Who's Your Historical Hero?

[12volt_man]

Ronald Reagan.

Apart from Jesus Christ, I can't name one person who had so much impact on shaping my worldview.

 

[eaglex]

My heroes JESUS CHRIST he is my LORD AND SAVIOUR
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE a man of priniciple
GENERAL "STONEWALL" JACKSON showed bravery in battle.
Both who were Christian men.

 

[Andy Broadley]

Sir Winston Churchill, without whom I would now be speaking German.

Alaxander Bell and Thomas Edison - probably created the first building blocks towards us being online today.

That Russian linesman in the 1966 world cup final

One more for the pot.

Sir Walter Raleigh. Brought tea to England. What a guy!!!

 

[koneko-chan]

Historical heroes. Hard. There are an awful lot of historical people, you know, and most of them are truly unsung. But my all time hero has to be Sozo Sagara, of 19th Century Japan. A man who stood up and shouted for all the right reasons, and non-violent too, leader of the first unit of the Sekiho Army who gathered intelligence and recruits. Called for tax cuts to the peasants and abolition of the four class system, and this was a wealthy guy. In the end the government found they couldn't afford to cut taxes and accused Sagara's army of being a false governmental army and executed Sagara and eight others on 3rd March. I know I'll be wearing a red bandana on 3rd March.

 

[Star_Pixels]

Joan of Ark. She was the very essence of "girl power" before "Girl power" existed. Plus that, and she was a great army leader as a child, which shows that children are capable of a lot more than adults give them credit for.

It would be wicked to be able to be her for a second.

 

[Confessing Lutheran]

John Quincy Adams. A statesman if there ever was one.

 

[Father Niko]

Some of the greatest and noblest people in my mind were unfortunately on the wrong side of the wars...

Baron von Richtofen (the Red Baron) and Field Marshall Rommel (the Desert Fox) were both great leaders, earning the trust and repect of both their allies and enemies. Both tended not to involve themselves with any of the barbaric practices seen in the war with von Richtofen having even returned personal effects of the pilots he downed to the British aerodromes by parachute.

Rommel ignored orders from Hitler to torture and kill prisoners and even ordered his troops' water rationed so that the prisoners had enough to drink. He has been implicated in the plot to bomb Hitler though it's not very clear what sorta part he played in it. Around the time of the Normandy invasion there is evidence he was testing the loyalties of other officers were Hitler to die, who they would follow and what they would do. He even managed to secure the top Waffen SS officer in his area as someone who would want to end the war. (Can't remember his name off the top of my head)

Both this guys are very reminiscent of the knights of old, fighting not out of hatred, but simply out of a sense of duty. They both died during the wars, going out fighting (well, not really for Rommel, but close enough) and followed to higher moral standards than most other officers. Doesn't hurt that they were both exceedingly good at what they did.

Someone else like this is perhaps General Patton - great leader, fiery personality and awesome at his job. It's been said even that Hitler feared him so much that when the Allies were staging for the invasion of Normandy, they faked that he was preparing an assault at Pas de Calais, the closest point between mainland France and Great Britain. Hiltler ordered that the elite SS units stationed at Pas de Calais not be moved because he was so scared of Patton coming over there. Even after Normandy was overrun, it still took a day or so before he allowed the troops to be moved, thinking that Normandy was a diversion for Patton.

So ya, I love war heros and great leaders.

I also like Sir Drake because apparently my family is traceable back to him and his cousin (can't remember his name either... geez... must be tired or something) on my mom's side... I'd love to actually do that research sometime...

Yep Erwin Rommel was very noble, too bad that he died

 

[SnowDove]

Lady Jane Grey. She took the throne of England for a total of 8 or 9 days, I believe, and was overthrown and killed when she refused to recant her Protestant beliefs. It's a rather intriguing story, her family...husband...lineage...death...etc. I just admire how she stood up for what she believed...even up to her beheading.

 

[thomasrick]

Joan of Ark. She stands alone in history. She won a court case without

representation at age 16, having never seen a courthouse. She is the

only person in history to have supreme command of a nation's armys at

the age of 17. Search the history books and try to find anyone else who

did as she did without any training, studying, or any formal education.

She answered the court that tried her point for point for 3 months and

never lost faith in God or the mission she felt he had given her. Mark

Twain wrote that she was without peer in all of "profane" history, as

he put it.

 

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

Isn't it true that Joan D'Arc did not become the focus of much historical attention until the women's suffrage & other women's lib. issues began to come to the front? Could it be that historians began to embellish her to have a hero for women to look up to? Was she not given sainthood but 100 years ago?

Conversely, it could also be true that historians igonred her because she was a woman until politically it was more acceptable to paint women in this manner.

Manfred Von Richthofen, an interesting choice. He certainly showed a great deal of chivalry and excellent leadership during the war. He was indeed honored and respected by flyers on both sides of the front. That is one of the things that I love about the air war over Europe during the Great War. There were exceptions to this chivalrous atmosphere, such as Edward Mannock, but the rule seems to be that pilots on both sides should respect and honor towards one another.

I've been reading a book on the Byzantines and so far about two emperors have really captured my imagination. Heraclius, the first Crusader, who recovered the fragment of the cross and temporarlily liberated Jerusalem. The other would be Alexius Comnenus who reigned during the time of the First Crusade.

 

[Topaz]

Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

 

[Mistyfogg]

Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Exactly who I was going to put. But it would seem predictable since I am a feminist.

Everytime it is "voting season", I get on my soapbox to all my female friends and stress the importance of voting and how there are women before us who fought for that right (among other womens rights). To not honor that right is like spitting on their grave.

