Let's chat about Atlantic's list of The Top 100 most influential figures in American history.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (61 of them)

I can see how some robber barons belong on the list, but not nearly so high up, and Sam Walton can just go get fucked. He has contributed nothing to America whatsoever.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Monday, 27 November 2006 07:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Nothing good, anyway.

In which case, yeah, Hitler belongs on the list, too.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Monday, 27 November 2006 07:24 (seventeen years ago) link

no Carrot Top, no credibility

― tarah reed, Monday, 27 November 2006 07:28 (seventeen years ago) link

b-b-but he wasn't American (xpost about Hitler, obviously). I agree another list of people whose influence shaped America regardless of whether they were American or not would be interesting, but that's not what this is.

(See also the answer to "Why does Watson get the nod, but Crick not?" - that'll be because Watson's American and Crick's British.)

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Monday, 27 November 2006 07:30 (seventeen years ago) link

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/photo/data/507/medium/Muscle-CarrotTop.jpg

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Monday, 27 November 2006 07:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't object to Sam Walton being on the list, I do object to his presence when Marshall Field is absent. Marshall Field invented shopping.

― grady (grady), Monday, 27 November 2006 09:00 (seventeen years ago) link

72 Sam Walton
He promised us “Every Day Low Prices,” and we took him up on the offer.

I picture the little guy from the Onion editorial cartoons saying this.

― PPlains (PPlains), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

104. The Burger King
He made it possible to "have it your way," and that's true democracy.

― A-Ron Hubbard, Monday, 27 November 2006 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link

GW should probably be on here if it's not necessarily 'good' influence. I think it's safe to say he'll be remembered...

― Krazy ILX Name!, Monday, 27 November 2006 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess I wasn't paying attention when the Atlantic turned into Us Weekly.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I blame Sandra Tsing Loh.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 27 November 2006 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, there's a disappointing lack of both Roy Kroc or Ronald McDonald on this list.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link

they're forgetting one thing: JESUS

― LATEBLOOMER, Monday, 27 November 2006 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

He wasn't Merkin. He was clearly an Englishman.

― masonic boom (kate), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

there was a genuine push to make TIME name Jesus "man of the century/ millenium" in 1999. I think they went with Einstien.

― grady (grady), Monday, 27 November 2006 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Time's current listing of the top 100 whatever

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 27 November 2006 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

96 Ralph Nader
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president.

I thought only professional Republocrats and ILX dillydos were the only ones still wheezing this.

― Bill Weber (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah I was a bit put off by that too.

FWIW, in the print version of the magazine, the list is accompanied by a lengthy article explaining a lot of the reasons the list is the way it is. it also has smaller lists for authors, architects, people still living, etc.

― grady (grady), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Even accepting it for what it is, Madison should be closer to the top, and John Muir amd Robert Moses would seem to be more influential than say Rachel Carson and Frederick Law Olmsted.

― nuneb (nuneb), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link

"America’s tormented and fascinating South."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link

also, come on, the Reagan thing is just ridiculous

― nuneb (nuneb), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Walt Disney is more influential in US history than all women. Whadaya know.

― Lance Rock (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link

read this in the train station for 5 minutes the other day thinking this piece of shit is gonna be on ilx real soon.

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 19:26 (seventeen years ago) link

96 Ralph Nader
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president.

I thought only professional Republocrats and ILX dillydos were the only ones still wheezing this.

-- Bill Weber (wjwe...), November 28th, 2006.

Yeah, it made me wonder if we aren't witnessing the process of a myth making it into the history books.

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Dems like it more than "we let them steal an election that our spineless wimp won."

Walt Disney is more influential in US history than all women.

This may sadly be true, tho.

― Dr M (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Edward R. Murrow should be up there.

― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 21:49 (seventeen years ago) link

michael jackson should be up there

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Tuesday, 28 November 2006 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link

The saddest thing about this is the way they steal Walt Whitman's "I contain multitudes" line for Benjamin Franklin's blurb!

― nabiscothingy, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Madison should be closer to the top, and John Muir amd Robert Moses would seem to be more influential than say Rachel Carson and Frederick Law Olmsted.

It seems like this list is skewed in the same way that VH-1 countdown specials are. It's a snapshot of what would a) placate the greatest number of history snobs that care about such things, b) reflect current status of who is/isn't in favor c) get people to buy the magazine.

People who really need to be on the list:
-Bob Dylan
-William Mullholland
-Ken Kesey
-Carl Sagan
-Jimmy Hoffa
-JFK

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 00:33 (seventeen years ago) link

definitely, for at least some of the choiecs, but looking at it again, it is pretty on the money in other areas. where it seems to break down is in the last 60 years or so, ie in the lifetimes of those who put it together. it's like a serious list with an overlay of boomer navelgazing. a mashup of stars and stripes forever, appalachian spring (ahem) and we didn't start the fire.

― nuneb (nuneb), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 00:50 (seventeen years ago) link

they should have some balls and try to understand who's influential now.

also, bill gates as a stand in for all tech dudes is pretty lame.

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 00:54 (seventeen years ago) link

In one of the sidebars in the print edition Dylan tops (or is at least on) the list of 8-10 influential musicians.

― grady (grady), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 01:34 (seventeen years ago) link

paul revere

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 01:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I have nothing wrong with the list, but the blurbs make me want to puke.

― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 04:24 (seventeen years ago) link

not including jfk is nutty: i think the dude who presided over the cuban missile crisis deserves a place above dr spock.

frederick douglass ought to be at least ten spaces higher.

― j.d., Thursday, 30 November 2006 07:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, i don't like how this list disrespects the many years of service that Colonel Sanders gave to our country.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 30 November 2006 07:54 (seventeen years ago) link

John F. Kennedy: Not as good at baseball as Jackie Robinson.

― Rodney Von Bushwickin The Barbarian Mother-Funky Stay High Dollar Billster (Rodn, Thursday, 30 November 2006 08:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I blame Sandra Tsing Loh.

OTM.

― Casuistry, Thursday, 30 November 2006 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess Dubya's "influence" can't yet be judged, but as the nation may never recover from his reign he should be in the top ten by 2020.

― Bill Weber (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 November 2006 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Crick ain't on the list 'cause he's a Brit.
xpost on George III, if he hadn't pissed off so many people (via his government obv.) there would even be an America...

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Thursday, 30 November 2006 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Walt Disney is more influential in US history than all women.

This may sadly be true, tho.

Well, it depends on who's defining influential, no?

― Lance Rock (pullapartgirl), Thursday, 30 November 2006 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess Dubya's "influence" can't yet be judged, but as the nation may never recover from his reign he should be in the top ten by 2020.

The accompanying article more or less ends on this point. but i think they put the date at 2050.....

― grady (grady), Thursday, 30 November 2006 19:07 (seventeen years ago) link

paul revere

Paul Revere should be #1 on this list, and Paul Revere and the Raiders should be #1 on the music list, and then RL Stevenson who wrote "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" should top the authors list. Let's revere him!

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 30 November 2006 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.