Here and there
Isambard Kingdom BrunelTop Ten Greatest Americans:
Winston Churchill
Oliver Cromwell
Charles Darwin
Diana, Princess of Wales
Queen Elizabeth I
John Lennon
Horatio Nelson
Isaac Newton
William Shakespeare
Ronald Reagan
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
George W Bush
Bill Clinton
Elvis Presley
Oprah Winfrey
Franklin D Roosevelt
I think the UK wins (it’s pretty hard to beat Newton and Shakespeare.)
You are kidding me. Oprah and Clinton and Elvis beat THOMAS FREAKIN JEFFERSON?
Posted by Dave Lartigue on July 7 2005 06:00
Of course, the UK has a bit longer history to draw on. :-)
Seriously, the US list is a joke. It's as though they'd put Posh Spice on the UK list. I suspect most of us could come up with a better list off the top of our heads:
I'm amazed that they didn't find room for Watson and Crick on the British list, though.
Posted by Mike Jones on July 7 2005 07:57
Ford's anti-Semitism, promulgation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and public admiration of, and assistance to Nazi Germany would exclude him from my list.
I'm also not a huge fan of Edison for his willingness to take credit for others' work and his prosecution of the Electricity Wars. (Of course, he still accomplished remarkable things.)
(But I'm not suggesting excluding Washington and Jefferson for being slave-owners, so I'm probably a big ol' hypocrite.)
Otherwise, I like your list a lot. Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony would probably also be on my short list for consideration.
Posted by Zed on July 7 2005 10:36
I agree with you about Ford, Zed. Washington and Jefferson accomoplished a lot of good for a lot of people, and held some admirable principles, which mitigates their slaveholding in my opinion. Owning slaves was the mainstream for wealthy Virginia landowners in the 18th century. Anti-Semitism and pro-Naziism, on the other hand, were not mainstream values for 20th century industrialists. Most of them were conservative by nature but Ford was an extremist. Remarkable though his industrial accomplishments were, the balance comes down in the negative for him.
For what it's worth, my top ten list would be:
1. Benjamin Franklin
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. George Washington
5. Martin Luther King
6. Daniel Webster
7. Thomas Edison
8. Samuel Clemens
9. Theodore Roosevelt
10. Richard Feynman
Posted by Jimcat on July 7 2005 14:04
Jumping Jesus ... Republicans dominate a "greatest American" list? What madness is this?
The greatest Americans are those who furthered our better natures, not those who made a mockery of them.
The founding Fathers: Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Washington
The Saviours: Lincoln, Roosevelt
Scientists? Well, if we have to list them: Feynman, Telsa, Carver, "Einstein" (who'll always be a Swiss to me), DeForest,
Salk, Oppenheimer, maybe even some contempories like Sagan and the gene sequencing guys.
Entertainers? Again, a mushy category: Jimmy Stewart, Judy Gumm, and Brando come to mind. Maybe Ford, too.
Sports heroes? Screw that ... none are worth mention.
Warriors? I guess it's quite true that the nation would have been very different without: Lee/Grant, MacArthur, Ike.
Diplomats: Wilson, Franklin (already done), Truman(U.N.?)
But REAGAN and BUSH? A resounding F**k no.
Posted by Steven R. Staton on July 8 2005 12:30