The 100 Most Influential Figures in American History

Some interesting omissions, of course (from The Atlantic 100).

No Hispanics (Serra, Kino, Cesar Chavez)?

No American Indians (Sequoyah, Pontiac, Sitting Bull, Joseph)?

No explorers other than Lewis and Clark (Carson, Fremont, Powell)?

Several from film, but no one from broadcasting (Sarnoff, Pat Weaver the creator of Today and Tonight shows, Ed Sullivan)?

Just sayin’.

Here’s my take on another list of 100.

One thought on “The 100 Most Influential Figures in American History”

  1. I was impressed with including Johnson but not JFK. One thing that is really interesting, and one your comment on no Indians really emphasizes, is how it is completely lacking in Westerners. Nothing on the Myth of the West, no frontiersmen, except for Lewis and Clark, not even Crockett or Daniel Boone. If you don’t count Mark Twain, the only westerners are Brigham Young and Oppenheimer. I think it is just a very East Coast sort of bias.

    And why exactly Mary Baker Eddy? I have never understood her particular fame.

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