History is Not Boring discussion
favorite historical figure
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Ian Mullet
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 01:08PM)
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Oct 15, 2007 10:16AM

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I don't really read much american history anymore, so I can't pick a favorite figure for that. When I read about american history, it's usually social history (like the lives of people in the Dust Bowl area in the 1930s) and less on individual figures.

Isaac Newton. Inventing Calculus as a side project to aid his research in optics; wow.





Otherwise, I'd choose Captain Sir Richard Burton, 19th century soldier, explorer, and possibly the greatest linguist of his time. Made a bit of a mess trying to find the source of the Nile, but hey, nobody's perfect. Him, I like.

My fav American figure is Eleanor Roosevelt followed closely by her husband FDR
My favorite non American is Ataturk.
He took a country rooted deeply in the past and he took it kicking and screaming into the twentieth century. How many people can transform an entire country within their own life span?

Robert Falcon Scott
Sir John Hawkwood
For Scott read 'The Last Great Quest' by Max Jones and for Hawkwood 'The Condottiere', by Geoffrey Trease.
If interested can recommended other books about them

venture into representative government.
I just finished reading "The summer of 1787" which really details all that happened in the putting together of our constitution, including the ability to amend it as the occasion arose. There are many unsung heroes in our history, it is interesting to read & find out more about them.

At work we are preparing a Roman amphora to go on display - it is not very pretty, thick, rough pottery. It has the fingerprints of who ever made it left in the clay. Huge fingerprints! Amphoras are the packing crates of the Roman world, this one was probably made in Spain and carried wine or olive oil to a legionary base in Scotland 1,900 years ago. Who was this sausage-fingered man? I assume it was a man! Was he a slave? Who ever he was I find him far more interesting than a king or an emperor.

And here's eleven historical figures who, if I don't necessarily "like," I admire for some reason:
1. Heraclitus, pre-Socratic philosopher who believed "change" was central to the universe
2. Augustus Caesar
3. Vespasian
4. Septimius Severus
5. Aurelian
- this is the roster of my favorite Roman emperors
6. Henry II Plantagenet/Eleanor of Aquitaine
7. Peter Abelard, Medieval philosopher & castrato for love
8. Elizabeth I of England
9. Abraham Lincoln
10. Anton Chekhov
11. Taizong (Li Shimin), 2nd Tang Dynasty emperor


- Johannes Gutenberg
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Abraham Lincoln
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Nelson Mandela
- Catherine the Great
- Maria Stuart
- Emilia Earhard
- Anne Frank
- and the early settlers in America and Australia

Eleanor Roosevelt is next for me, for her courage, compassion, and conscience.
And my third choice is George Marshall, both for his role in winning World War II as the senior leader of the U.S. Army, and for his wisdom as Secretary of State after the war in creating the Marshall Plan to rebuild the devastated parts of the world.


To me, he epitomizes what a man should do with his life - live it well, have some fun & leave the world a little better for his presence.