Cool historical figure (prior to 1850)
 

I have to write a five page paper on a historical figure and I wanted to see if the tfp could help me find someone cool to write about. I'm kinda thinking Ben Franklin or Alexander Hamilton, but I was thinking maybe you guys could give me some suggestions.

Please help me :)

Don't go with Americans (unless you have to.) I'd do someone from the classical civs(Greece, Rome, ect.) Ceaser or Antony would be good. Or Pericles. The only problem would be finding five pages of info on the old folks.
Try Joan of Arc. She's famous enough.

Don't go American? Why not??

Franklin is probably the greatest American that ever lived. In a time before there was an "America", he was the person that first got us thinking of ourselves as "Americans" and not just "Virginians", "New Yorkers", "Rhode Islanders", etc.

He was incredibly talented as an inventor (the pot bellied stove), as a scientist (first ascribing the charge of the electron (he guessed wrong)), as a statesman (almost singlehandedly responsible for getting France to help us in the revolutionary war, with out whose help we probably would have lost), and as a writer (writing the famous 'Poor Richard's Almanac).

How many people can you say all that about?

Well, Charlemagne did take over half of Europe, which is pretty cool! :)

No, seriously, you should probably pick somebody who interests you. Even if you know little
about them, but they still spark your interest anyways, do it on them... Even though reports
suck, you still learn quite abit about a person/subject while doing it, and may further your
interests in said subject.










DO CHARLEMAGNE! :)

Well, Napolean took over more than half and founded a code of laws that we still use today.

Alexander the Great destroyed the Persians.

Hannibal Barca was one of the greatest tactical minds in history, his action at Cannae is still studied in millitary colleges today.

Science wise, Archimedes discovered the lever principle and the basic principles of fluid statics. He also came amazingly close to inventing calculus a full 1000 years before Newton.

Akhenaten converted the entire nation of Egypt to monotheism (Atenism).

There's an interesting selection.

i'd try to help but i dont really understand the assignment.
write about a historical figure?
write what?
i assume that there is some kind of research to this, yes?
what kind?


because i feel like typing more, for some reason (other work to avoid, aye there's the rub) i figure "an interesting historical figure" could be translated into: who would you resent least having to have dinner with?

personally, i find military types supremely dull. whacking and dismembering, even if done with great skill, seems to me pretty tedious stuff. achilles and hector were probably both dreadful to have dinner with. napoleon? by all accounts, he was kind of--o how to put this---a horrifying jerk as a person. probably a self-obsessed bore at dinner. yes yes, but let's talk about me.

really wealthy people? too often pinheads behind the trappings of wealth. dinner would be good, but you would probably have to drink excessively to deal with the conversation. which would push you away from being interested and into the o no i am drunk and it is really inappropriate to be drunk space. not good. not worth the real or imagined humiliation. run away.

franklin---for a provincial boob he was pretty versatile. on the other hand, he worked the "i-am-the-guy-who-wears-a-beaver-hat" thing pretty well in paris. so i suspect he could have been fun to have dinner with. particularly if he wore the hat.

i would say pascal, but then again he was a jansenist and i am not sure they did dinner.

rabelais--now there is a fellow who would have been great to hang out with.
a guy who knew the value of wine and fine food.
someone who was really funny too.

cervantes would be similar, but a bit sadder.

for americans, i would say emily dickenson, but i suspect she would not return your calls.

How about Helen of Troy or King Tut or William Wallace or Charles Stuart or Mary Queen of Scots

if i were you, i'd go with one of the most colorful characters in all of classical history... Alcibiades.

other suggestions:
saladin
saint augustine
ieyasu tokugawa
erik the red
gustavus adolphus

There are a lot of colorful characters in American history who were important in their time but aren't well remembered now.

If you were going to write a book called "Heroic Nerds of American History," one of your main characters would be a guy named Henry Knox. He ran a bookstore in Boston before the revolutionary war, and he was a military buff. He liked to chat up British officers and talk about earthworks and fortifications; they were his hobby. He was over six feet tall and well over 300 pounds. If he were around today, he'd be a serious gamer.

And when George Washington needed somebody to lay out earthworks for the revolutionary army in and around Boston, Knox was his man. He did the job. He was happy as a pig in shit. Moreover, he sealed the defeat of the British in Bostom by bringing captured British artillery from 300 miles away down nonexistent roads and frozen rivers in the dead of winter and surrounding Boston with them. The British left without a fight. The story of his retrieval of the guns is great; it reads like an adventure novel. They named Fort Knox after him. He was one of Washington's best pals, loved to eat, and died at a relatively early age from choking on a chicken bone. Definitely biography material.

