Favorite Historical Figure?
Who is your favorite historical figure, dead or alive? I’ll start. For me, it has to be Alexander the Great. Crowned at 19, dead by 32, he conquered almost all the known world to the Greeks at the time and defeated what was considered the most powerful military force, the Persian empire. I sometimes wonder what the world would look like if his forces hadn’t mutinied and he was allowed to finish his conquest. Good chance we would all be speaking Greek right now.
Mary
Don't worry Isaiah, I stand with you. Personally I'm liking St. Christopher as the patron saint of traveling.
thx bro
Muhammad Ali intrigues me. Throwing away his prime years to stand up to the US government. All these 'famous' athletes nowadays like LeBron can claim they care about social justice / 'popular' societal views but would never put their career earnings on the line like he did.
Ernest Shackleton? In his first expedition to the South Pole he turned him and his men back after getting so close and after months of hauling for fear of not being able to return; it needs to take an incredible amount of self-discipline and concern for others' wellbeing, which is admirable.
Shoutout to Winston Churchill as well. Predictable answer and far from a perfect human being, but you read his biography and get 25% through and think "good grief this man has had a rich and full life", and then remember you haven't even begun to get to all the bits he's famous for.
Napoleon. Came from an obscure, tiny island and conquered an a entire continent. The Napoleonic code was a model for new countries all over the world.
I see your Alexander and I raise my Diogenes
Dwight D Eisenhower, absolute goat
Genghis Khan
I had a really eye-opening experience when I read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World several years ago, fantastic read.
Really like that book ngl
Socrates - known for my favorite quote “I know that I know nothing”
He was also a jacked wrestler who would literally flex on weaker men to win arguments. The original Gigachad.
Imagine going out to get groceries and you see Socrates walking towards you, “fuck not this asshole”
Pre-Arian Emperor Constantine
St Paul. His biography by N.T. Wright is pretty nuts
John Adams.
John McAfee
Peter the Great.
He embarked on his Grand Embassy in Central/Western Europe for ~1.5 years all while masking his real identity. There he visited all sorts of places, worked as a ship carpenter, studied shipbuilding, learnt about the Dutch and English navies, city planning techniques, everyday life, etc. He met with a host of artists, scientists ,craftsmen, and even had an encounter with William Penn in London where they debated about Quakers. He would come back to Russia with all these experiences, starting a reformation that would modernize and drastically improve the country.
There's way too much information out there about him to go over on here. Incredible stuff really.
The two that I keep coming back to at least in American History are Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, both just absolutely fascinating stories.
As an American, George Washington is my favorite historical figure. The guy had the hand of God Himself on him. Even though he wasn't a great battlefield general, without Washington, the entire revolution would have collapsed as he was the glue that kept the army and politicians together. And when I say he had the hand of God on him, the guy was in countless battles, would ride high on his horse in many of them, and never sustained any serious wound--in fact, I'm not sure he was ever hit. Musket balls would fly through his coat and hat. An inch or less to the left or right and the revolution collapses. I don't think the British were the "bad guys"--I just think America was meant to be and God's sovereign hand was on the revolution's leader. And the great thing is, Washington, as a military man, was thoroughly mediocre, from the French and Indian War to the American Revolution--mediocre, at best. But Providence quite often uses mediocre people to do great things.
Fridtjof Nansen definitely has one of the most insane life stories. His whole life is crazy, but I'd definitely read up on his Fram Expedition to the north pole. His ship got trapped in ice and he got stranded for 8 months and lived off eating bears and walrus.
Julius Caesar (only since Alexander has already been mentioned). If you haven't already you need to watch HBO's ROME.
Caesar murdered around 1 million mostly innocent people largely for his own glory. Not exactly a guy I would have on my short list of favorites. I also would exclude Mao and Hitler for similar reasons.
Rome is so great, need to rewatch that.
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