Blog Catalog Discussion: Who's your favourite from history?

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:47:49 -0500

Reagan was awesome for the moment, but not the greatest in history. Gorbachev is above Reagan.

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:46:49 -0500

oy to the Scots! :-)

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:46:07 -0500

John Lennon is a great choice. All we are saying is give peace a chance.

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:45:34 -0500

Marx's analysis of how society works is awesome... Marx got a bad name in the US as a result of the commie scare of the cold war. Too bad. Now we are stuck with dorks like Alan Greenspan to tell us how the economy works.

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:43:38 -0500

He must have been those things, or you would not make the accusation.

Still, good call standing up to the Roman Catholic Church.

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:42:44 -0500

good call.. common people doing the right thing...

misterDog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

misterDog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:38:28 -0500

Hard to pick one, but I will go with Queen Elizabeth or Frederick Douglass, or... Spartacus, the slave who raised an army against Rome. Winston Churchill is pretty awesome. Abraham Lincoln is special too.

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:36:07 -0500

I'd be more interested in your views as a historian. Extremist I may be but dupe I'm not.

Turmoyle on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Turmoyle — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:12:34 -0500

Comicus...he was the best stand-up philosopher...

myriadlife on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

myriadlife — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:56:03 -0500

Robert the Bruce - he is our ancestor and Bruce is still in the family name - well for the boys anyway.

markstoneman on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

markstoneman — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:08:36 -0500

@Daniel: Where do I begin with all your remarks above? You're actually funny in your extremism, so I'll let it slide.

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:05:36 -0500

Gandhi was a wife-beating, reactionary, intolerant moron. No offense.

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:04:37 -0500

you're fcuking kidding, right? Hitler had great leadership abilities.

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:04:05 -0500

murdering, inept, reactionary tosser...

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:03:36 -0500

racist, dictatorial...

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:02:17 -0500

you mean the vicious anti-Semite genocidal ruling class lackey?

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:01:23 -0500

noooo....

daniel23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

daniel23 — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:01:06 -0500

Harry Roberts

lordiwanttobewhole on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

lordiwanttobewhole — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:56:48 -0500

John Lennon

witewood on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

witewood — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:49:09 -0500

Agustin Barrios Mangore...First guitarist to make recordings!

kinsey88 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

kinsey88 — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:14:28 -0500

Father Junipero Serra because he had a special relationship with all animals.

OzScot on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

OzScot — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:07:39 -0500

William Wallace and Karl Marx.

Ben

cranelegs on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

cranelegs — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:05:53 -0500

i guess this is one of those questions when we get to show off our intellect. so i'm thinking it's the person who thought that steamin' clams was a worthwhile endeavor, and then i'd have to say that jesus fellow (even though i'm an atheist by nature).

wehireu on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

wehireu — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:56:11 -0500

I would like to meet Suetonius for a few minutes.

vfanblog on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

vfanblog — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:48:46 -0500

Martin Luther

davet on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

davet — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:27:54 -0500

Reagan - may not have been the sharpest president, but he was exactly what we needed following the peanut farmer.

stilesjp on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

stilesjp — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:28:20 -0500

MLK, RFK, Dahlia Lama, Ben Franklin, N.C. Wyeth, Wyatt Earp, Bram Stoker, Philip K. Dick, Mark Twain, Howard Hughes, Jeremiah Springfield.

Too many things to list about what they accomplished, but none of them gave up. Except Jeremiah... maybe?

Anniepooh on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Anniepooh — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:08:04 -0500

'Tis true! LOL

Anniepooh on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Anniepooh — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:07:51 -0500

MFK Fisher, Auguste Escoffier, Alice B. Toklas or Albert Einstein.

Norski on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Norski — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:37:19 -0500

One more: we don't know who this person was, but we all owe a great deal to whoever invented string.

Norski on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Norski — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:35:20 -0500

With several millennia to choose from, it's hard to pick just one person.

However, Olga, regent of the Rus in Kiev, is one of the people in history for whom I have a great deal of respect.

Following the death of her husband, she ruled the Rus as regent until her son came of age. This was around the mid-900s. During her term in office, as I recall, she demonstrated significant diplomatic and administrative skill, apparently with the intention of turning over a relatively strong and stable land of the Rus to her son.

Which she did, stepping down from power when her son reached the age at which he could, legally and reasonably, take charge.

This dedication to a cause larger than oneself is, in my opinion, a very admirable trait.

I'll grant that some of her alleged actions would cause comment today. Now, a thousand years after her regency, it's considered bad form to avenge your father's killers by giving them a ship burial: while they're still alive.

However, she also made (if my memory serves) significant reforms in the tax system ('tribute' on those days), and was successful in diplomatic dealings with Byzantium - that last took some doing.

carlgalloway on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

carlgalloway — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:25:43 -0500

Michaelangelo, Plato, Buddha

Norski on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Norski — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:18:58 -0500

markstoneman,

I'll have a shot at answering your question, just the same.

Although I deplore and abhor Chancellor Hitler's policies and philosophy, I do recognize that he was one of the great orators of the 20th century.

Hitler may have had natural abilities of self-expression, but I believe that a great deal of his success came from a serious and professional study of motion picture recordings of his speeches. I have read (sorry, can't find the source now, some 30 years later) that Hitler would carefully study techniques he used, and their effect on the audience.

It was by this sort of analytic, professional, application that he developed the characteristic rhythm and dynamics of his oratory.

In my opinion, Hitler's ability to engage large numbers of people on an emotional level was a key part of his rise to prominence.

Just in case someone started reading this in the middle: Even though I acknowledge Hitler's abilities, I do not, and can not, approve or condone his policies, or the system of belief which lay beneath them.

witewood on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

witewood — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:59:18 -0500

It can only come from people who were not around at the time to experience his paranoid madness.

RTBjr73 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

RTBjr73 — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:34:03 -0500

People like Rosa Parks. If it wasn't for people like her, I being white, probably would not have met some of my very close friends, who are black.

Shiley on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Shiley — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:30:31 -0500

Lucy. I know, who is Lucy? Up until recently Lucy was the first known human remains and she resides in the Cleveland Natural History Museum. As a child I visited her often.

AmyOops on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

AmyOops — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:17:46 -0500

john lennon

stockhola on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

stockhola — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:14:02 -0500

Winston Churchill - History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Historianlover on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

Historianlover — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:12:37 -0500

Abraham Lincoln. For only having about 1 year of actual schooling in his life, He wrote some of the most memorable speeches in history. He taught himself and aspired to be more than just a railsplitter.

clairec23 on 'Who's your favourite from history?'

clairec23 — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:01:52 -0500

This is a hard question - shame on anyone who said hitler...

I'm probably going to think of more later, but I've always admired James Connolly and Martin Luther King. They both believed in a better way of living and took chances to make their cause be heard. Somebody said Charlotte Bronte, I have to agree with that too although for different reasons than my first two choices.