The other interesting dude from Revolutionary War times was a guy named Baron Von Steuben. He wasn't really a baron, he was a down-and-out Prussian drillmaster. But some people thought that the American army wasn't disciplined enough to win against the British, and they brough this guy over (as a "baron," to give him more authority), to drill the army. And he did, through long winters at Valley Forge and elsewhere. His English was terrible, and sometimes he'd just lose it over the troop's incompetence and start raving at them in German. And they'd laugh, and he'd laugh with them. Anyway, he was a key figure in the American victory, apparently a great guy, and much beloved by those who remember him, who aren't many.

Joshua Chamberlain
Though he really didn't make a name for himself until the Civil War... so the years might be off... he's just a fascinating fgure

http://www.curtislibrary.com/pejepscot/joshbiog.htm

Hideyoshi!

Totally awesome... born so poor he wasn't allowed to have a family name, ended up supreme commander unifying Japan after centuries of civil war. And if that isn't enough, he then invaded Korea and went insane! Really great topic.

<a href="http://www.samurai-archives.com/hideyoshi.html">http://www.samurai-archives.com/hideyoshi.html</a>

iratedplatypus has some good suggestions.

Alcibiades was certainly an interesting figure, "changing sides" several times and quite a military tactican; strategically his support for the Sicilian campaign was pretty misguided.

I also like the idea of

Michael Collins; tragic figure in the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Civil War

Augustus (or Octavian if you prefer); the first Roman emperor.

Mohammed; the creator of the Islamic faith and probably one of the most influential people the world has ever seen. Very interesting.

Oliver Cromwell; an Parson's son who became a regicide and ruler of Britain's short-lived republic. Both revered and reviled (depending upon if you're English or Irish!).

Crazy Horse; the famous Native American warrior of the Lakota tribe (I think)

Pesistratus; the tyrant of Athens

Martin Luther; instigator of the Reformation

Shaka; creator of the Zulu nation

Genghis Khan; leader of the Mongol tribes that conquered most of the "Known World"


The list is endless. Choose something or period from history in which you have an interest.

I would say that Aaron Burr is cool and im a big fan of Emmerson too!

Leonardo da Vinci. There can be only one.

Here's the swedish contribution: Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) or Karl XII (Carolus). Intresting persons and militairy brilliant. Both killed in combat.

Andrew Jackson. President, General, Guerilla leader.

I've always been a fan of Jan Sobieski (yeah, one of the more obsure ones). He was a Polish general who brought an army to lift the Turkish siege of Vienna.

Ach, the suggestions are mostly men. If you want to increase your chances of a higher grade, play the gender card and write about a famous female.

Try writing about Clara Schumann, the wife of composer Robert Schumann and the premiere female composer of the 19th century.
http://www.geneva.edu/~dksmith/clara/schumann.html

The Byzantine Emperor Justinian is interesting...his wife Theodora maybe a more racy subject, depending on who you believe.

The Secret History by Procopius covers them like a supermarket tabloid from the 500's.

Very fair comment.

How about Marie Curie?


Mr Mephisto

Anne Hutchinson
Abigail Adams

Deborah Sampson
(disguised herself as a man, and fought in the Revolutionary War.)

I recently read about this guy:
Emperor Norton
I think his story is hilarious :D

more serious
Shaka Zulu

Daniel Webster

a man who helped hold this country together through one of its roughest times

http://www.marshfield.net/History/webster.htm

Leonardo Da Vinci would be an interesting choice if you respect the guy, and how could you not?
He was the first person to come up with the blue prints for the airplane.
Among his other wonderful credits he was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. And of course, he did paint the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, which aren't too shabby:)
And if you find him boring, there are others: Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian to list a few.

Nicolas Chauvin

Vlad the Impaler
Peter the Great
Octavian
Socrates
Plato
Constantine
Nero

So, Xiangsu, who did you pick?

Jesus?
The Marquis de Sade?
Nero?
Hannibal?
Susanna Moodie (Canadians nod here)

Octavian?

Not many people refer to him with that name any more! :) I suspect most people would be more familiar with his more famous name...


Mr Mephisto

Octavian is better known as Mr Mephisto? Now I'm confused...