"The Unremembered Dead"

Who, among all the individuals who have called America home, deserves renown? Who (on the other hand) gets listed on the 'ten most famous Americans since the time of Columbus' list as chosen by 2000 high school students? Shouldn't there be significant overlap? Anthony Esolen takes a look. At first glance, the teens seem to be absorbing PC, and are swayed mightily by celebrity, while people of high significance and achievement don't seem to be on their radar screen.

So, perhaps we should be doing more history blogging? I'm game. How about you?

Esolen is collecting top ten lists, if you'd like to pop over and join the conversation. Promise me you'll be civil. Some of the commenters seem to be bordering on testy. (This brings up another reason I generally avoid 'top ten' lists. People will get testy over their favorites in a tight field...)

If you ask your kids to list the top ten famous people from America (or Canada, or wherever you live), and the results aren't too embarrassing (how often do kids know what their parents think they know???), perhaps you'd like to share?