The Most Influential Americans - 100
100 :: Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Moby Dick was a flop at the time, but Melville is remembered as the American Shakespeare. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 99
99 :: Richard Nixon (1913-1994)
He broke the New Deal majority, and then broke his presidency on a scandal that still haunts America. (LC-USZ62-13037)
The Most Influential Americans - 98
98 :: Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
As an educator and a champion of self-help, he tried to lead black America up from slavery. (LC-USZ62-49568)
The Most Influential Americans - 97
97 :: Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
America’s first great songwriter, he brought us “O! Susanna” and “My Old Kentucky Home.” (Bettmann/CORBIS)
The Most InfluentiaL Americans - 96
96 :: Ralph Nader (1934- )
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 95
95 :: Sam Goldwyn (1879-1974)
A producer for forty years, he was the first great Hollywood mogul. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 94
94 :: George Eastman (1854-1932)
The founder of Kodak democratized photography with his handy rolls of film. (George Grantham Bain Collection, LC-DIG-GGBAIN-29290)
The Most Influential Americans - 93
93 :: Nat Turner (1800-1831)
He was the most successful rebel slave; his specter would stalk the white South for a century. (Wikimedia Commons )
The Most Influential Americans - 92
92 :: John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
As the creator of Tom Joad, he chronicled Depression-era misery. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 91
91 :: Lyman Beecher
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s clergyman father earned fame as an abolitionist and an evangelist. (LC-USZ62-109964)
The Most Influential Americans - 90
90 :: Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Forget the fire and brimstone: his subtle eloquence made him the country’s most influential theologian. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 89
89 :: Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)
The last man who could swing an election with a newspaper column. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 88
88 :: Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)
A giant of physics, he helped develop quantum theory and was instrumental in building the atomic bomb. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 87
87 :: Benjamin Spock (1903-1998)
With a single book—and a singular approach—he changed American parenting. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 86
86 :: Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910)
She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised spiritual healing to all. (LC-USZ61-215)
The Most Influential Americans - 85
85 :: Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo a cliché. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 84
84 :: Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, he was the legal architect of the civil-rights revolution. (U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, LC-U9-1027B-11)
The Most Influential Americans - 83
83 :: James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of the frontier. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 82
82 :: George Gallup (1901-1984)
He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 81
81 :: Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
With Coming of Age in Samoa, she made anthropology relevant—and controversial. (New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, LC-USZ62-120226)
The Most Influential Americans - 80
80 :: William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the Spanish-American War. (J.E. Purdy/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 79
79 :: Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to Broadway, television, and beyond. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 78
78 :: John Brown (1800-1859)
Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the Civil War. (LC-USZ62-2472)
The Most Influential Americans - 77
77 :: Betty Friedan (1921-2006)
She spoke to the discontent of housewives everywhere—and inspired a revolution in gender roles. (New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, LC-USZ62-115884)
The Most Influential Americans - 76
76 :: Frank Lloyd Wright (1967-1959)
America’s most significant architect, he was the archetype of the visionary artist at odds with capitalism. (LC-USZ62-36384)
The Most Influential Americans - 75
75 :: George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895-1948)
He saved the national pastime in the wake of the Black Sox scandal—and permanently linked sports and celebrity. (LC-DIG-GGBAIN-32385)
The Most Influential Americans - 74
74 :: Brigham Young (1801-1877)
What Joseph Smith founded, Young preserved, leading the Mormons to their promised land. (Brady-Handy Collection, LC-DIG-CWPBH-01671 )
The Most Influential Americans - 73
73 :: Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884)
His mechanical reaper spelled the end of traditional farming, and the beginning of industrial agriculture. (Fine Print Collection, LC-USZ62-27710)
The Most Influential Americans - 72
72 :: Sam Walton (1918-1992)
He promised us “Every Day Low Prices,” and we took him up on the offer (Louie Psihoyos/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 71
71 :: Noah Webster (1758-1843)
He didn’t create American English, but his dictionary defined it. (LC-USZ62-78299)
The Most Influential Americans - 70
70 :: Lewis and Clark (1774-1809; 1770-1838))
They went west to explore, and millions followed in their wake. (LC-USZ62-20214/Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 69
69 :: James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872)
As the founding publisher of The New York Herald, he invented the modern American newspaper. (LC-USZC4-4150)
The Most Influential Americans - 68
68 :: James D. Watson (1928- )
He codiscovered DNA’s double helix, revealing the code of life to scientists and entrepreneurs alike. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 68
68 :: James D. Watson (1928- )
He codiscovered DNA’s double helix, revealing the code of life to scientists and entrepreneurs alike. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 66
66 :: Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
The king of rock and roll. Enough said. (John Springer Collection/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 65
65 :: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
The original American dropout, he has inspired seekers of authenticity for 150 years. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 64
64 :: Jane Addams (1860-1935)
The founder of Hull House, she became the secular saint of social work. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 63
63 :: George Marshall (1880-1959)
As a general, he organized the American effort in World War II; as a statesman, he rebuilt Western Europe. (Library of Congress, Division, Overseas Picture Division, Office of War Information)
The Most Influential Americans - 62
62 :: William James (1842-1910)
The mind behind Pragmatism, America’s most important philosophical school. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 61
61 :: Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)
The country’s greatest labor organizer, he made the golden age of unions possible. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 60
60 :: William Faulkner (1897-19620
The most gifted chronicler of America’s tormented and fascinating South. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 59
59 :: Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)
The father of architectural modernism, he shaped the defining American building: the skyscraper. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 58
58 :: John C. Calhoun (1782-1850)
The voice of the antebellum South, he was slavery’s most ardent defender. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 57
57 :: Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)
He was a good general but a better symbol, embodying conciliation in defeat. (Library of Congress, Selected Civil War Photographs )
The Most Influential Americans - 56
56 :: Horace Mann (1796-1859)
His tireless advocacy of universal public schooling earned him the title “The Father of American Education.” (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 55
55 :: John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)
The Monroe Doctrine’s real author, he set nineteenth-century America’s diplomatic course. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 54
54 :: Bill Gates (1955- )
The Rockefeller of the Information Age, in business and philanthropy alike. (Microsoft )
The Most Influential Americans - 53
53 :: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1831-1935)
