Two professors at Eastern New Mexico University have co-authored a book titled "The Fifty Most Influential Americans: Interviews with Professor Donald Elder III." Published by NOVA Publishers, the book is the latest in NOVA's series: Distinguished Men and Women of Science, Medicine and the Arts.
In the book Dr. Michael Shaughnessy, professor of education, interviews Dr. Donald Elder III, professor of history, about each of the 50 Americans-beginning with Paul Revere and ending with Bill Gates.
Presidents were not included because the pair covered presidents in their last book.
"We wanted to cover people in all aspects of American life, not just politics or the military," said Dr. Elder. "These men and women made great contributions in numerous disciplines-including science, music, art, dance, theatre, literature and other areas."
"Being in different academic disciplines allowed us to bring different perspectives to the project," said Dr. Shaughnessy. "Of course, there will be disagreement about the 50 Americans we chose, but if the book leads to spirited debate about who should be included, we welcome that discussion as part of the educational process."
In his forward, Paul Horton of the University of Chicago wrote, "Elder does a wonderful job of selecting a representative group of Americans from the revolutionary period to the late twentieth century: labor leaders and business leaders, reformers and defenders of the status quo. He catalogues a group of representative Americans from the salt of the earth to the manor born."
In the interviews Dr. Shaughnessy asks Dr. Elder about the life of each individual, their most significant contribution, other contributions, the era they lived in and other questions tailored to each.
The 50 individuals covered are:
Paul Revere, John Paul Jones, Francis Marion, Nathan Hale, Betsy Ross, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Francis Scott Key, John Hancock, Davy Crockett;
Daniel Boone, William Seward, Lewis and Clark, William Frederick Cody, Wyatt Earp, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert E. Lee, Henry Clay, The Wright Brothers, Eli Whitney; Susan B. Anthony, Upton Sinclair, Henry Ford, William Jennings Bryan, Earnest Hemingway, H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, Geronimo;
Samuel Clemens or "Mark Twain," Horace Mann, John L. Lewis, Winslow Homer, Pete Seeger, Jonas Salk, Norman Rockwell, Rachel Carson, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King;
Bob Hope, Leonard Bernstein, Helen Keller, Jesse Owens, George Patton, Walt Disney, Billy Graham, Steve Jobs, Sally Ride and Bill Gates.
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