秋瑟潺湲
風過瑟鳴，漫彈人生；時光河畔，流水潺湲；爐圍灶旁，我煮沉浮；原創到底，勤寫廣讀；博客精神，佳文美圖。
The Top 100 by The Atlantic
The most influential figures in American history.
1 Abraham Lincoln
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.
2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.
3 Thomas Jefferson
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”
4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.
5 Alexander Hamilton
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power. 你信不信此人是詩壇情種徐誌摩早年的偶像之一，徐的劍橋歲月前有一段美國留學生活學習政治經濟，就是想成為中國的漢彌爾頓。
6 Benjamin Franklin
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
7 John Marshall
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches.
8 
Martin Luther King Jr.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.
9 Thomas Edison
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.
10 Woodrow Wilson (美國第28任總統，居然不知道）
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
11 John D. Rockefeller
The man behind Standard Oil set the mold for our tycoons—first by making money, then by giving it away.
12 Ulysses S. Grant (18任總統，最近頗受學界關注，特別是他對黑人民權的態度）
He was a poor president, but he was the general Lincoln needed; he also wrote the greatest political memoir in American history.
13 James Madison
He fathered the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights.
14 Henry Ford
He gave us the assembly line and the Model T, and sparked America’s love affair with the automobile.
15 Theodore Roosevelt
Whether busting trusts or building canals, he embodied the “strenuous life” and blazed a trail for twentieth-century America.
16 Mark Twain
Author of our national epic, he was the most unsentimental observer of our national life.
17 Ronald Reagan
The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the Cold War’s end.
18 Andrew Jackson
The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a democracy.
19 Thomas Paine
The voice of the American Revolution, and our first great radical.
20 Andrew Carnegie
The original self-made man forged America’s industrial might and became one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists.
21 Harry Truman
An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic Age and then the Cold War.
22 Walt Whitman
He sang of America and shaped the country’s conception of itself.
23 Wright Brothers
They got us all off the ground.
24 Alexander Graham Bell
By inventing the telephone, he opened the age of telecommunications and shrank the world.
25 John Adams
His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to republicanism made it succeed.
26 Walt Disney
The quintessential entertainer-entrepreneur, he wielded unmatched influence over our childhood.
27 Eli Whitney（所謂的軋棉機的發明者）
His gin made cotton king and sustained an empire for slavery.
28 Dwight Eisenhower
He won a war and two elections, and made everybody like Ike.
29 Earl Warren (1953年-1969年在位的大法官)
His Supreme Court transformed American society and bequeathed to us the culture wars.
30 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (美國早期婦女運動先驅)
One of the first great American feminists, she fought for social reform and women’s right to vote.
31 Henry Clay (內戰前辯才卓越的美國參議員, 被JKF認為是美國曆史上最出色的五位參議員之一)
One of America’s greatest legislators and orators, he forged compromises that held off civil war for decades.
32 Albert Einstein
His greatest scientific work was done in Europe, but his humanity earned him undying fame in America.
33 Ralph Waldo Emerson
The bard of individualism, he relied on himself—and told us all to do the same. 他可是Transcendentalism的鼻祖哦。
34 Jonas Salk (小兒麻痹疫苗的最早發明者）
His vaccine for polio eradicated one of the world’s worst plagues.
35 Jackie Robinson （第一位黑人棒球明星）
He broke baseball’s color barrier and embodied integration’s promise.
36 William Jennings Bryan (20世紀初著名政治運動家，反達爾文主義頭頭)
“The Great Commoner” lost three presidential elections, but his populism transformed the country.
37 J. P. Morgan
The great financier and banker was the prototype for all the Wall Street barons who followed.
38 Susan B. Anthony (早在1872年帶領一群婦女參加總統競選投票，遭到起訴）
She was the country’s most eloquent voice for women’s equality under the law.
39 Rachel Carson （海洋生物學家，以著作《寂靜的春天》開啟了環保事業）
The author of Silent Spring was godmother to the environmental movement.
40 John Dewey
He sought to make the public school a training ground for democratic life. 著名哲學家、教育家，實用主義的開山大師，胡適的老師，八卦一下，這位老師搶走了和胡適搞曖昧異國戀的Roberta.Lowitze。
41 Harriet Beecher Stowe
Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin inspired a generation of abolitionists and set the stage for civil war.
42 Eleanor Roosevelt
She used the first lady’s office and the mass media to become “first lady of the world.”
