The Secret: Das Geheimnis der Reichen

Von Martin Frischknecht

Frühere Exponenten nannten die Sache noch forsch beim Namen: Die Kraft des positiven Denkens des amerikanischen Pfarrers Norman Vincent Peale ist ein Motivations- und Erfolgsbuch, das sich seit Jahrzehnten gut verkauft, Sorge dich nicht, lebe! von Dale Carnegie erfreut sich seit sechzig Jahren eines regen Zuspruchs, und das 1962 veröffentlichte Die Macht Ihres Unterbewusstseins von Joseph Murphy ist ebenfalls nicht unterzukriegen.

Am schlüssigsten auf den Punkt brachte die Botschaft ein Mann namens Napoleon Hill: Denke nach und werde reich! Reich geworden sind die Autoren dieser Bestseller selbstverständlich allesamt. Ob sich das in Aussicht gestellte Lebensglück auch auf ihre Leser übertragen hat, muss bezweifelt werden. Der Effekt, den diese Art von Literatur mit sich bringt, ist meist heftig aber kurz. Auf die anfängliche Begeisterung beim Lesen folgt eine Phase der Ernüchterung. Wenn es darum geht, die neuen Rezepte im eigenen Leben umzusetzen, gerät die Sache ins Stottern.

Irgendwie steht der Verwirklichung im Alltag mehr Widerstand entgegen als erwartet. Da fällt es ungleich leichter, zum Ratgeber der nächsten Saison zu greifen und seine Begeisterung auf eine neue Sammlung von Rezepten auszurichten. Die Botschaft dieser Fast-Food-Lebenshilfe ist so simpel wie einleuchtend: Da wir Menschen Wirklichkeit immer nur als Konstruktion unseres Denkens erkennen, geschieht die entscheidende Veränderung von Wirklichkeit in unserem Denken.

Wer positiv denkt, erfährt die Welt positiv, wer sein Denken auf Erfolg ausrichtet, zieht den Erfolg an. Die Magie des Denkens sorgt dafür, dass wir über unsere Gedanken zur Welt in Resonanz stehen, dass wir ernten, was wir in Gedanken säen.

Wer das mentale Grossreinemachen nicht bei Organisationen wie Scientology, Avatar oder The Centers Network betreiben will, versucht es im Selbststudium. Affirmationsbücher von Louise Hay und Stuart Wilde leisten in der Hinsicht getreulich ihre Dienste – und erzielen Grossauflagen. Seit der Schweizer René Egli in den achtziger Jahren Das LOL2A-Prinzip veröffentlichte, sind auf dem Markt auch europäische Autoren gut im Geschäft. Bestellungen beim Universum von Bärbel Mohr hat sich seit bereits über eine Million mal verkauft. What the Bleep Do We (K)now? schraubte die Begeisterung für diese Botschaft in multimediale Höhen.

Dieser Dokumentarfilm stellte geschickt einen Zusammenhang her zwischen dem, was Gesundbeter, Positivdenker und Motivationstrainer verbreiten und neuen Erkenntnissen aus Physik, Neurologie und Psychologie.

Die in rascher Abfolge sprechenden Gewährsleute scheinen sich einig in der Grundaussage, dass wir es sind, die wie Götter die Welt erschaffen. Bei näherer Betrachtung fällt an dem Film allerdings auf, dass die Macher bei der Auswahl und Präsentation ihres Materials sehr viel taten, um den Eindruck der Einmütigkeit von Wissenschaft und Esoterik hinzubügeln.

Die Eingeweihten
Die australische TV-Journalistin Rhonda Byrne fühlte sich durch eine Krise in ihrem Leben dazu berufen, die Gesetze von Anziehung und Denken tiefer zu ergründen. Mit einem Kamerateam machte sie sich auf die Reise zu Experten, die dazu etwas zu sagen haben. Nicht ganz überraschend traf sie sämtliche dieser Fachleute in den USA, und alle waren sie telegene, überaus erfolgreiche, charismatische Gesprächspartner, die ihr freimütig vom Zusammenhang von Denken, Wünschen und Erfüllen berichteten. Obwohl diese Erfolgsprofis keine Gelegenheit ungenutzt verstreichen lassen, ihre Rezepte in aller Welt zu verbreiten und dies über eigene Websites, Kurse, Bücher und dergleichen mehr auch permanent tun, verfiel Rhonda Byrne auf die Idee einer exquisiten Verpackung: Trommelwirbel, Rascheln, Tusch – The Secret, Das Geheimnis ist da! Was Platon, Leonardo und Einstein immer schon wussten, das enthüllt jetzt ein Film, ein Buch, und ein Audiobuch für Sie.

Das alles erscheint in altertümelnder Aufmachung und wird auf modernste Weise vermarktet von internationalen Grossverlagen. Wollen Sie wissen, wie Sie garantiert reich, glücklich und gesund sein können? Greifen Sie zu, lassen Sie sich beraten von weltweit führenden «Moneymakers», von Bestsellerautoren wie John Gray und Neale Donald Walsch und von Coaches, die schon manches Unternehmen zu blühendem Erfolg führten.

Sie alle sind sich einig: Wer richtig denkt und fühlt, dem gehört die Welt. «Warum, meinen Sie, verdient 1 Prozent der Bevölkerung rund 96 Prozent des Geldes? Halten Sie das für einen Zufall? Es ist so eingerichtet. Sie haben etwas verstanden. Sie verstehen das Geheimnis», belehrt uns ein Bob Proctor, der «die Fackel der Weisheit» vom bereits erwähnten Napoleon Hilll übernommen haben will. Novartis-Chef Daniel Vasella gehört dazu, Nestlés Peter Brabeck sowieso und Christoph Blocher natürlich auch. Sie alle verstehen das Geheimnis. Wir nicht. Das heisst, jetzt dann schon. Bald schliessen wir auf in den Kreis der Wohlhabenden – The Secret sei Dank. Bill Gates, der reichste Mensch der Welt (stimmt nicht mehr: Inzwischen ist ein Mexikaner, nämlich Carlos Slim mit geschätzten 67,8 Milliarden Dollar ist inzwischen der reichste Mann der Welt - luckyfolks) , gehört nach dieser Logik gewissermassen zum Hochgrad der Eingeweihten.

Wenn diesem Mann das Wohl der Menschheit am Herzen läge, müsste der dann nicht millionenfach The Secret in Afrika verteilen lassen, statt mit seinem Geld die Aids-Forschung voranzutreiben und wohltätige Stiftungen zu finanzieren? Auf seltsame Gedanken kommt man da. Abwegige Gedanken, Gedanken, die einen wegführen von der Strasse des Erfolgs.

Die «Totale Methode»
Roger-Pol Droit hat seine Gedanken noch ein bisschen weiter schweifen lassen. Der französische Philosoph ist wohl kein besonders reicher Mann, geistreich ist er aber bestimmt. Er hat den Wahn seiner Zeitgenossen aufs Korn genommen und sich eine fiktive Geschichte über Gurus und Scharlatene einfallen lassen. Glücksmacher erzählt von zwei Philosophiestudenten, die es mit der Vermarktung haltloser Versprechen zu Millionen bringen.

Die «Totale Methode» ist haarsträubend, und doch sind einige ihrer Aussagen nicht ganz von der Hand zu weisen. Woran es bedenklich hapert, sind Motivation und Ethik des Unternehmens. Daran zerbricht die Höllenmaschine denn auch schliesslich. Ein Forscher schreibt im Nachruf:«Es ist einfacher zu träumen, als zu handeln. Es ist angenehmer, sich vorzustellen, man sei glücklich, weise, vollkommen verwirklicht, als Schritt für Schritt vorzugehen, unsicher und manchmal auch entmutigt, um sich wirklich zu verändern, wohl wissend, dass das Ergebnis stets ungewiss und zufallsabhängig bleibt (…)

Das Bemühen, die positive Bilanz zu steigern, ist legitim und manchmal auch machbar. Dagegen ist der Versuch, die negativen Aspekte ganz zu beseitigen, nicht nur unmöglich, sondern auch unmenschlich».

Literatur: Rhonda Byrne: The Secret – Das Geheimnis. Arkana Verlag, München 2007, 240 Seiten, Fr. 30.90.Roger-Pol Droit: Glücksmacher. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2007, 224 Seiten, Fr. 31.90.

