Top 5 Americans in American History

[OSR stands with Israel]

1. George Wahington(No America without him , or no Constitution, or America could be a monarchy)
2. Abraham Lincoln(Saved the Union , Ended Slavery)
3. FDR( New Deal, Turned America into a superpower, Lend Lease which saved both Britian and USSR from falling to the Nazis, Hired the best generals ever to win WW2)
4. Thomas Jefferson( Wrote the Declaration of Independence, Doubled the size of the US)
5. Thomas Paine( Helped Americans soliders morale in the Revoultion)

[IceSpear]

ronald reagan
glenn beck
carly fiorina
ted cruz
dr. ben carson

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

In no particular order:

George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Frederick Douglass
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Honorable Mentions: Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt

[TNF]

Abraham Lincoln
Eugene Debs
Thomas Paine
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thomas Jefferson

[The Mikado]

I'm kind of shocked that so many people are picking politicians. For "top" Americans I tend to think of people whose accomplishments will last far longer than those of George Washington and co.

Anyway, I'm nominating George Gershwin, Walt Whitman, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Mark Twain.

I feel reasonably confident in predicting that all of them will have works that outlast the United States itself.

[The Dowager Mod]

Jonas Salk
Susan B. Anthony
Martin Luther King Jr
Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln

[Dr. Cynic]

But what about Top 5 Canadians in American History?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Listing Tom Paine as an American is kind of questionable.

Walt Whitman

Yes!

[Beet]

The top 5 Americans are unknown because my criteria does not include fame, and certainly does not include being known and fully appreciated by me.

[Dazey]

FDR
Thurgood Marshall
Earl Warren
LBJ
Lincoln
TR

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Listing Tom Paine as an American is kind of questionable.

Walt Whitman

Yes!

God no. Transcendentalism is all trash.

My list would be something along the lines of:

Abraham Lincoln
Benjamin Franklin
Martin Luther King Jr.
Eugene Debs
Some scientific figure (Salk, Pauling, Oppenheimer...not sure if Einstein should count as "American")

[Del Tachi]

1) Mark Twain
2) Abraham Lincoln
3) Jonas Salk
4) Henry Ford
5) Henry David Thoreau

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Ok, gave this is a shot:

Jonas Salk, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Norman Borlaug, Eli Whitney

Other Mentions: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Henry Ford, Edward Bernays, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ulysses Grant, Nelson Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, D.W. Griffith, Benjamin Franklin, The Wright Brothers, Charles William Eliot, J.P. Morgan... probably loads of scientific and technological figures I'm forgetting.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

John Steinbeck, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, George Washington Carver and Abraham Lincoln.

[7,052,770]

Don't forget Norman Borlaug

[Samantha]

Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King, Jr.
John Brown
Eugene Debs
Lead Belly

[Leinad]

Henry David Thoreau

Yes!

It's hard to limit it to just 5, because I think Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and MLK all should be there, and that leaves just 1 more, and 3 of the 5 presidents, which is obviously lazy. Recognizing figures in literature and science is important, too.

The options are many, especially if you broaden the definition of "American" to include people like Nikola Tesla or even Einstein.

[Mr. Smith]

Right now, off the top of my head. But there really way too many good choices, men and women.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Smith, Mark Twain, and Frederick Douglass.

[RINO Tom]

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Susan B. Anthony
4. Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. Harriet Tubman

HM: Fredrick Douglass, Thomas Paine, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Thurgood Marshall, Earl Warren

[DavidB.]

ronald reagan
glenn beck
carly fiorina
ted cruz
dr. ben carson

Lel

[Sol]

Obviously this is impossible, so I'll just pick artists. This is solely judged on artistic works; otherwise I'd have to exclude Hitchcock for his vile personality.

Emily Dickinson, Alfred Hitchcock (unless he never formally immigrated; in that case Agha Shahid Ali), Vladimir Nabokov (unless you don't consider him American, in which case he can be replaced with F. Scott Fitzgerald), David Simon, Toni Morrison.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

ronald reagan
glenn beck
carly fiorina
ted cruz
dr. ben carson

LOLOLOL