Invisible Giants Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation but Missed the History Books

by Carnes, Mark C.

• ISBN13: 9780195168839
• ISBN10: 0195168836
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

History records the accomplishments of individuals. For successivegenerations of Americans, iconic figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B.Anthony, Thomas Edison, and Emily Dickinson have been household names and rolemodels, inspiring us all by the lessons their lives teach us. But some greatAmericans, just as worthy, never attain this recognition. Because history is asfallible as the people who record it, many of those who shaped the nation andits future have receded from public memory. In celebration of these lives-and todemonstrate the lasting power history's giants have over their successors-OxfordUniversity Press recently asked fifty accomplished personalities from a diverserange of industries and interests to each select a person from the 24-volumeAmerican National Biography that they felt deserved more attention. Thebiographies of these forgotten figures appear alongside the often-personalcomments of their selectors in Invisible Giants, a varied and lively collectionof portraits celebrating history's forgotten and fading heroes.In Invisible Giants we discover the man who inspired Sherwin Nuland to become adoctor, the writer Jacques Barzun considers America's first cultural critic, andthe woman who taught Tina Brown to bare her teeth. We learn of the poetryrecited to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as a boy, the magazine Helen Gurley Brownrequired every one of her editors to subscribe to, and the book Andy Rooneydeems "better than the Bible and easier to understand." Whether encounteringthese figures for the first time or uncovering surprising details in the livesyou thought you knew, today's public thinkers guide us on a journey into thedeep folds of our rich biographical tapestry.Edited by Mark Carnes and published with the American Council of LearnedSocieties, Invisible Giants introduces one of the nation's most treasuredresources--The American National Biography--to a broad audience by presentingthe architects of our country's past through the eyes of the architects of itsfuture.Invisible Giants includes: James Agee (Sven Birkets)Jessie Daniel Ames (Alan Brinkley)Rodger Nash Baldwin (Richard Avedon)Bela Bartok (John Simon)Sterling Brown (Sharon Olds)John Jay Chapman (Jacques Barzun)John England (Andrew Greeley)Oliver Evans (Harold Evans)Dorothy Fields (David Lehman)Charles Grandison Finney (Edmund Morgan)Arthur Goldberg (Alan Dershowitz)Adolphus Washington Greely (Simon Winchester)Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Wayne Koestenbaum)William Halsted (Sherwin Nuland)Fannie Lou Hamer (Gloria Steinem)Handsome Lake (Wilma Mankiller)Herman Haupt (James McPherson)DuBois Heyward (Stephen Sondheim)Henry Hornbostel (Michael Graves)James Gibbons Huneker (Gary Giddins)Libbie Henrietta Hyman (Steven Jay Gould)Christopher Isherwood (Armistead Maupin)Walter Lippmann (Andy Rooney)Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (Rita Dove)Bronislava Nijinska (Joan Acocella)Albert Jay Nock (William F. Buckley, Jr.)Fairfield Porter (Hilton Kramer)Dawn Powell (Fran Lebowitz)Bayard Rustin (Evan Wolfson)Sequoyah (William Least Heat-Moon)James McCune Smith (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)Joseph Smith (Harold Bloom)Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Tina Brown)Dewitt Wallace (Helen Gurley Brown)

Author Biography

Mark C. Carnes is Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History at Barnard College. In addition to his scholarly works and serving as General Editor of the American National Biography, he is the editor of numerous innovative books bringing together diverse groups of people to discuss history, including Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies and Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past. He lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Johnny Ace	p. 3
James Agee	p. 7
Jessie Daniel Ames	p. 12
Roger Nash Baldwin	p. 16
George Bancroft	p. 23
Bela Bartok	p. 32
Sterling A. Brown	p. 37
A. P. Carter and Sara Carter	p. 42
John Jay Chapman	p. 47
Leon F. Czolgosz	p. 52
Robert Latou Dickinson	p. 57
Dorothy Draper	p. 62
Paul Laurence Dunbar	p. 67
John England	p. 74
Oliver Evans	p. 78
Dorothy Fields	p. 84
Charles Grandison Finney	p. 89
Arthur J. Goldberg	p. 96
Emma Goldman	p. 101
Adolphus Washington Greely	p. 109
Nathanael Greene	p. 114
Charles Tomlinson Griffes	p. 120
John Hoskins Griscom	p. 124
William Halsted	p. 128
Fannie Lou Hamer	p. 133
Handsome Lake	p. 137
Herman Haupt	p. 142
DuBose Heyward	p. 150
Henry Hornbostel	p. 154
James Gibbons Huneker	p. 159
Blind Lemon Jefferson	p. 165
Murray Kempton	p. 170
Walter Lippmann	p. 176
Malcolm X	p. 188
Rocky Marciano	p. 195
Adolf Meyer	p. 202
Lindley Murray	p. 209
Bronislava Nijinska	p. 214
Albert Jay Nock	p. 221
Fairfield Porter	p. 224
Dawn Powell	p. 230
Gisela Richter	p. 235
Bayard Rustin	p. 240
Sequoyah	p. 245
Joseph Smith	p. 249
Melvin B. Tolson	p. 259
Felix Francisco Varela y Morales	p. 265
DeWitt Wallace	p. 270
Ida B. Wells-Barnett	p. 275
Frank W. Woolworth	p. 280
Authors of Articles from the American National Biography	p. 287
Sources and Further Readings	p. 289
The Selectors	p. 311
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