According to The Atlantic Monthly, these are the most influential people in American history. With apologies to currently influential people, time is the best judge of long-term impact, and each of these individuals has met that test. They are:
- Abraham Lincoln – He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.
- George Washington – He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.
- Thomas Jefferson – The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt – He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.
- Alexander Hamilton – Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power.
- Benjamin Franklin – The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
- John Marshall – The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches.
- Martin Luther King Jr. – His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.
- Thomas Edison – It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.
- Woodrow Wilson – He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy
