<p>for AP US History, i have to read a scholarly biography (not memoirs, not autobiography) and do a research paper. </p>
<p>now, who is the most influential american in history? one that ultimately affected the fate of the U.S. with lasting legacy? (with more emphasis on 1850s to present, so no good old washington)</p>
<p>oh yeah, it would help if you could suggest a best scholarly biography of this person</p>
<p>Thomas A. Edison</p>
<p>Research that which is interesting to you.</p>
<p>I think that the natural reaction is to name politicians; however, consider that American history has been influenced by so much more than that. Narrow the question a bit: “Who is the most influential American scientist? Entrepreneur? Sociologist? Musician?” Argue from there that the person is extremely influential - “most influential” is subjective enough to allow you to do this.</p>
<p>So consider not just Truman or FDR or Lincoln. Consider Chuck Yeager, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, Clarence Darrow, Waston/Crick, Armstrong, Salk. Consider immigrants - Einstein, arguably, both made the Manhatten Project possible, helped us to win WWII, and triggered an influx of brainpower into the US. Our dominance then came to be in exporting intelligence.</p>
<p>Think outside the box. Lincoln was extremely influential - imagine if the US were bifurcated? Use that and then think - what about Johnson? Could Reconstruction have worked in a way that integrated the South into the country?</p>
<p>What about Supreme Court justices? Consider that an opposite ruling could have caused a massive change in the way that our country is run. (This might involve finding out who has built a consensus on the Court.) If you pick a President, you could also do a section on who he nominated for the courts (either Supreme or those who he put on the district court/appeals court who later went onto the Supreme Court).</p>
<p>Presidents: Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Nixon. I’m leaving off Reagan becuase I’m not sure there are enough bios out there to choose from just yet.</p>
<p>Ohters: Edison, KIng, Lindberg, Carneigie, Rockefeller (JD)</p>
<p>pick a woman</p>
<p>Eleanor Roosevelt</p>
<p>UN, coalmines, World War 2, women, the poor, etc</p>
<p>Perhaps not most influential, but certainly more interesting than average - George Washington Carver, John Wilkes Booth (how would America be different if Lincoln had survived?), Teddy Roosevelt, Salk, Muir, William Osler (not American for long, but changed the face of American medicine and made it the scientific powerhouse it is today), Clara Barton, Alexander Graham Bell, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson (back a little further than 1850), Helen Keller, George Marshall</p>
<p>Pick one of the main authors of the Constitution, e.g., Jefferson. Anybody disagree with me?</p>
<p>Sandra Day O’Connor. NOT because she’s a woman but because she was the political “middle” of the court for decades – the swing vote on many crucial decisions – and therefore arguably the most powerful person in the country except for the President.</p>
<p>“Pick one of the main authors of the Constitution, e.g., Jefferson. Anybody disagree with me?”</p>
<p>I do. Thomas Paine.</p>
<p>Post 1850, it was probably Teddy Roosevelt. Both the corporate state and America’s imperial adventures receiving such massive boosts from him, it is hard to imagine what the U.S. would look like without him.</p>
<p>National parks, too! ;)</p>
<p>
Jefferson wasn’t a main author of the Constitution. He wasn’t even a signer.</p>
<p>Well, if the assignment is to focus on 1850 onwards, the Constitution should be out of it.</p>
<p>What about authors? Thoreau? Emerson? Mark Twain? Steinbeck? Hemingway? F. Scott Fitzgerald?</p>
<p>I like the idea of John Wilkes Booth.</p>
<p>A good case could be made for John Brown.</p>
<p>There is an excellent new scholarly biography:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375411887/sr=8-1/qid=1151443209/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8982075-9041533?ie=UTF8[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375411887/sr=8-1/qid=1151443209/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8982075-9041533?ie=UTF8</a></p>
<p>What’s best about it is that the book places John Brown within U.S. cultural and social history.</p>
<p>
Perhaps, but more apropos fans of the French Revolution and style of governance by guillotine, than the American governance by compromise. Sad that he couldn’t speak French–being elected to the French National Convention he would have most certainly fit right in. </p>
<p>Sadly, Ole’ Tom just wasn’t much for the due process of law not unlike Che, Trotsky and Robespierre: rock ‘n’ rollers one and all. Adams despised him.</p>
<p>Defining Americanism for generations to come–in literature–Emerson stands head and shoulders above all!</p>
<p>Agreed!</p>
<p>Yup. And the American Revolution wouldn’t have happened without him. More copies of “Common Sense” distributed and read during the Revolutionary period than the Bible (by far).</p>
<p>He thought the Hobbesian compromises of the Constitution to be a travesty (but then, so did Patrick Henry) - the changes in intellectual currency in the U.S. radically changed between 1776 and 1789, much of it because the two-thirds of the white population that didn’t support the Revolution had to be accommodated, and the slaves knew that the forces of liberty had lost (though not before more than 10,000 of them escaped to Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago rather than live under a Constitution that “guaranteed their freedoms”).</p>
<p>Glad you agree!</p>
<p>Today, more people own copies of People Magazine than the Constitution. Imagine.</p>
<p>Not only that, but many of the owners of People Magazine are strict constructionists. ;)</p>
<p>I doubt that Paris Hilton could have happened without it.</p>
<p>She needs to be seen out ‘n’ about in a “Che Guevara-tee” to really “happen”, as you say; theTom Paine-tee is so old school;)</p>
<p>–really mini, T.P is not HOT!</p>
<p>Time magazine has a whole special edition on Teddy Roosevelt.</p>