100 Most Influential Figures in U.S. History

Do you actually believe that? Ronald Reagan was an actor and then a corporate spokesman before getting into politics. He was good at *acting* like a strong and competent and in-control leader... that's what he trained to do... but Wall Street had him on a very short leash.

and I am not disputing that the Bushes and Clintons were also very Wall St friendly but they just continued the dismantling of Theodore Roosevelt's legacy that Reagan started.

I'm not being partisan. You are. Which is why you feel that I am being partisan. If realistic fact-based statements about a person or someone who belongs to a specific political party makes you feel defensive... you might be a partisan.

Kennedy was a much better president than Reagan. Reagan didn't save us from anything. His policies were mostly about helping the wealthy and deregulating corporations and banks - policies which led to multiple economic recessions in the short term and contributed to near economic collapse in the long term. He also helped lay the groundwork for the infusion of corporate money into American politics and the increased partisanship of American media. Reagan did not make the United States a Republic, that has nothing to do with what I was talking about, but he very much weakened the wall between oligarchs and the levers of power that had been erected in previous decades. That weakening has led to an America where Congressmen and presidents are so shamelessly corrupt and self-serving, and an electorate is so ignorant and misled that they don't know or care, that it's hard to imagine the democratic institutions of the country surviving much longer without a sharp course correction.

I've talked to many people from Eastern Europe. Some of them are fans of Reagan. Some aren't.

No, he didn't. Gorbachev did. Reagan flourished in the Cold War environment, he would've loved for it to be going on forever. The CW was not about winnig or losing, it was about continuing, mantaining the balance that kept both systems alive. The USSR did it (mainly) by crushing peoples revolutions in Eastern Europe, the USA did it (mainly) crushing governments elected by people in South America. Reagan did nothing to end those ways. Gorbachev stopped it and brought the system down. That's it. And BTW, "asking Eastern Europe peoples" about it doesn't mean much: in Poland they credit only the Pope, in Eastern Germany they regretted everything after one year, in Russia they basically elected a former KGB man as their emperor for life.

I traveled and lived in Eastern Europe in 1991 to 1992. Not everybody was happy with the changes. Most people there attributed the changes to internal politicians -- Yeltsin, Gorbachev, Walesa, Havel, Dubucek, etc. The Poles gave the Pope some credit but that's it. The claim that Reagan ended the cold war is a Republican myth. The political orientation of many of the above leaders would be considered leftist by American standards and they had no intention of selling out to western corporate elites in the same manner as American politicians.

That was the popular Western narrative thought up in the 90s, but it really doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

No it isn't.

You wouldn't expect many Africans to show up in a "100 most influential people in Chinese history" would you?

Africans in China are a vanishingly small percentage of the population. Racial or ethnic minorities in the United States are at least one third of the population. Are you honestly comparing the two?

I tried Harriet Tubman as well, and Clara Barton.

It doesn't matter what race or gender the people are, it's how they influenced the United States.

Louis Armstrong was hugely influential on music the world over.

Right, but if it said "Dewey Decimal System" it would have kind of given it away.

Really?

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scotsman.

Even said so himself.

and George Washington was an Englishman. What's your point? Having one nationality or one ethnic heritage does not preclude having a second.

I suspect being 'Chief Electrician' of the Bell Telephone Company it would be easier if he became a US citizen.

For most rational people, Einstein will always be German, Rupert Murdoch will always be Australian, and Jim Carrey will always be Canadian.

While it makes more sense to become a citizen of the country your main business is based in (Bell, Murdoch etc), it does not alter your place of birth and upbringing which correctly defines your nationality.

So "rational" people are oblivious to facts and reality? Nationality definition 1: citizenship. Definition 2: ethnicity, if you believe in the concept of nation states. You are skipping over the first and primary definition, and also demeaning the struggles many went through to attain citizenship in a place they chose to call home.

@Bonzo, so the correct definition of nationality is where you were born and brought up - what if those are different places? Einstein was never a citizen of Germany because German citizenship didn't exist at that point - you had to be a citizen of a German kingdom. Einstein sometimes described himself as Swiss, and didn't agree with the concept of nationalism. He changed nationality six times. It makes sense to describe Einstein as any of the following: German, Swiss, American, Austro-Hungarian, subject of the Kingdom of Prussia, citizen of the Free State of Prussia, subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg, stateless, or of multiple nationalities. There are rational arguments for any of these, though some make more sense than others.

Have you forgotten something? This quiz is about INFLUENTIAL people in American history, not American influential people. If someone not from the USA does something revolutionary to the USA, they would probably come on this list.

That didn't stop Einstein or Alexander Graham Bell. Not that Einstein was British, but you get what I mean.

They were both American.

@kal Crick was British. @Possums Einstein and Bell gained U.S. citizenship later in their lives.

@JackintheBox kal was talking about Einstein and Bell. Not Crick.

@Jack, yes that's right. Thanks. @Jack I know Crick retained his British citizenship, even though he died in San Diego where he worked.

Bell and Einstein were both naturalized American citizens.

In the case of Bell, in 1882 he gave up his British citizenship and became American. He was 35 years old.

@divantilya Well, JFK successfully backed the US and Soviet Union down from the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so there's that.

Lewis and Clark's guide.