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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
6 people
Upton Sinclair 1878–1968Journalism & Mass MediaNovelist whose expose of Chicago meatpacking spurred federal food and drug inspection laws.
Susan Sontag 1933–2004Scholars & Public IntellectualsAgainst Interpretation, On Photography, and Illness as Metaphor
Gore Vidal 1925–2012Scholars & Public IntellectualsNovelist and essayist who wrote the United States as an empire in decline
Tom Wolfe 1930–2018Journalism & Mass MediaNew Journalism pioneer whose The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities chronicled American culture.
L. Ron Hubbard 1911–1986Religion & Religious MovementsScience-fiction writer who founded Scientology, creating a controversial and internationally influential American religious movement.
Joan Didion 1934–2021Journalism & Mass MediaEssayist and novelist whose precise prose captured the anxiety and disillusionment of American life.