100 Most Influential Americans

[Annie]

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

My choices are in red.

The Top 100


The most influential figures in American history.


1 Abraham Lincoln 4.
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.

2 George Washington 1.
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.

3 Thomas Jefferson 3.
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”

4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 9.
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.

5 Alexander Hamilton 2.
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power.

6 Benjamin Franklin 5.
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.

7 John Marshall 7.
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.

13 James Madison 6.
He fathered the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights.

18 Andrew Jackson 10.
The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a democracy.

25 John Adams 8.
His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to republicanism made it succeed.

 

[Adam's Apple]

I, for one, sure do wish we had some men like these around today.

 

[akiboy]

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

My choices are in red.

I would like to add J.Robert Oppenheimer and General Douglas Mc Arthur to that list

 

[Annie]

I would like to add J.Robert Oppenheimer and General Douglas Mc Arthur to that list

Good additions. To the top 100 I would add Captain John Smith along with a few others.

 

[trobinett]

Good additions. To the top 100 I would add Captain John Smith along with a few others.

I didn't see ANY Native Americans, might I suggest:

Black Hawk, Sacajawea, Chief Joseph, Sequoyah, Osceola, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, and Pontica, just to name a few.

 

[Kagom]

In time of reading about Mr. Edison, I'd like to say he is an asshole.

 

[Annie]

In time of reading about Mr. Edison, I'd like to say he is an asshole.

Oh many on the list were, but that doesn't mitigate their one or two or more things they did to influence our lives.

 

[padisha emperor]

I will add, not in order, and in all the domains, Andy Warhol, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Herman Melville, Philippe K. Dick, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Ulysse S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Milton Friedman, Dwight D. Eisenhower...

 

[Annie]

I will add, not in order, and in all the domains, Andy Warhol, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Herman Melville, Philippe K. Dick, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Ulysse S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Milton Friedman, Dwight D. Eisenhower...

I don't think you look, several are on the list.