Erschienen in SPUREN - Magazin für neues Bewusstsein Nr. 84 Sommer 2007
© SPURENSPUREN - Rudolfstrasse 13 - CH-8400 WinterthurTel. 052 212 33 61 - Fax 052 212 33 71

info@spuren.ch - www.spuren.ch

gefunden von luckyfolks

The Terror Barrier by Bob Proctor

The first ten years of my stay here on Planet Earth were spent in Owen Sound, Ontario. I can vividly remember the hot summer day I was taken by an older member of my family to Harrison Park where there was a fine swimming pool. The older kids were going up the ladder and jumping or diving off the high diving board. They were having a great time. Wanting to be accepted by the older kids, I too went up the ladder, reluctantly, but I climbed it. I will never forget the terror that gripped my mind and body when I looked down. Their coaxing did absolutely no good. There was no way I was going off that board. I climbed back down the ladder. That was the first time in my life that I can recall coming up against the Terror Barrier. I not only lost out on the excitement and thrill that would have been gained by jumping. I lost a little self-respect also. If you think hard enough, you will recall the first time you came face to face with the Terror Barrier. You either stepped through it to freedom or back into bondage, imprisoned by your own fears. I continued to step back from anything I truly feared until I was twenty-six years of age. Then with the encouragement of a caring person, I said "no more" and I have been free ever since. The Terror Barrier comes up in front of us every time we attempt to make a major move in life, into an area we have never traveled before. I have sold businesses in Canada, the U.S.A. and England for years and I could not even guess at the number of times I have sat with men and women who come right up to that barrier wanting to go ahead but not being able to. These were people who could have succeeded and wanted to, but didn't. Is that Terror Barrier holding you or your business back? Do what I did and crash through. The compensation is incredible.

Sent to you as a courtesy of:

Bob Proctor

Steve Jobs and the iPhone



gefunden auf www.eckimania.de

Is Opportunity Monopolized?

Michael Bernard Beckwith in
Session No. 3
"The Secret Science of Getting Rich"

Is Opportunity Monopolized?

People Labour under the False Idea that they´re Living
in a Universe of Lack and Limitation and Not-Enoughness.

Please Understand that the Universe is the Manifestation of the Order,
the Harmony and the Intelligence of the Mind of God.

It is Infinite. It is Abundant.

As a Matter of Fact the Visible Universe is this the Tip of the Iceberg
of what is contained within the Mind of God.

The Good that You are Seeking, the Good you wish to express in Your Life,
the Good You Wish to Embody and Reveal comes from a Source and
a Supply that is Infinite beyond Measure.

YOU have the Capacity to Release all of that Power and
to Reveal it in Your Life NOW.

There is the Unmanifest and there is the Manifest;
there is the Visible - there is the Invisible;
there is the Wave - there is the Particle -
if You want to Use Quantum Analogy.

So Understand:

You´re Living in a Sea of Abundance.

As You Begin to Realise this; as You Begin to Understand this,
You´ll Begin to Understand,
that there is Infinte Opportunities in Front of You ... All the time;
there is Infinite Capacity within You ... All the time;
there is Infinite Power within You ... All the time.

The Great Secret is Available to All.

You don´t need to Be a Special Person;
You don´t to be Born under a Lucky Star;
the Numbers don´t have to be lined up in - it´s just perfectly;

this Secret when You Begin to Understand it will Change Your Life
and it is Now Available to YOU...

LuckyFolks

El Secreto - Visualizacion

luckyfolks

good News - the SGR program will be available in Spanish and German language soon...


added Nov, 25th...

Sir Winston Churchill quote

We make a living by what we get,
we make a life by what we give.

Sir Winston Churchill
British politician (1874 - 1965)

Quotes from the Science of Getting Rich

Quotes from the Science of Getting Rich
by Wallace Wattles

SGR book Quotes

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy.

The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way; those who do things in this Certain Way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich.

You may be the poorest man on the continent, and be deeply in debt; you may have neither friends, influence, nor resources; but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich.

After once forming the thought, have the most absolute and unquestioning faith that what you want is coming; never think of it, or speak, of it, in any other way than as being sure to arrive. Claim it as already yours.

First, you believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things proceed; second, you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude.

Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment.

The value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are.

The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best; therefore it tends to become the best; it takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.

He who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method.

See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time; see yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you will use them when they are your tangible possessions.

When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want--to use it in holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in the Certain Way.

Every act can be made strong and efficient by holding your vision while you are doing it, and putting the whole power of your FAITH and PURPOSE into it.

Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an efficient manner. In saying that you must hold your vision while you are doing each act, however trivial or commonplace.

A day or two spent in contemplating the vision of what you want, and in earnest thanksgiving that you are getting it, will bring your mind into such close relationship with the Supreme that you will make no mistake when you do act.

Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct yourself instantly; for when you are in the competitive mind, you have lost the cooperation of the Mind of the Whole.

Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or of anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way. Never admit the possibility of failure, or speak in a way that infers failure as a possibility.

Quotes from "The Science of Getting Rich"
by Wallace Wattles

SGR Club - Update

THE SGR CLUB HAS GOT TO BE ONE OF THE FINEST PROGRAMS
ON EMPOWERMENT AROUND. ADDITIONALLY, IT IS CONSTANTLY
EVOLVING TO BE BETTER AND BETTER.

HERE ARE THE GENERAL BENEFITS

The SGR Club Home Study CourseThe SGR Club home study course is your key to understanding there is a MINDSET TO SUCCESS.

Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield and Michael Beckwith teach you:

- The 7 Universal Laws that govern success, no matter what your endeavor or interest.
- The 7 faculties of the mind and how to leverage them
- 15 in-depth chapter studies of the book (on CD and MP3) that inspired "The Secret".
It is called The Science of Getting Rich. The Law of Attraction is no accident.
Understand how to master the Law of Attraction and how to bring success in to your life

PLUS MORE

* SGR Club 3-Day Symposium
Every member will receive a FREE ticket to a 3-Day Symposium (value $1995)
* SGR Club Library
The Library will include audio and video teachings from Bob Proctor, Gerry Robert,
Jack Canfield and Michael Beckwith.
* SGR Club Discussion Forums
Meet with like minded people. Grow and share your experiences.
Learn from others insights through discussions in an exclusive Forum.
* LIVE WEEKLY SGR Coaching calls with Bob Proctor
This is quite possibly the best benefit of the program. Ask questions directly to
Bob Proctor about the Law of Attraction and the Science of Getting Rich.
These calls are EVERY WEEK.

* VIP Red Carpet AccessEnjoy exclusive and early access to all SGR Club events
in your city


Tools of the SGR Club

- Receive advice (for a low monthly fee) on Financial Matters, Investments, Real Estate,
Debt & Tax reduction. More specialties coming soon.
UNLIMITED CALLS

Blogpost found on http://jointhesecret.blogspot.com/

Inspiring Quotes About the Law of Attraction

Don't believe that the Law of Attraction is real, well, you're just about the only one.
See the company the law keeps below.
And, if you already "get" the law of attraction, know *you* are not alone.

"I am no longer cursed by poverty because I took possession of my own mind, and that mind has yielded me every material thing I want, and much more than I need. But this power of mind is a universal one, available to the humblest person as it is to the greatest." -Andrew Carnegie

"It is done unto you as you believe..." -Jesus

"The secret is the answer to all that has been all this is and all that will be"
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

"You create your own universe as you go along" - Winston Churchill 1874-1965

"Take the first step in faith you don't have to see the whole staircase just take the first step" - Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought." - Buddha

"Whatever we think about and thank about we bring about." - John Demartini

"What power this is I cannot say. All that I know is that it exists."
- Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."
- Albert Einstein 1879-1955

"What you resist persists." - Carl Jung 1875-1961

"All power is from within and is therefore under our control" - Robert Collier 1885-1950

"Whether you think you can or can't either way you are right."
- Henry Ford 1863-1947 (This is your lensmaster's personal favorite.)

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls" - Joseph Campbell 1904-1987

"All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter."
- Max Planck (Nobel Prize in Physics 1918)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi

"Until one is committed there is hesitating, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself, Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way." - John Wolfgang Goethe

"To gain happiness, you must learn to enjoy that which you have. It is not how much you have. It is what we THINK about that which we have that produces happiness. In building a happy, contented live, you must give happiness to others. No one living unto himself will ever be contented with his lot. Your happiness is reflected upon you through the service you give to others. And the thought you give to the creation of happiness will attract a happiness-service from others. Start creating the happiness-habit by producing happy, love-filled thoughts.Happiness is an attribute of love; therefore, you can never be happy until you give your love to others." - Dr. Forest C. Shaklee Sr.

"Life is a mirror of your consistent thoughts." - Napoleon Hill author of Think and Grow Rich

LuckyFolks found this on Squidoo

The Top 100

The most influential figures in American history.

Subscribe to the Atlantic now at a special rate and receive an Atlantic "100 Most Influential Americans" poster. Or buy someone a gift subscription.

1 Abraham Lincoln

He saved the Union, freed the slaves,
and presided over America’s second founding.

