One of my favorite philosophy sites. A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blo...th-century.htm
'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'
1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bull$#@!, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.
Your favorites?
My favorites. Usually I would select philosophers, writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger
"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward