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Most Influential Americans in History - Who's on your list? (1 Viewer)

On The Rocks

On The Rocks

Evil Conservative
So I'm sitting here at work, waiting for the final minutes of the day to tick away, and this topic came to mind.

Who would you put on your Top 10 Most Influential Americans List?

Abraham Lincoln
James Madison & Gouverneur Morris
George Washington
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark (& Sacajawea)
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford
Thomas Jefferson
Frederick Douglass
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Bill Gates

I included Madison and Morris together for their work on the Constitution, and included Lewis and Clark & Sacajawea together for their combined exploration effort.

There are many more that could have been included prior to 1776, but this was my starting point.

 
Pretty broad topic as one could easily argue without person X, we wouldn't have even gotten to person Y.  For instance, I doubt many lists would contain Thomas Paine, but if it weren't for his pamphlet, its hard to say if we would have even had independence from Great Britain. I'd like to see people's lists though.  :popcorn:

 
Influential to America or influential to the world at large?  If latter, Jonas Salk should be on the list.  Obviously MLK for home and abroad 

 
Zuckerberg has to be on the list.  He basically got Trump elected.  And he's ruined social interaction forever.  

 
Francisco de Miranda was the biggest revolutionary war slut ever, which has to amount to something

 
Are we talking Henry Wallace influential (smart and actually worked to make a difference) or Truman (look I got a bomb guys!!!)?

 
My 10:

George Washington

John Adams

Frederick Douglass

Abraham Lincoln

Teddy Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jackie Robinson

Bill Gates

Mark Zuckerberg

 
George Washington. He walked away from power which was something unheard of in his day. That set a precedent that has survived our country to this day and will continue, hopefully. 

 
On The Rocks said:
Abraham Lincoln
James Madison & Gouverneur Morris
George Washington
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark (& Sacajawea)
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford
Thomas Jefferson
Frederick Douglass
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Bill Gates
Click to expand...
I might add:

- Hamilton

- Adams

- Franklin

- Andrew Jackson, if only because he started what Lewis finished which was winning the whole western half of the Mississippi for the US.

- Teddy Roosevelt.

- Wilson - this may have been for the worse.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
SaintsInDome2006 said:
I might add:

- Hamilton

- Adams

- Franklin

- Andrew Jackson, if only because he started what Lewis finished which was winning the whole western half of the Mississippi for the US.

- Teddy Roosevelt.

- Wilson - this may have been for the worse.
Click to expand...
If you are talking about acquisition of more land for the US, I'd say James Polk was pretty influential.

 
I did a 100 greatest list- its in my thread. But "influential" is a little different from "great". 

If we're talking influential in terms of the entire world, then I would argue for Norman Borlaug, whom most Americans have likely never heard of. Yet he probably had more impact on humankind than any other single American I can think of. 

 
timschochet said:
I did a 100 greatest list- its in my thread. But "influential" is a little different from "great". 

If we're talking influential in terms of the entire world, then I would argue for Norman Borlaug, whom most Americans have likely never heard of. Yet he probably had more impact on humankind than any other single American I can think of. 
Click to expand...
grain guy?

 
ffldrew said:
Chuck Berry - perhaps is #1
Click to expand...
was coming to post him  

woukd also include richard Nixon  put a face to and galvanized an ever escalating cynicism in the American people.  Not to mention the EPA, the opening of a China relationship which will be interesting for decades to come, rode shotgun for Eisenhower and ran against JFK  

 
Smack Tripper said:
woukd also include richard Nixon  put a face to and galvanized an ever escalating cynicism in the American people.  Not to mention the EPA, the opening of a China relationship which will be interesting for decades to come, rode shotgun for Eisenhower and ran against JFK  
Click to expand...
Useta just get angry when i thought about Nixon. Now I get sad & nostalgic for the what-might-have-been of Bobby Kennedy, a fiscal-conservative progressive who woulda squashed Tricky **** like a tick and undone just enough of LBJ to keep us on the path. Now, I campaigned as a 14yo for Gene McCarthy because i hated Bobby almost as much as the war, but his transformation during his '68 campaign is probably my favorite political story. His election would have been the natural progression of the Astronaut/Unicef/Equality beacon of freedom & opportunity i thought  and soooo wanted America to be. *sniff*

 
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