REMARKS: CHOOSING MY '100 MOST SIGNIFICANT AMERICANS'

Earlier this year, after joining a Yahoo club for U.S. history, I selected my version of "The 100 Most Significant Americans," hoping others would join suit. No one did, although one college student posted her first 10, before dropping out. It is a rather daunting task. Still, putting the list together was intriguing.

I opted to break it down by periods. This helped a bit -- and helped to ensure that no one era was under-represented. The periods I chose were Revolutionary/Early Republic, Pre-Civil War, Civil War, Late 19th Century, Early 20th Century, World War II Era and Modern Era.

I chose to title it The 100 Most Significant Americans,"which I guess would be a little different than "100 greatest," "100 most famous," "100 I'd most like to interview," etc. Here are my picks:

Revolutionary/Early Republic (13)

Thomas Payne

Benjaman Franklin

George Washington

Alexander Hamilton

John Marshall

Thomas Jefferson

John Adams

Meriweather Lewis/ William Clark

James Madison

Dolly Madison

James Monroe

Andrew Jackson

Daniel Boone

Originally I had John Jay instead of John Marshall. Jay was the first Chief Justice of the Surpreme Court. After refreshing my memory a bit, though, I had to admit that Marshall had set much more of a precedence than Jay. Most of the others are no-brainers. Dolly Madison makes the list as probably the woman who defined "First Lady," according to our modern day standards. She was also a large reason for taciturn James' political success -- plus her act of bravery in saving George Washington's portrait during the War of 1812 was a plug.

Pre-Civil War Era (11)

Daniel Webster

Noah Webster

Henry Clay

John C. Calhoun

Thomas Hart Benton

Edgar Allen Poe

Nathaniel Hawethorne

Robert Fulton

Samuel F.B. Morse

Matthew Brady

Eli Whitney

What a time for statesmen and inventors! The size of the earth was rapidly shrinking and man was frequently patting hismelf on the back over his apparent conquoring of the universe. Meanwhile Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Benton were holding some of the most firey debates in Senate history.

Civil War Era (10)

Dred Scott

Frederick Douglas

Abraham Lincoln

Jefferson Davis

Ulysses S. Grant

Robert E. Lee

William T. Sherman

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Florence Nightingale

Clara Barton

As I note below, I tried to be political here. This was one of the most fascinating periods of our history and one of the most-studied. We mustn't forget the two females from this era, whose efforts have aided many over the decades.

Late 19th Century (11)

Thomas Edison

Booker T. Washingon

Walt Whitman

Henry W. Longfellow

William Randolph Hearst

Joseph Pulitzer

Allen Pinkerton

Henry Cartwright

Samuel Clemens

George Dewey

Alexander Graham Bell

Progress was again on the march, with the telephone, phonograph, professional sports and the rise of yellow journalism. Admiral Dewey may be the most questionable in this group. He isn't as well remembered today as he was prior to World War II. The Spanish-American War was a huge one for the U.S. and Dewey emerged as a global hero.

Early 20th Century (27)

Orville/Wilbur Wright

Henry Ford

George W. Carver

Andrew Carnegie

John D. Rockefeller

J.P. Morgan

Jane Addams

Theodore Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

Susan B. Anthony

Jim Thorpe

John J. Pershing

Sgt. Alvin York

Babe Ruth

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Charles Lindbergh

Oliver H. Perry

Richard Byrd

Amelia Earhart

Charlie Chaplain

Clark Gable

Harold G. Ross

Al Capone

J. Edgar Hoover

Billy Mitchell

Ernest Hemmingway

John Steinbeck

This is certainly a wide assortment. Many would argue with Capone's place on the list -- but, hey, the Chicago crime boss' impact on 20th century life was real. Ruth, Thorpe, Chaplain and Gable's presence lend evidence that more and more Americans had time for leisure and that entertainers (including athletes) were becoming true stars.

Of course, following the 1930 season, as the Depression began to unfold, Babe Ruth made a legendary quip. When he demanded $80,000, a sports writer pointed out that such a salary would be more than President Herbert Hoover earned. Ruth winked and replied. "I had a better year than he did."

World War II Era (12)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Douglas MacArthur

Chester Nimitz

Joe Lewis

George Marshall

Jackie Robinson

Lucille Ball

Marilyn Monroe

Elvis Presley

Joe McCarthy

Lewis and Robinson helped break the color barrier in professional sports, while Elvis, Marilyn and Lucy became new kinds of stars. This era goes basically through the 1950s. One could almost put the ill-fated Rosenbergs and/or Alger Hiss on the list, as well.

Modern Era (16)

Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard M. Nixon

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bill Russell

Muhammad Ali

Walter Cronkite

Thurgood Marshall

Henry Aaron

John F. Kennedy

Gloria Steinem

John Wayne

Ronald Reagan

Steven Spielberg

Bill Gates

Bill Cosby

Michael Jordan

Many of these figures changed the way we looked at certain things. Spielberg changed the face of cinema (along with others) irrevocably. Bill Russell changed the face of basketball forever, as Jordan did, in his own image, two generations later. Ali put a stamp on boxing that may never be equaled. What Gates has done is legendary. One could say (with either positive or negative meaning intended) that LBJ and Richard Nixon changed the way we look at politics and politicians, forever.

Trying to see that literature was represented was difficult -- even though I spent two years as a college English major, before coming to my senses and switching to history. Trying to decide (without taking time to do indepth research) whether Ralph Waldo Emerson was more important than John Greenleaf Whittier or whether Emily Dickinson (not to be confused with "Police Woman" Angie Dickinson!) was more important than Harriett Beecher Stowe or Nathaniel Hawthorne, was basically a guessing game.

My lack of scientific knowledge also hurt me. Somebody must have claimed significant credit for radio, TV, the basic computer, color photography, the X-ray, etc. They should probably ALL be on the list. Military figures are also tricky. I was very political in my Civil War picks...one President, one commanding general and one suborinate general for both sides. Yet I left out Mexican war heroes...and really all military leaders between Andrew Jackson and Grant/Lee. (The problem was, so many of them were mediocre presidents! It might have appeared at first glance that I was stuffing my list with every imaginable Chief Executive! Of course I didn't let that stop me in Grant's case!)

I believe I had 77 white males on the list (I guess it's a real sign of the times that I'm paranoid enough to count!) I'm sure someone would find fault with that....but I think I possibly stretched the boundaries a tad to include several black athletes who opened big doors in pro sports (Louis, Russell, Robinson, as well as Ali, Aaron and Jordan).

Originally I'd planned on rating the 100 IN ORDER! Sheeesh! I'm glad that plan died a quick death! This was tough enough as it was.