I would swap George Washington with Thomas Edison. Edison is overrated.
"Judicial Review" (invalidating) of acts of Congress is fine when Congress does something that goes outside the bounds established for it by the Constitution. It is not so good when it goes to invalidating nearly all of the Bill of Rights which is something Marshall did when he ruled that the Bill of Rights prohibitions outside of the first amendment prohibitions which were specifically limited to the Federal Government, were also limited to the Federal Government.
ML/NJ
George Washington was the greatest American, indeed one of the greatest men in the history of the world. He has no peer in this nation’s history. None. Without this one man, the break from Britain would have been delayed years, perhaps decades.
Henry Ford
James Stewart.
Alexander Hamilton - He was the architect of our economic system and I believe he developed the concept of the corporation. He layed the basis for the American system of free enterprise and capitalism.
The link is not to the article. The link is to a blog. Within the blog is the article, true, but there is a direct link that should have been supplied. That link is:
http://theconstitutionalalamo.com/2009/06/29/the-five-greatest-americans-you-might-be-surprised/
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
DeWitt Clinton
Nikola Tesla
Jonas Salk
Thank God for the election of 1800 and Thomas Jefferson. If John Adams or a even Aaron Burr were elected who knows what might have happened.
I would take Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" over some sort of "natural aristocracy" and suffocating central government Marshall promoted any day. All Marshall accomplished was to create some sort of oligarchy that was virtually impossible to check by the other two branches (Constitutional Amendment, far cry from Jefferson's ease of check and balances).
It's like starting the excercise by first excluding dentists named "Mel" from contention.
John Brown more important than ML King, as is Rosa Parks.
Who invented the cotton gin? That had more of an impact on America than Edison, and Edison was equaled by men like Tesla, Westinghouse and Siemens. Moreover the man who funded Edison was far more important than Edison — and that would be JP Morgan.
Samuel Colt, Eli Whitney, Jack St. Clair Kilby, the Wright Brothers, John Roebling, Robert Oppenheimer, Clarence Birdseye — many American inventors equaled in impact on America Edison’s work.
Still, the Wright Brothers stand above the rest, so I say.
In the end lists like this are silly and myopic. Faddish.
But the list from the high schoolers shows clearly an abysmal US History education.
A useful post.
The American Soldier
Ronald Reagan
John Wayne
Henry Ford
The guys that invented the transistor
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 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.
Jonas Salk deserves consideration. Saved millions of lives.
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.
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
x, this is your kind of list.
As for industrialists, I’d add to consideration J.P. Morgan, or Andrew Carnegie. I’m also thinking Billy Durant over Henry Ford. And what about Milton Friedman? Or Isaac Singer any of the various inventors and disseminators of the sewing machine. Or Hiran Moore and/or Cyrus McCormick.
All these folks made life better for all Americans. And they made their fortunes on the great American empowerment of the individual. Truly, the great American hero is the everyman. As such, I nominate Alexis de Toqcueville for being the best to articultate it.