43 W. E. B. DuBois
One of America’s great intellectuals, he made the “problem of the color line” his life’s work.
44 Lyndon Baines Johnson
His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us Vietnam. JFK遇刺後就是他上台了，於是將美國拖入越戰泥潭。
45 Samuel F. B. Morse
Before the Internet, there was Morse code.
46 William Lloyd Garrison (費奴主義先行者）
Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he became the voice of abolition.
47 Frederick Douglass
After escaping from slavery, he pricked the nation’s conscience with an eloquent accounting of its crimes. 凡是考過GRE的人備考士都讀過關於他的文章，還記得嗎？
48 Robert Oppenheimer
The father of the atomic bomb and the regretful midwife of the nuclear era. 嗬嗬，不知道原子彈之父羅伯特•奧本海默的人不多吧）
49 Frederick Law Olmsted (人人都知道中央公園，就是沒聽說過其設計者）
The genius behind New York’s Central Park, he inspired the greening of America’s cities.
50 James K. Polk (第十一任圈地大總統，大大改變美國版圖)
This one-term president’s Mexican War landgrab gave us California, Texas, and the Southwest.
51 Margaret Sanger (推廣避孕的女戰士）
The ardent champion of birth control—and of the sexual freedom that came with it.
52 Joseph Smith
The founder of Mormonism, America’s most famous homegrown faith. 就是那個妻妾成群的摩門教主，14歲時就有theophany。
53 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Known as “The Great Dissenter,” he wrote Supreme Court opinions that continue to shape American jurisprudence.
54 Bill Gates
The Rockefeller of the Information Age, in business and philanthropy alike.
55 John Quincy Adams
The Monroe Doctrine’s real author, he set nineteenth-century America’s diplomatic course. 提出所謂“門羅主義”，也是美國第一位老子當了總統兒子繼任的兒子總統。
56 Horace Mann
His tireless advocacy of universal public schooling earned him the title “The Father of American Education.” 知道霍桑的人也許聽說過他，這兩人有點關係，他們的老婆是姐妹。
57 Robert E. Lee
He was a good general but a better symbol, embodying conciliation in defeat. 怎麽說南方人還是愛他。
58 John C. Calhoun (內戰前奴隸製的堅強擁護者)
The voice of the antebellum South, he was slavery’s most ardent defender.
59 Louis Sullivan (美國現代建築奠基人，摩天大樓之父)
The father of architectural modernism, he shaped the defining American building: the skyscraper.
60 William Faulkner
The most gifted chronicler of America’s tormented and fascinating South. 南方的大文豪，那部時光錯亂The Sound and THe Fury 開頭讓我讀得頭痛。
61 Samuel Gompers (勞聯之父，和芝加哥勞動節起源事件領導者是一幫的)
The country’s greatest labor organizer, he made the golden age of unions possible.
62 William James
The mind behind Pragmatism, America’s most important philosophical school. 你也許不知道他，但你卻可能知道小他一歲的弟弟Henry James, 美國早期著名作家。
63 George Marshall
As a general, he organized the American effort in World War II; as a statesman, he rebuilt Western Europe.
64 Jane Addams，芝加哥的人一定知道她，那房子據說還鬧鬼，她是美國第一位獲諾貝爾和平獎的女性。
The founder of Hull House, she became the secular saint of social work.
65 Henry David Thoreau
The original American dropout, he has inspired seekers of authenticity for 150 years. 又是先驗主義大師，他筆下的自然是靈性的妙曼的，喜歡他的文字。
66 Elvis Presley
The king of rock and roll. Enough said.
67 P. T. Barnum （十九世紀的馬戲大師）
The circus impresario’s taste for spectacle paved the way for blockbuster movies and reality TV.
68 James D. Watson
He codiscovered DNA’s double helix, revealing the code of life to scientists and entrepreneurs alike. 沒有他發現的DNA雙螺旋結構，很難想象現在的生命科學發展到什麽地步。
69 James Gordon Bennett （他創辦了《紐約先驅論壇報》，《國際先驅論壇報》的前身。
As the founding publisher of The New York Herald, he invented the modern American newspaper.
70 Lewis and Clark （著名遠征探險家，對美國的版圖貢獻巨大）
They went west to explore, and millions followed in their wake.
71 Noah Webster
He didn’t create American English, but his dictionary defined it.
