.

And now that makes me think that Secretariat probably does deserve at least an honorable mention for the same reason. He did catch the imagination of a nation and had avid fans in the darndest places and generated a huge interest in the Triple Crown. So that too is influential.

 

[Esmeralda]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

I disagree with them in pretty much every area, not just the presidential areas. And they have George W Bush? You've got to be kidding. He is one of the lowest rated presidents of all the presidents; unless they mean he is influential in a bad way, why on Earth would he be on the list. And Schwarzenegger as an influential athelete. He's a creepy body builder: there are hundreds of other athletes more important than he. Oprah is on the list. Oprah? She's a joke. It's a terrible list.

 

[Esmeralda]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

An interesting thing, this is supposed to be the "100 most significant Americans of all time." There are no writers on the list. Writers are very influential and significant in a society. This list completely ignores them.

Influential American Authors

1. Arthur Miller
2. Harper Lee
3. James Baldwin
4. Langston Hughes
5. Dashiell Hammet
6. John Steinbeck
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Mark Twain
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Earnest Hemingway
11. Edith Wharton
12. Kurt Vonnegut

Just off the top of my head; not saying it is definitive.

 

[Disir]

We should rewrite it and send it in.

 

[Foxfyre]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

I disagree with them in pretty much every area, not just the presidential areas. And they have George W Bush? You've got to be kidding. He is one of the lowest rated presidents of all the presidents; unless they mean he is influential in a bad way, why on Earth would he be on the list. And Schwarzenegger as an influential athelete. He's a creepy body builder: there are hundreds of other athletes more important than he. Oprah is on the list. Oprah? She's a joke. It's a terrible list.

In defense of the Smithsonian, there was no value judgment placed on the people (plus one horse) on their list. Nor was the public opinion about the figures a factor on their list.

I still haven't read the article, not having access to it, but I have read elsewhere that the primary criteria for those on the list is the influence on our culture or the way we regard or see or think about things.

 

[Foxfyre]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

An interesting thing, this is supposed to be the "100 most significant Americans of all time." There are no writers on the list. Writers are very influential and significant in a society. This list completely ignores them.

Influential American Authors

1. Arthur Miller
2. Harper Lee
3. James Baldwin
4. Langston Hughes
5. Dashiell Hammet
6. John Steinbeck
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Mark Twain
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Earnest Hemingway
11. Edith Wharton
12. Kurt Vonnegut

Just off the top of my head; not saying it is definitive.

Again, the Smithsonian did not deal in 'significance'. The focus was on how the subjects on the list have influenced the American culture, mindset, attitudes, etc.

 

[longknife]

They missed Captain Gaspar Portolá and Captain Fernando Rivera to trail blazed California from the southern border to the shores of San Francisco Bay


They failed to include Frederick Remington in the artist section as probably one of the best American sculptors ever. And they failed to include Grant Wood whose American Gothic is a true American classic.


And where are George and Ira Gershwin?

 

[Esmeralda]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

An interesting thing, this is supposed to be the "100 most significant Americans of all time." There are no writers on the list. Writers are very influential and significant in a society. This list completely ignores them.

Influential American Authors

1. Arthur Miller
2. Harper Lee
3. James Baldwin
4. Langston Hughes
5. Dashiell Hammet
6. John Steinbeck
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Mark Twain
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Earnest Hemingway
11. Edith Wharton
12. Kurt Vonnegut

Just off the top of my head; not saying it is definitive.

Again, the Smithsonian did not deal in 'significance'. The focus was on how the subjects on the list have influenced the American culture, mindset, attitudes, etc.

If you knew anything about American literature, you would not say that. Everyone of those authors has had more influence on American culture, mindset and attitudes than most of the people on the Smithsonian list. And, in fact, have had influence on other cultures around the world. I didn't chose those authors without knowledge of what I was doing.

 

[Esmeralda]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

An interesting thing, this is supposed to be the "100 most significant Americans of all time." There are no writers on the list. Writers are very influential and significant in a society. This list completely ignores them.

Influential American Authors

1. Arthur Miller
2. Harper Lee
3. James Baldwin
4. Langston Hughes
5. Dashiell Hammet
6. John Steinbeck
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Mark Twain
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Earnest Hemingway
11. Edith Wharton
12. Kurt Vonnegut

Just off the top of my head; not saying it is definitive.