Known as “The Great Dissenter,” he wrote Supreme Court opinions that continue to shape American jurisprudence. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 52
52 :: Joseph Smith (1805-1844)
The founder of Mormonism, America’s most famous homegrown faith. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 51
51 :: Margaret Sanger (1879-1966)
The ardent champion of birth control—and of the sexual freedom that came with it. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 50
50 :: James K. Polk (1795-1849)
This one-term president’s Mexican War landgrab gave us California, Texas, and the Southwest. (Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Collection)
The Most Influential Americans - 49
49 :: Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)
The genius behind New York’s Central Park, he inspired the greening of America’s cities. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 48
48 :: Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)
The father of the atomic bomb and the regretful midwife of the nuclear era. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 47
47 :: Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
After escaping from slavery, he pricked the nation’s conscience with an eloquent accounting of its crimes. (Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, LC-DIG-CWPBH-05089)
The Most Influential Americans - 46
46 :: William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)
Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he became the voice of abolition. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 45
45 :: Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872)
Before the Internet, there was Morse code. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 44
44 :: Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)
His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us Vietnam. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 43
43 :: W. E. B. DuBois (1888-1963)
One of America’s great intellectuals, he made the “problem of the color line” his life’s work. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 42
42 :: Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
She used the first lady’s office and the mass media to become “first lady of the world.” (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 41
41 :: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin inspired a generation of abolitionists and set the stage for civil war. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 40
40 :: John Dewey (1859-1952)
He sought to make the public school a training ground for democratic life. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 39
39 :: Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
The author of Silent Spring was godmother to the environmental movement. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 38
38 :: Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
She was the country’s most eloquent voice for women’s equality under the law. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
37 :: J. P. Morgan (1837-1913)
The great financier and banker was the prototype for all the Wall Street barons who followed. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 36
36 :: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)
“The Great Commoner” lost three presidential elections, but his populism transformed the country. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photograph Division)
The Most Influential Americans - 35
35 :: Jackie Robinson (1919-1972)
He broke baseball’s color barrier and embodied integration’s promise. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
The Most Influential Americans - 34
34 :: Jonas Salk (1914-1995)
His vaccine for polio eradicated one of the world’s worst plagues. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 33
33 :: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
The bard of individualism, he relied on himself—and told us all to do the same. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 32
32 :: Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
His greatest scientific work was done in Europe, but his humanity earned him undying fame in America. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 31
31 :: Henry Clay (1777-1852)
One of America’s greatest legislators and orators, he forged compromises that held off civil war for decades. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 30
30 :: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)
One of the first great American feminists, she fought for social reform and women’s right to vote. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 29
29 :: Earl Warren (1891-1974)
His Supreme Court transformed American society and bequeathed to us the culture wars. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 28
28 :: Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969)
He won a war and two elections, and made everybody like Ike. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 27
27 :: Eli Whitney (1765-1825)
His gin made cotton king and sustained an empire for slavery. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 26
26 :: Walt Disney (1901-1966)
The quintessential entertainer-entrepreneur, he wielded unmatched influence over our childhood. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 25
25 :: John Adams (1735-1826)
His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to republicanism made it succeed. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 24
24 :: Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
By inventing the telephone, he opened the age of telecommunications and shrank the world. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 23
23 :: Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912)
They got us all off the ground. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 22
22 :: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
He sang of America and shaped the country’s conception of itself. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 21
21 :: Harry Truman (1884-1972)
An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic Age and then the Cold War. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 20
20 :: Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
The original self-made man forged America’s industrial might and became one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 19
19 :: Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
The voice of the American Revolution, and our first great radical. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 18
18 :: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)
The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a democracy. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 17
17 :: Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the Cold War’s end. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 16
16 :: Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Author of our national epic, he was the most unsentimental observer of our national life. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 15
15 :: Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1915)
Whether busting trusts or building canals, he embodied the “strenuous life” and blazed a trail for twentieth-century America. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 14
14 :: Henry Ford (1863-1947)
He gave us the assembly line and the Model T, and sparked America’s love affair with the automobile. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 12
12 :: Ulysses S. Grant (1882-1885)
He was a poor president, but he was the general Lincoln needed; he also wrote the greatest political memoir in American history. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 11
11 :: John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)
The man behind Standard Oil set the mold for our tycoons—first by making money, then by giving it away.
The Most Influential Americans - 10
10 :: Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 09
9 :: Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 08
8 :: Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 07
7 :: John Marshall (1755-1835)
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 06
6 :: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 05
5 :: Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804)
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 04
4 :: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 03
3 :: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.” (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 02
2 :: George Washington (1732-1799)
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Most Influential Americans - 01
1 :: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding. (Wikimedia Commons)
