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Ideas & Media
Journalists, publishers, scholars, teachers and preachers who shaped what Americans knew and believed.
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Journalism & Mass Media
Scholars & Public Intellectuals
Education
Religion & Religious Movements
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Author 71
Educator 55
Journalist 49
Activist 31
Religious Leader 28
Broadcaster 27
Economist 24
Philosopher 13
Publisher 12
Psychologist 11
Social Scientist 11
Historian 9
Founder 7
Novelist 6
Central Banker 5
Executive 5
Lawyer 5
9 people
W.E.B. Du Bois 1868–1963Scholars & Public IntellectualsSociologist, historian, and civil rights activist who was the first African American to earn a Harvard doctorate.
David McCullough 1933–2022Scholars & Public IntellectualsNarrative historian of Truman, John Adams and the Brooklyn Bridge
Howard Zinn 1922–2010EducationHistorian and Boston University professor whose A People's History of the United States reshaped historical narratives.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 1917–2007Scholars & Public IntellectualsHistorian of American liberalism and special assistant to John F. KennedyRichard Hofstadter 1916–1970Scholars & Public IntellectualsHistorian who named the paranoid style in American politics and won two Pulitzer Prizes, for The Age of Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.
Frederick Jackson Turner 1861–1932Scholars & Public IntellectualsThe frontier thesis — the most influential and most attacked argument in American history.
Carter G. Woodson 1875–1950Scholars & Public IntellectualsFounder of Negro History Week and the Journal of Negro History
Henry Louis Gates Jr. b. 1950Scholars & Public IntellectualsLiterary critic and Harvard professor who has shaped African American studies and popularized genealogy.
Diane Ravitch b. 1938EducationHistorian of education and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who shaped national education policy debates.