Hi Neo! An alternative list -- no rules (help me on this point, Joan). A century wouldn't be a century without bad as well as good.
A few notes:
This list is about world-wide influence in the 20th century.
I have tried to avoid those terribly important one-shot guys
and people who just happened to be staring at the camera when the lens cover was off. For example: IMO, the Wright Bros. and Lucky Lindy didn't do anything someone else wouldn't have done pretty soon. In the same spirit, I have left off numerous military figures unless their contribution went beyond the battlefield. Also, as our world has become more complex it has become more collaborative -- hard to give ONE person credit for the computing power at my fingertips -- hard to point at one guy who did most of the heavy lifting for space programs.
I have deliberately left off people like Thatcher and Kohl. IMO, they were role players. Very good, but, no more deserving than other supporting luminaries from less personally familiar decades.
I left off DeGaulle because I have always been personally annoyed by him. In fact, the 20th has been kind of an "off" century for the French, if you ask me. Credit them for great wine, cheese and some of the most charming women in the world -- then again, credit California for the same (once led by the great Ronald Reagan!).
And, for you, Joan: I have left off Soviet counterparts to a number of Americans. Strictly ignorance on my part. Please add as you see fit. Don't go putting no interesting "exotics" near my list, though :-)
I have excluded entertainment figures almost entirely. There are only 42 spots on my list, so, if any want to add their favorite director, writer, actor, musician, there is plenty of room.
I suspect most will readily agree with half or more of my truncated top 100. The problem with a top 100 list is that after about the first 20, it becomes more an issue of who can't be left off v. who must be included. Once we get into areas of personal taste and significance, I'm going to have a hard time not sliding in my sweetie's name along with contact information and a promo for our travel service :-)
Although my list contains no numbers, it may be considered a loose ranking. References available on request, of course.
Lenin
Hitler
FDR
Stalin
Mao
Churchill
Eisenhower
Reagan
Gorbachev
MacArthur
Zhukov
LeMay
Balfour
Himmler
Flemming
Henry Ford
John XXIII
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hirihito
Marshall
John Foster Dulles
Allen Dulles
Nasser
David Sarnoff
Ho Chi Minh
John Paul II
LBJ
JFK
Beatles
Franco
Ataturk
Nehru
Castro
Ayatollah Khomeini
Teddy Roosevelt
Betty Friedan
Nixon
Brezhnev
Walt Disney
Kissinger
Walesa
Hugh Hefner
etc.
etc.
etc. |
