< Return to Adherents.

com homepage

The 100 Greatest Men of All Time

The list below is from the book 100 Greatest Men (Grolier Educational: Danbury, Connecticut; 1997), written by Michael Pollard. The names in this list are listed in categories (humanitarians; thinkers and philosophers; kings, emperors and politicians; religious leaders; musicians and composers; writers; painters, sculptors and architects; stage, screen and photography; scientists; inventors; explorers and pioneers). The book's introduction (pages 6-7) notes: This book tells the stories of many of the greatest men in history. Some, like Kublai Khan, the great ruler of the Mongols, and Peter the Great in Russia, were born princes and so, in time, became rulers of empirers. Others, like the writer Mark Twain and the aviators Wilbur and Orville Wright, faced a long, hard struggle to make their names. A third group, which includes Martin Luther King and Mikhail Gorbachev, found themselves caught up in political events which put them in positions of challenge and leadership. One thing that all these men, and the others in this book, had in common was determination... "Greatness" does not always mean "goodness." Among the great men in this book are some who left a blank mark on world history. Shi Huangdi, Emperor of China in the third century BC, ruled his empire ruthlessly. Death was the only punishment for disobeying his laws. Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, had his son tortured to death for treason... These, and others whose stories have a dark side, have been included because, for good or evil, they left their mark on the age they lived in. Humanitarians Albert Schweitzer Chiune Sugihara Raoul Wallenberg Martin Luther King, Jr. Desmond Tutu The Dalai Lama Han Dongfang

1875-1965 1900-1986 1912-c.1947 1929-1968 193119351963-

Lutheran

Baptist Anglican Tibetan Buddhism

Thinkers and Philosophers Lao Zi [Lao Tzu] c. 600 B.C. Confucius 551-479 B.C.

Taoism Confucianism

Socrates Plato Aristotle Niccolo Machiavelli John Locke Jean-Jacques Rousseau Karl Marx

469-399 B.C. c. 427-347 B.C. 384-322 B.C. 1469-1527 1632-1704 1712-1778 1818-1883

Greek philosophy Platonism / Greek philosophy Platonism / Greek philosophy Catholic raised Puritan (Anglican); Liberal Christian born Protestant; converted as a teen to Catholic; later Deist Jewish; Lutheran; Atheist; Marxism/Communism

Kings, Emperors and Politicians Hammurabi Alexander the Great Asoka Shi Huangdi Julius Caesar Charlemagne Kublai Khan Peter the Great George Washington Napoleon Bonaparte Simon Bolivar Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi Kemal Ataturk Franklin D. Roosevelt Nelson Mandela Mikhail Gorbachev Religious Leaders Zoroaster Muhammad Buddha Moses c. 1792-1750 B.C. 356-323 c. 300-232 B.C. 259-210 B.C. c. 100-44 B.C. 742-814 A.D. 1214-1294 1672-1725 1732-1799 1769-1821 1783-1830 1809-1865 1869-1948 1881-1938 1882-1945 19181931Russian Orthodox Episcopalian Russian Orthodox Episcopalian Catholic (nominal) Catholic (nominal); Atheist Regular Baptist (childhood); later ambiguous Deist, general theist or a very personalized Christianity

Greek state paganism Buddhism Roman state paganism Catholic

Hindu (mother was a Jain)

c. 628-c. 551 B.C. Zoroastrianism c. 570-632 A.D. c. 13th century B.C. Islam c. 563-c. 483 B.C. Hinduism; Buddhism Judaism

Jesus Christ Martin Luther

c. 6 B.C.-c. 30 A.D. 1483-1546

Judaism; Christianity Catholic; Lutheran Lutheran Catholic Catholic Catholic Jewish Baptist

Musicians and Composers Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791 Ludwig van Beethoven Richard Wagner Arturo Toscanini George Gershwin Louis Armstrong The Beatles Writers Homer Virgil Dante Alighieri William Shakespeare Moliere Charles Dickens Mark Twain Bertolt Brecht 17770-1827 1813-1883 1867-1957 1898-1937 1898-1971 formed 1960

c. 700-c. 800 B.C. Greek paganism 70-19 B.C. 1265-1321 1564-1616 1622-1673 1812-1870 1835-1910 1898-1956 Catholic Dutch Reformed Anglican Catholic Catholic; Anglican Catholic Anglican Presbyterian

Painters, Sculptors and Architects Michelangelo 1475-1564 Rembrandt Christopher Wren Katsushika Hokusai Joseph Mallord William Turner Vincent van Gogh Frank Lloyd Wright Pablo Picasso Le Corbusier Charlie Chaplin Jean Renoir 1606-1669 1632-1723 1760-1849 1775-1851 1853-1890 1869-1959 1881-1973 1887-1965 1889-1977 1894-1979

Dutch Reformed Unitarian Catholic

Stage, Screen and Photography Anglican; agnostic Catholic

Sergei Eisenstein Henri Cartier-Bresson Orson Welles Steven Spielberg Scientists Euclid Archimedes Leonardo da Vinci Galileo Galilei Isaac Newton James Watt Michael Faraday Charles Darwin Louis Pasteur Joseph Lister Sigmund Freud Albert Einstein Alexander Fleming Linus Pauling James Watson and Francis Crick Inventors Zai Lun Johannes Gutenberg Samuel Morse Nikolaus Otto Alfred Nobel Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Alva Edison Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright Guglielmo Marconi Explorers and Pioneers

1898-1948 19081915-1985 1947-

Russian Orthodox; Marxist; Freudian Protestant Christian Judaism

c. 330-c. 260 B.C. Platonism / Greek philosophy c. 287-212 B.C. 1452-1519 1564-1642 1642-1727 1736-1819 1791-1867 1809-1882 1822-1895 1827-1912 1856-1939 1879-1955 1881-1955 1901-1994 1928-; 1916Greek philosophy Catholic Catholic Anglican (rejected Trinitarianism, i.e.,
Athanasianism; believed in the Arianism of the Primitive Church)

Presbyterian (lapsed) Sandemanian Anglican (nominal); Unitarian Catholic Quaker Jewish; atheist; Freudian psychology/psychoanalysis Jewish Catholic Lutheran

c. 50-118 A.D. 1400-1468 1791-1872 1832-1891 1833-1896 1847-1922 1847-1931 Unitarian Congregationalist; agnostic Catholic Christianity

1871-1948; 1867United Brethren 1912 1847-1937 Catholic and Anglican

Marco Polo Christopher Columbus Ferdinand Magellan Roald Amundsen Yuri Gagarin Neil Armstrong

c. 1254-1324 1451-1506 1480-1521 1872-1928 1934-1968 1930-

Catholic Catholic Catholic

Webpage created 11 June 2005. Last modified 6 December 2005. We are always striving to increase the accuracy and usefulness of our website. We are happy to hear from you. Please submit questions, suggestions, comments, corrections, etc. to: webmaster@adherents.com.