2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king,
but by declining to become one himself.

3 Thomas Jefferson
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”

4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.

5 Alexander Hamilton
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power.

6 Benjamin Franklin
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.

7 John Marshall
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches.

8 Martin Luther King Jr.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive,
but no one did more to make it real.







9 Thomas Edison
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.

10 Woodrow Wilson
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.

11 John D. Rockefeller
The man behind Standard Oil set the mold for our tycoons—first by making money, then by giving it away.

12 Ulysses S. Grant
He was a poor president, but he was the general Lincoln needed; he also wrote the greatest political memoir in American history.

13 James Madison
He fathered the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights.

14 Henry Ford

He gave us the assembly line and the Model T,
and sparked America’s love affair with the automobile.

15 Theodore Roosevelt
Whether busting trusts or building canals, he embodied the “strenuous life” and blazed a trail for twentieth-century America.

16 Mark Twain
Author of our national epic, he was the most unsentimental observer of our national life.

17 Ronald Reagan
The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the Cold War’s end.

18 Andrew Jackson
The first great populist: he found America a republic and left it a democracy.

19 Thomas Paine
The voice of the American Revolution, and our first great radical.

20 Andrew Carnegie
The original self-made man forged America’s industrial might and became one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists.

21 Harry Truman
An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic Age and then the Cold War.

22 Walt Whitman
He sang of America and shaped
the country’s conception of itself.








23 Wright Brothers
They got us all off the ground.

24 Alexander Graham Bell
By inventing the telephone, he opened the age of telecommunications and shrank the world.

25 John Adams
His leadership made the American Revolution possible; his devotion to republicanism made it succeed.

26 Walt Disney
The quintessential entertainer-entrepreneur, he wielded unmatched influence over our childhood.

27 Eli Whitney
His gin made cotton king and sustained an empire for slavery.

28 Dwight Eisenhower
He won a war and two elections,
and made everybody like Ike.

29 Earl Warren
His Supreme Court transformed American society and bequeathed to us the culture wars.

30 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
One of the first great American feminists, she fought for social reform and women’s right to vote.

31 Henry Clay
One of America’s greatest legislators and orators, he forged compromises that held off civil war for decades.


32 Albert Einstein
His greatest scientific work was done in Europe,
but his humanity earned him undying fame in America.






33 Ralph Waldo Emerson
The bard of individualism, he relied on himself—and told us all to do the same.

34 Jonas Salk
His vaccine for polio eradicated one of the world’s worst plagues.

35 Jackie Robinson
He broke baseball’s color barrier and embodied integration’s promise.
36 William Jennings Bryan
“The Great Commoner” lost three presidential elections, but his populism transformed the country.

37 J. P. Morgan
The great financier and banker was the prototype for all the Wall Street barons who followed.

38 Susan B. Anthony
She was the country’s most eloquent voice
for women’s equality under the law.

39 Rachel Carson
The author of Silent Spring was godmother to the environmental movement.

40 John Dewey
He sought to make the public school a training ground for democratic life.
41 Harriet Beecher Stowe
Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin inspired a generation of abolitionists and set the stage for civil war.

42 Eleanor Roosevelt
She used the first lady’s office and the mass media to become “first lady of the world.”



43 W. E. B. DuBois
One of America’s great intellectuals,
he made the “problem of the color line” his life’s work.








44 Lyndon Baines Johnson
His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us Vietnam.

45 Samuel F. B. Morse
Before the Internet, there was Morse code.

46 William Lloyd Garrison
Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he became the voice of abolition.

47 Frederick Douglass
After escaping from slavery, he pricked the nation’s conscience with an eloquent accounting of its crimes.

48 Robert Oppenheimer
The father of the atomic bomb
and the regretful midwife of the nuclear era.

49 Frederick Law Olmsted
The genius behind New York’s Central Park,
he inspired the greening of America’s cities.

50 James K. Polk
This one-term president’s Mexican War landgrab gave us California, Texas, and the Southwest.

51 Margaret Sanger
The ardent champion of birth control—and of the sexual freedom that came with it.

52 Joseph Smith
The founder of Mormonism, America’s most famous homegrown faith.
53 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Known as “The Great Dissenter,” he wrote Supreme Court opinions that continue to shape American jurisprudence.


