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Article: American idols: who are the most influential, figures in American history? Ten historians came up with a 'Top 100.' Now, you get to decide ...
- Article from:
- New York Times Upfront
- Article date:
- May 7, 2007
- Author:
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Last year, The Atlantic magazine worked with 10 prominent historians to come up with a list of the 100 most influential Americans, past and present, with "influence" defined as "a person's impact, for good or for ill, both on his or her own era, and on the way we live now."
The results are inevitably unscientific, since whittling down all the influential Americans of the last few centuries to just 100 names, let alone ranking them, isn't easy.
The list suggests that white Protestant men have been the most influential, at least in the eyes of these historians. There are 10 women on the list, eight blacks, a few Catholics and Jews, and no Hispanics, ...