Again, the Smithsonian did not deal in 'significance'. The focus was on how the subjects on the list have influenced the American culture, mindset, attitudes, etc.

The fact they left authors off the list of influential Americans pretty much negates any real value the list has: authors tend to be some of the most influential of all peoples in a society.

 

[Foxfyre]

The current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine presents their list of the 100 most significant Americans of all time. The list includes some of the Founding Fathers and a race horse, but nobody in the current Administration.

Look over the list. Do you agree? Or should some names be removed and others included?

Here's their list:

Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell

Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X

Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson

First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey

Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano

Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams

Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham

Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford

Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs

Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King

Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian

An interesting thing, this is supposed to be the "100 most significant Americans of all time." There are no writers on the list. Writers are very influential and significant in a society. This list completely ignores them.

Influential American Authors

1. Arthur Miller
2. Harper Lee
3. James Baldwin
4. Langston Hughes
5. Dashiell Hammet
6. John Steinbeck
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Mark Twain
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Earnest Hemingway
11. Edith Wharton
12. Kurt Vonnegut

Just off the top of my head; not saying it is definitive.

Again, the Smithsonian did not deal in 'significance'. The focus was on how the subjects on the list have influenced the American culture, mindset, attitudes, etc.

If you knew anything about American literature, you would not say that. Everyone of those authors has had more influence on American culture, mindset and attitudes than most of the people on the Smithsonian list. And, in fact, have had influence on other cultures around the world. I didn't chose those authors without knowledge of what I was doing.

I was not commenting on the merits or lack thereof of anybody in particular. I was only correcting your error in coming up with 'significant' authors et al. Significant and influential are not necessarily the same thing. And American Literature played a heavy influence in my formal education as at one point I was going for an English degree.

 

[Foxfyre]

Uh oh. Now I have to do a mea culpa and apologize to several of you. When I went directly to the Smithsonian article the word is SIGNIFICANT....not INFLUENTIAL. My bad. And now I have to rethink the whole thing.

Here is how they determined who to put on the list:

Simply put, Skiena and Ward have developed an algorithmic method of ranking historical figures, just as Google ranks web pages. But while Google ranks web pages according to relevance to your search terms, Skiena and Ward rank people according to their historical significance, which they define as “the result of social and cultural forces acting on the mass of an individual’s achievement.” Their rankings account not only for what individuals have done, but also for how well others remember and value them for it.

Their method requires a massive amount of big data on historical reputation. This they found in the English-language Wikipedia, which has more than 840,000 pages devoted to individuals from all times and places, plus data extracted from the 15 million books Google has scanned. They analyzed this data to produce a single score for each person, using a formula that incorporates the number of links to each page, the number of page visits, the length of each entry and the frequency of edits to each page. Their algorithms differentiate between two kinds of historical reputation, what they call “gravitas” and “celebrity.” Finally, their method requires a means of correcting for the “decay” in historical reputation that comes with the passage of time; they developed an algorithm for that, too. By their reckoning, Jesus, Napoleon, Muhammad, William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln rank as the top five figures in world history. Their book ranks more than 1,000 individuals from all around the world, providing a new way to look at history.


Read more: History Travel Arts Science People Places Smithsonian​

 

[Foxfyre]

The money line I think is here: "Their rankings account not only for what individuals have done, but also for how well others remember and value them for it."

 

[Esmeralda]

It's not a great list. It's extremely subjective and I have no idea what criteria they are using.

Obviously there are the infamous listed among the famous, but why Sarah Palin but not Joseph McCarthy?

Why Ronald Reagan and not John F. Kennedy?

Why George W. Bush and not Harry S. Truman?

Why any of the artists listed but not famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady?

Where's George Gershwin? James Cagney? Shirley Temple? Bob Hope? Cole Porter? Miles Davis?

OMG. Sarah Palin is on the list? This list is seriously, seriously flawed.
And not JFK? Incredible.

Whatever else Palin in, she is a flash in the pan. She will have no long term or historical significance or influence in American society or culture. She's a temporary joke.