In our last look at how history is written and interpreted, we managed to isolate several figures in our shared history who towered above their contemporaries.  After Columbus, James Wolfe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison dominated the national stage during the beginning of America, Andrew Jackson left the history books with a section about the Age of Jackson.

As history moved toward the pivotal event of the Civil War in the nineteenth century, several politicians tried to prevent the conflict, but failed to make the leap to statesmen as they were unable to do so.  One of the most divided campaigns for President had ended with the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, bringing to the national stage two men who defined the age.

First was Lincoln himself.  A self-educated lawyer from Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln served one term in the U. S. House before settling down to a lucrative and successful career before the bar.  He ran for and lost the 1858 election for Senator from his state, but the notoriety from that effort made him a candidate for the Presidency two years hence.  Defeating better known rivals for the office, Lincoln won with just under forty percent of the popular vote.  When eleven states seceded, he led the northern states to keep them in the union.  Over 600,000 Americans died during the Civil War, but keeping the nation together ushered in the growth of the American republic.  Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863 liberated four million slaves, making his legacy complete, an action even of greater importance than keeping the nation together.

The Civil War produced another of the Great Men of American History.  This man, U. S. Grant, also became our 18th President, but was a failure, producing an administration among the most corrupt in our 240 years of freedom.  One commentator said of Grant, “He was a failure at everything except war and marriage.”  His conduct as the last leader of the Army of the Potomac cemented his status as head and shoulders above others in that conflict.  Appointed to the position after Lincoln had fired several other generals, Grant led the Union forces to final victory in 1865.  His “genius” was not in tactical brilliance, but in his tenacity on the battlefield.  Battles won or lost did not faze him; Grant just kept on pursuing the enemy until the advantage of numbers and resources exhausted the Confederacy’s ability to continue the war.  After a series of generals who were too timid (McClellan) or too obtuse (Burnside) in their position, Lincoln said simply of Grant, “He fights!”  Union victory would have been unlikely without him.

Moving into the 20th century, the first towering figure we meet, after an almost unending string of mediocrities, is Theodore Roosevelt.  Already a significant feature in New York politics, Roosevelt became famous nationwide with his “exploits” in the Spanish-American War.  Placed on the 1900 ticket with then President William McKinley, the Rough Rider was thrust into the Presidency with McKinley’s assassination in 1901.  What Roosevelt did for the country, for good or ill, was to push the nation into the Progressive Era.  He used what he called the “bully pulpit” of the Presidency to agitate for policies of government regulation of the food supply, the preservation of the environment, and the control of monopolies in business.  Roosevelt’s work set the stage for the much more progressive Woodrow Wilson and the policies he pursued for the country.

Yet I would not place Wilson in the pantheon of American “gods” because of his progressive credentials.  Wilson was a racist and a big-government enthusiast who, in the opinion of many later historians, overreached in pushing for government regulation of American life.  Under his leadership, the income tax was instituted, the Federal Reserve established and other intrusive agencies created.  His “greatness”, in my humble opinion, came when he pushed the United States into the Great War in Europe.  This war, which was unpopular to many in the nation, was sold to “make the world safe for democracy”, and came after German overreach in interfering with our trade and threatening our independence  —  the unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann note to Mexico.  But our involvement in what we now call World War 1 thrust our country to the forefront of world affairs, ushering in what has been called “the American century”.  After the war, we were the strongest military power on the globe, with the most powerful economy.  In addition, World War 1 was the proximate cause of World War 2, which then solidified our world leadership, as well as bringing on two other conflicts  —  the Cold War and the ongoing war between the Arab countries and Israel, which has spilled over into the present day war on terror.

In 1932, the election of Franklin Roosevelt brought to power another of the political giants in our history.  His leadership during the Great Depression has been cited for his place on our list of the greatest.  Although many of his programs during the New Deal he instituted have been seen to be more flawed than first thought, it is undeniable that his optimism and giving hope to the beleaguered Americans was his greatest contribution to surviving the bleak 1930s.  Also, Roosevelt led the nation during the Second World War, providing the “steady” hand at the till in a world-wide conflict that would see some 60 million people die.

War also brought another mountain peak of leadership to the fore.  Selected as the General who oversaw the European Theater of Operations was Dwight Eisenhower.  His work in leading a fragile coalition of allies resulted in the final victory over the Axis Powers of Germany and Italy.  His prominence in American life continued in the 1950s, as he was elected President.  That era continues to be upgraded in the history books as his policies produced peace and prosperity in the nation.

Most historians would not place Harry Truman in any list of great leaders of the United States.  But no matter what your feelings are about his almost eight years as President, one decision elevates him to near greatness.  After the bitter fighting in Europe ended, Japan was still a formidable foe in the Eastern Theater of the war.  Japanese forces fought ferociously against our forces in the islands of the Pacific, and the only real barrier to ending the conflict was an attack on the home islands of Japan.  With estimates of casualties reaching hundreds of thousands of U. S. soldiers, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Since that time, there has been much controversy about ushering in the atomic age of warfare, a problem we still face today in North Korea.  The atomic genie was out of the bottle, and Truman’s actions will continue to resonate in our world forever.  Truman’s actions saved countless numbers of American lives, and averted the complete devastation of Japan, along with probable millions of Japanese lives being lost.

Not a President nor a political leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., deserves a place on this list of Great People.  As with all such men, King was flawed, yet his inspired leadership of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s led many thousands to finally bring the promise of the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation to fruition.  Congress passed laws guaranteeing voting rights and civil rights for African-Americans, and King’s non-violent tactics stand as a shining example of the power of right and morality to change minds and actions.

For the next couple of decades, we saw the promise of JFK cut short by an assassin’s bullet, the ill-conceived war in Vietnam, the national disgrace of Watergate and a couple of Presidencies of little accomplishment.  Yet one more peak of greatness amongst the barrenness of the political landscape would be seen.

Ronald Reagan’s time as leader of the free world is now seen, by historians and ordinary people, as a time of near greatness.  He inherited an economy that was beset by stagnation and inflation.  Foreign affairs was consumed by the Cold War and our conflict with the Soviet Union and Communism.  But Reagan survived an assassination attempt, righted the economy and oversaw unprecedented economic growth, and most importantly, faced down the “evil empire” in Russia to produce victory in the Cold War.  Compared to those who followed, Reagan towers over his competition for a place in the hall of heroes who lead this nation.  His attitude about America resonated with millions, as he spoke of this nation, in 1980,  “I have quoted John Winthrop’s words more than once on the campaign trail this year—for I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining “city on a hill,” as were those long ago settlers …These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still… a shining city on a hill.” Since Reagan’s time, leaders have come and gone.  Many are still around, looking for history to list the among the stalwarts in American History.  Even today, men and women aspire to that greatness that surrounds those who have made and sustained us as a nation.  Yet, what do we see?  Those who have tried to thwart the will of the people by resisting, even to the point of being obstructionist in national debates over policy. We see people who are divided from each other, with many attempting to increase the divisions among us.  Will there ever be anyone who can, with words and deeds, come to the front in America and lead us to greater heights of glory, to a better place in our world leadership?

O fear not.  We are so involved with our own self-importance and self-interest that many have forgotten that to be great we have to shed such selfishness and egoism if we are to continue to be the “shining city on a hill” that sheds its beams of liberty and compassion to the rest of the world.  Great men and women today — are great mostly in their own minds, as they shrink into the oblivion of those who cannot imagine what it takes to become what they want to become.