People That Shaped Your Country.

[babyblob]

I am watching The Men Who Built America on the History Chanel and I got to wondering. When you think of your country (And this is for everyone around the World not just America.) Who are some people or groups that you think helped shape you country for the good or for the bad. Be they explorers, politicians, Business leaders, religious leaders who are some people that you think helped shaped your country? (Again for the good or bad)

[Zelena]

For France, the first who pops into my mind is Napoleon (the first). Some of the laws he edited, the bodies he created have been effective during a long time and some of them until now.

[Gray Lensman]

For France, the first who pops into my mind is Napoleon (the first). Some of the laws he edited, the bodies he created have been effective during a long time and some of them until now.

From what I have read his nephew Napoleon III also shaped the nation a great deal, despite modern times mostly seeing him as the guy who lost the Franco-Prussian War.

[achilles]

I am watching The Men Who Built America on the History Chanel and I got to wondering. When you think of your country (And this is for everyone around the World not just America.) Who are some people or groups that you think helped shape you country for the good or for the bad. Be they explorers, politicians, Business leaders, religious leaders who are some people that you think helped shaped your country? (Again for the good or bad)

Great show, BTW, I learned a lot about guys who are never taught in regular history classes, despite being so key to the development of America.

[Zauriel]

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who shaped the country had more honesty and integrity than today's politicians. Perhaps they never had to solicit money from wealthy donors to finance their campaigns. The big price for donations was to have to make promises to the donors.

I don't read much Philippine history, although it is my parents' country. But I do know that Manuel Quezon, Emilio Aquinaldo and Andres Bonifacio helped to shape the country. Andres Bonifacio inspired people to fight for independence and led a revolution, although he was a terrible strategist, a terrible tactician and his battle plans always ended with high casualty rates. Emilio Aquinaldo, a graduate of a military school, was a much better leader than Bonifacio and became the president of the Philippine republic. Manuel Quezon helped to transform the Philippines into a democracy.

[DanMad1977]

Hitler

I don't think Germany would be were we are right now, without losing the war. Losing the war led people to work hard and gain some status. They craved that more than ever, because they had nothing anymore. Hard times makes strong people.

And losing the war made us a very peaceful nation.

[babyblob]

Great show, BTW, I learned a lot about guys who are never taught in regular history classes, despite being so key to the development of America.

It is a great show. All of the That Built American Shows are great. Food that Built America, Toys that Built America. I can watch them for hours.

[Zelena]

From what I have read his nephew Napoleon III also shaped the nation a great deal, despite modern times mostly seeing him as the guy who lost the Franco-Prussian War.

You certainly know more about him than I do: I don’t remember having studied his life very well.

[Jim Kelly]

I did my Bachelor of Arts degree in Canadian Studies and it's hard to think of one person without thinking of several others just as important to the shaping of the nation--for good or for ill.

In literary theory, I'll say Northrop Frye. His main interest was in William Blake; however, his method of literary analysis was thematic. And, as he was a teacher at the University of Toronto, when it came to teaching Canadian literature in the 1950s and 1960s--given our literature was judged not of the highest standard as that from Great Britain or the United States--looking at the themes in Canadian literature was a better way to go than judging its artistic merit. He taught people like Margaret Atwood, who herself--besides being a poet and author of fiction--wrote her own analysis of Canadian literature, SURVIVAL: A THEMATIC GUIDE TO CANADIAN LITERATURE (House of Anansi, 1972).

Atwood's thesis is that Canadian literature is about survival. The early writers--like Catherine Parr Trail (IN THE BACKWOODS OF CANADA) and Susanna Moodie (ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH)--are talking about the actual struggle to survive in a land that is determined to kill you. Later writers are concerned with the survival of culture--a theme of Québécois and First Nations writers--or the psychological survival of the individual in such authors as Margaret Laurence, Hugh MacLennan, Mordecai Richler and Michael Ondaatje.

[The Gold Stream]

the greeks

[DrNewGod]

W.R. Hearst. Terrible guy, but played a critical role in getting people from a very nook and cranny of early 20th century US on board with the idea that the US should build a global empire, rather than settle for a continental one. Not claiming that's a good thing, but it definitely represented an inflection point in the US course.

[JackDaw]

In UK 20th century politics, guess the two most influential Prime Ministers were probably Churchill and Thatcher. Churchill was certainly a monster…but the right monster needed at a dark time in history. Thatcher carried out a series of reforms…selling off large chunks of nationalised industry, selling council houses to tenants, reducing union power that have never been reversed. (In spite of The three Labour governments that came after her.)

The Labour movement was…of course..associated with great reforms such as creating the National Health service, and improvements in working conditions brought about by the trade union coalition but I tend (perhaps wrongly) to credit that to lots of people uniting together rather than a handful of ultra influential people.

On the cultural front, I think there at least an argument to be made to say the Beatles were pivotal. They were geniuses (I think) but critically they just seemed to be normal everyday people…so a lot of people looked at them and thought “maybe we can be successful in music and other arts too”.