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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 Excerpt
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, Asians, or Native Americans.

Of course this list, or any such list, is far from definitive. But it does offer a good takeoff place for discussion, starting with who's not on the list that you think deserves to be, and who's on the list that you think shouldn't be.

Let the debate begin. (And see if you can identify the people in the pictures; answers are at the bottom of p. 30.)

1 Abraham Lincoln

As President (1861-65), he saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's second founding.

2 George Washington

The first President (1789-97) made the United States possible--by defeating a king, and by declining to become one himself.

3 Thomas Jefferson

Third President (1801-09) and the author of the five most important words in American history: "All men are created equal."

4 Franklin D. Roosevelt

President (1933-45) during the Depression and World War II. He said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then proved it.

5 Alexander Hamilton

Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation's transformation into an industrial power.

6 Benjamin Franklin

The Founder-of-all-trades: diplomat, scientist, printer, writer, inventor, and more.

7 John Marshall

The defining Chief Justice (1801-35), 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 A. Edison

It wasn't just the light bulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park (N.J.) was the most prolific inventor in U.S. history.

10 Woodrow Wilson

This President (1913-21) 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 America tycoons first by making money, and then by giving it away.

12 Ulysses S. Grant

A poor...