Posted on 06/30/2009 7:32:01 AM PDT by Publius772000
While sitting in the Advanced Placement institute a week ago, the instructor posed a question to the history educators in the room.
Not counting presidents or their wives, he began, who would you consider the five greatest, most influential Americans in history? My mind began to cycle through the most important figures to grace the stage.
My first choice was John Marshall. As the first significant Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he established the principle of judicial review, greatly expanding the power of the Court and making the Constitution, according to Jefferson, a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
Next, I chose Benjamin Franklin. The exclusion of presidents ruled out many of the Founding Fathers I would have chosen, but Franklin fit the bill. Many historians credit Franklin as the architect of the American ideala merge of the Puritan work ethic and moral compass with the tolerance and reason of Enlightenment philosophy. He served as ambassador to France, securing French support for the Revolution effort, and Postmaster General. Not to mention, he was an accomplished inventor, and many of his creations are still used today in one form or another.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconstitutionalalamo.com ...
The airplane would have come sooner or later since the power plant was already invented.
You might look at a little known inventor who helped industry more than others: John Hall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_John_H._Hall
I wanted to include Hall, but had to run out.
THANKS!
Hillary Clinton has a very vocal fan club.
A Battle to Preserve a Visionarys Bold Failure
And speaking of Tesla, his last remaining laboratory, Wardenclyffe, is currently the center of a battle between those who want it preserved as an historical site and the current owner, photographic materials manufacturer AGFA, which must sell Wardenclyffe to recoup the cost of cleanup. AGFA dumped toxic chemicals (primarily silver and cadmium) on the property for years and was forced to spend millions in cleanup.
The real estate broker has advertised the 16 plus acre site as potentially being available to prospective buyers with the buildings already razed and removed.
Great post. Here’s Discovery channel’s list of the top 25 ...
don’t laugh, it’s TeeVee!
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/greatestamerican/greatestamerican.html
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I’d take Tesla over Edison.
John Moses Browning.
Samuel Colt!
I think the list reflects the names kids are likely to hear in passing. It really isn’t so much an educational problem as just how brains work. Teenagers really aren’t geared towards reflecting on the 230+ year history of America and grabbing deeply reasoned persons to put on a list, they’re going to aim towards familiarity. At that age I’d have probably listed off members of favorite bands.
Edison is overrated.
I agree. He stole much of what is attributed to him from his employees and from TESLA, who eminently deserves to be on that list.
I Agree! Tesla by far!
Morgan also funded Tesla. The difference was Edison made money, while Tesla lost it all, while acting weird. Tesla should have stuck to inventing, rather than trying to keep up with Edison in the business world.
Jonas Salk deserves consideration. Saved millions of lives.
John Moses Browning designed it. He designed quite a few Colts, and Winchesters.... And a lot of the cartridges that went with them.
Here’s a list from a friendly foreigner. The Five Greatest Americans.
1. The American Warrior. Pick a single representative if you must; Audie Murphy, Alvin York, George Patton, James Bowie, John Paul Jones — any will do. Without them America would be nothing.
2. The American Freemason. Benjamin Franklin will do nicely, in the absence of George Washington. Or Douglas MacArthur. Or Buzz Aldrin. Nearly everything worth doing in America has been done by Freemasons.
3. The American Lawman. Eliot Ness, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, William “Bill” McDonald — lots to choose from.
4. The American Patriot. Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, William Travis, Oliver North — lots to choose from here, too. Thank God.
5. The Average Joe doing Above-average work. John Walsh, Curtis Sliwa, Candice Lightner, Jim Robinson, W D Boyce, Rosa Parks — too many to name because America is full of Average Joes. When an Average Joe does something special amazing things happen.
You had the answer in your post -- Eli Whitney, who also made popular the idea of interchangeable parts for weapons.
Both ideas revolutionized the country. Whitney failed to benefit from either. Great mind, poor businessman.
And Edward Teller, a bigger gun, of sorts, although he was unconcerned about interchangeable parts.
Well I listen to talk radio and I’m here to tell you the Great Americans are all those people who call Sean Hannity and, of course, Sean Hannity himself. And he did say so, himself.
Hamilton, for better or worse, had a major impact on our banking system, helped capitalism flourish, but ultimately may have doomed us to statism.
An argument can be made for Ford, Tesla, the Wright Brothers, Edison, etc...for their inventions.
Jonas Salk obviously deserves mention. However, I would go with the tremendously underrated Morton (invented anesthesia-imagine life without that).
Militarily, Patton and MaCarthur were giants. The South had much better generals but lost so their impact is minimalized and Grant is out because he became president.
1) Franklin
2) Hamilton
3) Morton
4) Tesla
5) Salk
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