American Geniuses

[HORNS]

I was wondering who you guys think are some of the greatest minds and talent that the United States has produced. This is a gray-area subject since there are so many immigrants that have called the U.S. home, so I would say that you can feel free to bring these people up for discussion.

Some geniuses that come to my mind are:

Edgar Allen Poe
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
Sam Maloof

These individuals were born on American soil but there are others that lived here but immigrated, like Albert Einstein, who became an American citizen as an adult. I would still include him because some people you guys may bring up could have been born in the U.S. but spent a significant amount of their lives studying or working abroad.

 

[FLMountainMan]

Rockefeller
Jobs
Posner
John Marshall
Learned Hand
Hawking
Sagan

 

[Lighthouse]

Lighthouse

OTT

 

[Lighthouse]

Hubble

 

[HORNS]



Rockefeller
Jobs
Posner
John Marshall
Learned Hand
Hawking
Sagan

Hawking? He's British, no?

 

[Thomas]



I was wondering who you guys think are some of the greatest minds and talent that the United States has produced. This is a gray-area subject since there are so many immigrants that have called the U.S. home, so I would say that you can feel free to bring these people up for discussion.
Some geniuses that come to my mind are:
Edgar Allen Poe
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
Sam Maloof
These individuals were born on American soil but there are others that lived here but immigrated, like Albert Einstein, who became an American citizen as an adult. I would still include him because some people you guys may bring up could have been born in the U.S. but spent a significant amount of their lives studying or working abroad.

Sam Maloof who makes the rocking chairs with exposed joinery? He's a marvelous craftsman but genius? I'd take Krenov over Maloof, but that's just my preference. Also, not sure Krenov's origin

How about:

T. Edison
B. Franklin
M. Anton
S. Clemens
R. Oppenheimer

 

[dfagdfsh]

what? steve jobs? no

richard feynmen..

 

[curzon]



Hawking? He's British, no?

Inside every Pom is an American struggling to get out.

-FMJ

 

[why]

Born and lived most of their lives in America:

Michelson
Morley
Oppenheimer
Gibbs
Peirce

I thought Fritz London was American (because of the odd last name) but apparently he was born in Europe. Hrm.

The list of people that weren't born in America is huge, though.

 

[Lighthouse]

We'll have to break this down a bit. Pure IQ points is not going to do it, because there are plenty of geniuses who you'll never hear about. So it has to include accomplishment, too. That being said, there are 10 American geniuses.

 

[Pennglock]

Paul Samuelson (who basically invented the modern practice of economics) and Milton Friedman

Edward Witten (physics, math)

E. T. Jaynes (stats)

Most of my picks would come from the arts, though...

Dickenson
Whitman
Melville
Wallace Stevens
Hart Crane
McCarthy
Pynchon
Andre Dubus (the first, not his hack grandson)

Louis Armstrong
Coltrane
Evans
...Iggy Pop, I could go on and on

 

[Lighthouse]



Paul Samuelson (who basically invented the modern practice of economics) and Milton Friedman
Edward Witten (physics, math)
E. T. Jaynes (stats)
Most of my picks would come from the arts, though...
Dickenson
Whitman
Melville
Wallace Stevens
Hart Crane
McCarthy
Pynchon
Andre Dubus (the first, not his hack grandson)
Louis Armstrong
Coltrane
Evans
...Iggy Pop, I could go on and on

Good list.

Edison
Hemingway
Bernstein
Frost
John Marshall Harlan II

 

[why]

I don't see the point of including anyone outside of mathematics and the sciences as a genius. Maybe some people like Shakespeare would qualify, but Thomas Pynchon? Robert Frost? I wouldn't even include them in a list of worthwhile writers let alone among people like Gibbs.

Good call on Witten. Weinberg should probably be up there with him too.

 

[The Thin Man]

Emerson. And why is wrong about Pynchon and Frost.

 

[Lighthouse]



I don't see the point of including anyone outside of mathematics and the sciences as a genius. Maybe some people like Shakespeare would qualify, but Thomas Pynchon? Robert Frost? I wouldn't even include them in a list of worthwhile writers let alone among people like Gibbs.

The hard sciences have already been well represented in the thread. One could argue that any PhD in physics is a genius in terms of raw intellectual power. But I don't think listing Mensa or physics faculty was the purpose of OP; after all, Teddy Roosevelt was included in the list.

Your view of genius is far too narrow for purposes of this thread.