54 Bill Gates
The Rockefeller of the Information Age,
in business and philanthropy alike.







55 John Quincy Adams
The Monroe Doctrine’s real author, he set nineteenth-century America’s diplomatic course.

56 Horace Mann
His tireless advocacy of universal public schooling earned him the title “The Father of American Education.”

57 Robert E. Lee
He was a good general but a better symbol, embodying conciliation in defeat.

58 John C. Calhoun
The voice of the antebellum South, he was slavery’s most ardent defender.

59 Louis Sullivan
The father of architectural modernism, he shaped the defining American building: the skyscraper.

60 William Faulkner
The most gifted chronicler of America’s tormented and fascinating South.

61 Samuel Gompers
The country’s greatest labor organizer,
he made the golden age of unions possible.

62 William James
The mind behind Pragmatism, America’s most important philosophical school.

63 George Marshall
As a general, he organized the American effort in World War II; as a statesman, he rebuilt Western Europe.

64 Jane Addams
The founder of Hull House, she became the secular saint of social work.

65 Henry David Thoreau
The original American dropout, he has inspired seekers of authenticity for 150 years.


66 Elvis Presley
The king of rock and roll. Enough said.








67 P. T. Barnum
The circus impresario’s taste for spectacle paved the way for blockbuster movies and reality TV.

68 James D. Watson
He codiscovered DNA’s double helix, revealing the code of life to scientists and entrepreneurs alike.

69 James Gordon Bennett
As the founding publisher of The New York Herald, he invented the modern American newspaper.

70 Lewis and Clark
They went west to explore, and millions followed in their wake.

71 Noah Webster
He didn’t create American English, but his dictionary defined it.

72 Sam Walton
He promised us “Every Day Low Prices,”
and we took him up on the offer.

73 Cyrus McCormick
His mechanical reaper spelled the end of traditional farming, and the beginning of industrial agriculture.

74 Brigham Young
What Joseph Smith founded, Young preserved, leading the Mormons to their promised land.

75 George Herman “Babe” Ruth
He saved the national pastime in the wake of the Black Sox scandal—and permanently linked sports and celebrity.

76 Frank Lloyd Wright
America’s most significant architect, he was the archetype of the visionary artist at odds with capitalism.

77 Betty Friedan
She spoke to the discontent of housewives everywhere—
and inspired a revolution in gender roles.







78 John Brown
Whether a hero, a fanatic, or both, he provided the spark for the Civil War.

79 Louis Armstrong
His talent and charisma took jazz from the cathouses of Storyville to Broadway, television, and beyond.
80 William Randolph Hearst
The press baron who perfected yellow journalism and helped start the Spanish-American War.

81 Margaret Mead
With Coming of Age in Samoa, she made anthropology relevant—and controversial.
82 George Gallup
He asked Americans what they thought, and the politicians listened.

83 James Fenimore Cooper
The novels are unreadable, but he was the first great mythologizer of the frontier.

84 Thurgood Marshall
As a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice,
he was the legal architect of the civil-rights revolution.

85 Ernest Hemingway
His spare style defined American modernism, and his life made machismo a cliché.

86 Mary Baker Eddy
She got off her sickbed and founded Christian Science, which promised spiritual healing to all.

87 Benjamin Spock
With a single book—and a singular approach—he changed American parenting.
88 Enrico Fermi
A giant of physics, he helped develop quantum theory and was instrumental in building the atomic bomb.

89 Walter Lippmann
The last man who could swing an election with a newspaper column.

90 Jonathan Edwards
Forget the fire and brimstone: his subtle eloquence made him the country’s most influential theologian.
91 Lyman Beecher
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s clergyman father earned fame as an abolitionist and an evangelist.


92 John Steinbeck
As the creator of Tom Joad,
he chronicled Depression-era misery.







93 Nat Turner
He was the most successful rebel slave; his specter would stalk the white South for a century.

94 George Eastman
The founder of Kodak democratized photography with his handy rolls of film.

95 Sam Goldwyn
A producer for forty years, he was the first great Hollywood mogul.

96 Ralph Nader
He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president.

97 Stephen Foster
America’s first great songwriter, he brought us “O! Susanna” and “My Old Kentucky Home.”

98 Booker T. Washington
As an educator and a champion of self-help,
he tried to lead black America up from slavery.

99 Richard Nixon
He broke the New Deal majority, and then broke his presidency on a scandal that still haunts America.

100 Herman Melville
Moby Dick was a flop at the time, but Melville is remembered as the American Shakespeare.

found on atlantic.com