72 Sam Walton
He promised us “Every Day Low Prices,” and we took him up on the offer. 嗬嗬，再讀一遍他的名字，就是Sam's Club和Walmart。
73 Cyrus McCormick (沒有他的收割機就沒有美國農業現代化)
His mechanical reaper spelled the end of traditional farming, and the beginning of industrial agriculture.
74 Brigham Young
What Joseph Smith founded, Young preserved, leading the Mormons to their promised land. 很多人可能不知道聲名赫赫的楊伯翰大學其實最初就是個摩門學院，楊伯翰是Joseph Smith的弟子。
75 George Herman “Babe” Ruth (懂棒球的人都知道，可惜我不懂體育)
He saved the national pastime in the wake of the Black Sox scandal—and permanently linked sports and celebrity.
76 Frank Lloyd Wright
America’s most significant architect, he was the archetype of the visionary artist at odds with capitalism. 二十世紀上半葉著名建築師，最經典的就是那個流水瀑布別墅Fallingwater。
77 Betty Friedan
She spoke to the discontent of housewives everywhere—and inspired a revolution in gender roles. 第二次女性主義浪潮領軍人物，於是家庭主婦數量銳減。
78 John Brown (被實施絞刑的第一個廢奴主義者，比較瘋，所以有人將之比做terrorist
Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the Civil War.
79 Louis Armstrong
His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to Broadway, television, and beyond. 從新奧爾良走出來的爵士音樂家。
80 Willaim Randolph Hearst
The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the Spanish-American War. 愛看時尚雜誌Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Esquire, Harper's BAZZAR的人知不知道創始人是他呢？《公民凱恩》的原型。
81 Margaret Mead
With Coming of Age in Samoa, she made anthropology relevant—and controversial. 不算了解她，但是他的同門師姐的書Zora Neale Hurston全部都讀過了, 她們倆的導師現代人類學之父Franz Boas更牛。
82 George Gallup
He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened. 就是那個蓋洛普調查了。
83 James Fenimore Cooper
The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of the frontier. 美國早期的多產多元作家。
84 Thurgood Marshall
As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of the civil-rights revolution.
85 Ernest Hemingway
His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo a cliché.
86 Mary Baker Eddy (她創建基督教科學，還是《基督教科學箴言報》的創始人。)
She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised spiritual healing to all.
87 Benjamin Spock (他的《育兒寶典》影響了現代美國人的教子觀)
With a single book—and a singular approach—he changed American parenting.
88 Enrico Fermi
A giant of physics, he helped develop quantum theory and was instrumental in building the atomic bomb.
89 Walter Lippmann (二十世紀美國最有影響力的政論家，創辦了New Repulic, )
The last man who could swing an election with a newspaper column.
90 Jonathan Edwards (大覺醒運動的主要領導者之一)
Forget the fire and brimstone: his subtle eloquence made him the country’s most influential theologian.
91 Lyman Beecher
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s clergyman father earned fame as an abolitionist and an evangelist. 你可以不知道他，但你肯定知道他的女兒斯托夫人的《湯姆叔叔的小屋》。
92 John Steinbeck
As the creator of Tom Joad, he chronicled Depression-era misery. 《憤怒的葡萄》《伊甸園之東》《人鼠之間》都值得一讀。
93 Nat Turner
He was the most successful rebel slave; his specter would stalk the white South for a century. 關於他的一本小說獲得1968年普利茨獎。
94 George Eastman
The founder of Kodak democratized photography with his handy rolls of film.
95 Sam Goldwyn
A producer for forty years, he was the first great Hollywood mogul. 最早的好萊塢大佬。
96 Ralph Nader (公民政治運動家，現代消費者運動之父)
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president.
97 Stephen Foster
America’s first great songwriter, he brought us “O! Susanna” and “My Old Kentucky Home.” 因該是美國的王洛賓。
98 Booker T. Washington
As an educator and a champion of self-help, he tried to lead black America up from slavery. 黑人政治家、教育家、作家。
99 Richard Nixon
He broke the New Deal majority, and then broke his presidency on a scandal that still haunts America.
100 Herman Melville
Moby Dick was a flop at the time, but Melville is remembered as the American Shakespeare. 傳奇經曆的草根作家，寫起故事栩栩如生，扣人心弦，美國小孩小時候都讀他。
1 Abraham Lincoln
印地安人有好的，就是死了的印地安人
2 George Washington
印地安人的皮膚可以作成精美的皮靴
3 Thomas Jefferson
所有的印地安人應該死掉