 

[Aduro Amnis]

I know that I said Lenin earlier (at least I think I did), but I have to complete a list:
1. Christ
2. Lenin
3. Luxemborg (Rosa)
4. Connolly
5. Engels

 

[Lifesaver]

Isn't it true that Joan D'Arc did not become the focus of much historical attention until the women's suffrage & other women's lib. issues began to come to the front? Could it be that historians began to embellish her to have a hero for women to look up to? Was she not given sainthood but 100 years ago?

Joan D'arc was a saintly soldier, "holiness in armor" as she is also called, persecuted by corrupted French clergymen (such as the Bishop of Beauvais), with the help of the English (who were furious about their defeat), having to go through an unfair trial and ultimately executed.

She was only officially canonized, I believe, in 1920, by Pope Benedict XV.

Today's feminist movements may try to use her image, but do not for a moment believe in the usual lies they say about her, as she was a genuine Catholic, and therefore against the radical feminism (which is actually the attempt to do away with feminility once and for all) we see today.

Conversely, it could also be true that historians igonred her because she was a woman until politically it was more acceptable to paint women in this manner.

She was not ignored by the general population.
Even in England the animosity towards her had been dropped by the 19th century, and in France she was greatly admired.

All this information and more on her I got at the Catholic Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm

 

[JellybeanCat]

Hands down, Theodore Roosevelt was the most phenomenal leader of the 20th century. He cleaned corruption from every government body in which he worked. Then he led the environmental movement, labor reform, and civil rights movements. Had he remained president on more term, we'd have seen women's suffrage survive and probably avoided the mistakes that led to WWI.

Behind him, I adore French author Victor Hugo. Beyond the quality of his literature, he was also a social reformer at a level unprecedented in French history.

Finally, for all you feminists, please consider the vast contributions of Alinore of Aquitaine and Mary Magdalene. Too vast to go into in this thread, these two women did more to create the modern world than anyone ever gives them credit for doing.

 

[JellybeanCat]

Joan D'arc was a saintly soldier, "holiness in armor" as she is also called, persecuted by corrupted French clergymen (such as the Bishop of Beauvais), with the help of the English (who were furious about their defeat), having to go through an unfair trial and ultimately executed.

She was only officially canonized, I believe, in 1920, by Pope Benedict XV.

Today's feminist movements may try to use her image, but do not for a moment believe in the usual lies they say about her, as she was a genuine Catholic, and therefore against the radical feminism (which is actually the attempt to do away with feminility once and for all) we see today.


She was not ignored by the general population.
Even in England the animosity towards her had been dropped by the 19th century, and in France she was greatly admired.

All this information and more on her I got at the Catholic Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm

I actually did my Masters thesis on Joan of Arc's trial. You're right that the English were behind it, with the aid of the theologians from the Universite of Paris who were under the control of the English bishops.

History didn't forget Joan. The thing to remember is that the Cause of Saints was not as "liberal" 500 years ago as it is today. She was held to a much higher scrutiny than Torquemada is getting today. 500 years to achieve canonization wasn't so unusual. The reason that the feminists did latch onto her in the 20th century is that her canonization in Rome coincided with the successful end of the Women's suffrage movement.

 

[eaglex]

First off my heroes:
JESUS CHRIST because HE saved manking from their sins.
2.Together Robert E. Lee and General Stone wall Jackson 2 men of the genteel South who wouln't turn against their states and 2 Christians who kept their faith during the war.Too these 2 I salute them.

 

[Aduro Amnis]

Why support a thug like Robert E. Lee, a man who fought to protect slavery?

 

[Forever trying]

Why support a thug like Robert E. Lee, a man who fought to protect slavery?

I know I'm Australian, but I've done a bit of reading on the American Civil War. Perhaps you've just been misinformed so far given that you're only 14 years old.

But by all rights and accounts, Robert E. Lee was far from a thug. He was a gentleman, and a man of integrity. He didn't like slavery, or agree with it. He actually thought it was an evil concept. As with quite a few of the Southern generals. Whereas, my boy, if you do some more reading, you'd find that a great few of "Northerners" utterley disliked Abraham Lincoln's bill to free the slaves (your own historians talking).

Robert E. Lee didn't join the South because he liked slavery. In fact, he was at one point was offered command of the Northern armies. He joined the Southern States because he believed in the sovereignty of Virginia. He was a patriot. As well, not to doubt Lincoln's heart, but there are many accounts (by your own historians once more) that one of Lincoln's primary reason for passing the anti-slavery bill when he did, was to use it against the South. Including drawing many black former slaves into his armies.

Just because he fought for the South, doesn't mean Robert E. Lee was a racists bully. For example, Tommy Franks (a decent man I believe) led the war into Afghanistan and Iraq. Should the rest of the world take it that he stands for everything we see as bad in America? Such as your gangland violence! Kids shooting other kids at school! Promiscuity! Litigation out of control! Drugs! Poverty! How about your apparent love affair with your "rights to bear arms" speech, includingmachine guns, whenever violence involving fire arms takes place? How nuclear weapons stockpiles and other WMD's? Or everything else that the rest of the world thinks of as insane about American culture? If that's the case, perhaps we should all start aiming our missiles to kill the great American beast!

It doesn't sound fair, does it?

If you're an African-American mate, then I'm sorry if this offends you. Slavery is a true crime against humanity. But the fact is, Robert E. Lee was a man of gentleness and integrity, who loved his country, as well as God. He didn't take any pleasure in war, nor in slavery. Both he despised. He is a man that all you Americans should look up to for who he really was and how he lived his life, and take pride in calling him your own. As many in the world consider him not only a great success as a General (one of the greatest), but also a man.

 

[Fed]

Alexander Hamilton- a reactionary genius.