Founders and major American figures
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Showing 1-24 of 239 people
A
16 profiles on this page
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr rose from Revolutionary War service to the vice presidency in 1801-1805, then saw the Hamilton duel and Burr...
Abigail Adams
Through letters written between 1776 and 1800, Abigail Adams became a political confidante within the Adams family circl...
Abraham Baldwin
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Abraham Baldwin carried Georgia into the new federal order and helped found...
Abraham Clark
In 1776 Abraham Clark carried New Jersey into the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and late...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln used the presidency from 1861 to 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, and wartime leadership to preserve...
Alex Jones
Alexander Emerick Jones is an American far-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist.
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell turned experiments in acoustics and the 1876 telephone patent into a communications revolution tha...
Alexander Hamilton
From the Constitutional Convention in 1787 through the Treasury program of 1790-1791, Alexander Hamilton shaped the fisc...
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville turned a French prison-inspection journey in 1831-1832 into Democracy in America, one of the defin...
Amy Coney Barrett
Amy Coney Barrett moved from Notre Dame law teaching to the Supreme Court in 2020, making originalism and post-Roe const...
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie used steel, railroads, and vertical integration after the 1870s to build Carnegie Steel and define indus...
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson moved from frontier law and the Battle of New Orleans to the presidency in 1829-1837, reshaping executive...
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson moved from Unionism in Tennessee to the presidency in 1865-1869, where impeachment and resistance to Reco...
Andrew Mellon
Andrew Mellon used the Treasury Department from 1921 to 1932 and his banking fortune to shape tax policy, debt reduction...
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia used the Supreme Court from 1986 to 2016 to popularize originalism, textualism, and a combative conservat...
Arthur Middleton
Arthur Middleton used the South Carolina Provincial Congress and the Continental Congress in 1776 to push independence,...
B
8 profiles on this page
Barack Obama
Barack Obama used the presidency from 2009 to 2017 to pair the Affordable Care Act, financial rescue, and expanded execu...
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwaters 1964 presidential campaign and long Senate career turned modern conservatism, anti-New Deal politics, a...
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker used astronomy, almanacs, and the 1791 federal survey of Washington to make scientific work by a free...
Benjamin Franklin
Between 1754 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Benjamin Franklin moved from colonial printer to indispensable diplomat, l...
Benjamin Harrison
From the Continental Congress in 1774 to the Virginia governorship in 1781-1784, Benjamin Harrison carried plantation le...
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush turned medical training in Philadelphia and Edinburgh into Revolutionary service, signing the Declaration...
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton used the presidency from 1993 to 2001 to fuse Democratic centrism, NAFTA, welfare reform, and impeachment p...
Bill Gates
Bill Gates used Microsoft after 1975 to make personal computing, software licensing, and later philanthropy defining for...