Most Underrated and Most Overrated Person Since 1660?

[madmatt]

Overrated: Ronald Reagan, the man who wrecked the economy, raised global tensions, allowed AIDS to run unchecked, bankrupted intercity programs, got involved with Saddam, sold weapons to American enemies and pandered so hard to corrupt American businesses that the practice of rewarding businesses for outsourcing American jobs, firing workers and making risky business practices while cutting funding to people who form the middle class became known as "Reaganomics." The man who made it cool to even think that trickle down funding would increase jobs and not just line the pockets of CEOs and executives. When you see on the news that GE, the 2nd largest company in the WORLD, made 3.2 billion from the government and payed no taxes in 2009, even though they have more workers outside of American than inside, thank Reagan for setting the precedent.

Underrated: Henrietta Lacks, a woman who unknowingly saved countless lives without her knowledge. She died of cervical cancer in 1951, but the tissue sample the researchers took showed remarkable vigor, as the cells wouldn't die naturally. Eventually they learned to clone the cells and use them to study genetics, cancer, AIDS, toxicity and to test medicines. They grew 20 tons of cells out of the small sample they took, and she is possibly the greatest unsung hero of the medical world. Her family never even knew about the sample or how it was used until 25 years after her death.

I didn't know that about Lacks, or what someone said about Boltzmann, this is a very informative thread!

 

[EllEzDee]

Overrated: Che Guevara.

How is Ché overrated? Because a lot of shirts with his face exist?

Underrated: Ayatollah Khomeini, but then again any Middle Eastern person is tossed aside simply for being Middle Eastern.

Maybe he's underrated because no one has heard of him. Do you think that part of the world knows about our cultural icons?

Overrated: Napoleon.

Napoléon Bonaparte...is overrated...what? He dragged his country back from the shitter, won a load of wars against a huge number of countries, and has governmental policies and human rights acts that are still in act today. He's like a good version of Hitler, which felt strange to say...

Overrated for me would probably be George Washington Carver. Dude invented peanut butter. Why did I have to learn about him every February? Oh right. He was black.

What on earth happens in your country that you're forced to learn about the same man every year?

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

Well, I would have said Columbus was overrated, if he hadn't been from before 1660, so I'm not really sure now.

As for underrated, I'd say George Washington Carver. Most people know about his work with peanuts, but few know of his equal number of discoveries/inventions/contributions to agriculture regarding soy beans.

I feel weird that your underrated in my overrated. I am just tired of hearing about what he can do with a peanut just because he was black.

It wasn't just that. He also made some of the most significant contributions to agriculture to date, at one point even preventing a famine.

 

[j0frenzy]

Overrated: Che Guevara.

How is Ché overrated? Because a lot of shirts with his face exist?

Underrated: Ayatollah Khomeini, but then again any Middle Eastern person is tossed aside simply for being Middle Eastern.

Maybe he's underrated because no one has heard of him. Do you think that part of the world knows about our cultural icons?

Overrated: Napoleon.

Napoléon Bonaparte...is overrated...what? He dragged his country back from the shitter, won a load of wars against a huge number of countries, and has governmental policies and human rights acts that are still in act today. He's like a good version of Hitler, which felt strange to say...

Overrated for me would probably be George Washington Carver. Dude invented peanut butter. Why did I have to learn about him every February? Oh right. He was black.

What on earth happens in your country that you're forced to learn about the same man every year?

It's called Black History Month, an antiquated tradition where the education systems tries to teach American students about famous black people. The problem is that there is little variety to the education lessons and little depth to any of it so we basically learn about how George Washington Carver inventing peanut butter, Martin Luther King Jr. marching through Alabama and getting shot later and Jackie Robinson being the first black major league baseball player. It gets a little tiring.

Well, I would have said Columbus was overrated, if he hadn't been from before 1660, so I'm not really sure now.

As for underrated, I'd say George Washington Carver. Most people know about his work with peanuts, but few know of his equal number of discoveries/inventions/contributions to agriculture regarding soy beans.

I feel weird that your underrated in my overrated. I am just tired of hearing about what he can do with a peanut just because he was black.

It wasn't just that. He also made some of the most significant contributions to agriculture to date, at one point even preventing a famine.

Norman Borlaug also saved people from famine and I only know about him because he got mention of West Wing once. I resent Carver because but for the fact he was black, American would not be forced to learn about him throughout elementary school. Too be fair though, when I said that I was forgetting about Crispus Attucks. I hold more against a guy whose only claim to fame is getting shot but is still widely known for some reason.

 

[Andothul]

Overrated: Margaret Thatcher

Underrated: Andrew Jackson

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

snip

You're also discounting that he lived at a point in time where he had to work exponentially harder for his accomplishments because of his race.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Overrated: Obama, he hasn't done shit and he got a Nobel fucking prize for it.

Underrated: Nikola Tesla, for reasons posted in this thread already.
There's also this: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html

 

[j0frenzy]

snip

You're also discounting that he lived at a point in time where he had to work exponentially harder for his accomplishments because of his race.

Granted. I don't think he didn't do anything, just not anything important enough to get drilled in my head at a young age. I mostly pin the blame on me caring so much about him on Black History Month and he is sort of my poster child of what is wrong with it. If he were white, I would probably know nothing about him and would be very interested in what you had to say about him.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

snip

You're also discounting that he lived at a point in time where he had to work exponentially harder for his accomplishments because of his race.

Granted. I don't think he didn't do anything, just not anything important enough to get drilled in my head at a young age. I mostly pin the blame on me caring so much about him on Black History Month and he is sort of my poster child of what is wrong with it. If he were white, I would probably know nothing about him and would be very interested in what you had to say about him.

Again, if he'd been white, he wouldn't have the whole 'overcoming adversity' angle.

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

Overrated: Napoleon.

Underrated:... Can't really say.

In response to Napoleon being overrated uh Austerlitz ever heard of it?United Germany?How about modern europe?
Overrated:Ulysses S. Grant
Underrated:Tie between Alexander Suvorov and Robert E. Lee.

 

[DaJoW]

Underrated: Prince Eugene of Savoy. To quote wiki: "[He] was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history [...] helped to save the Habsburg Empire from French conquest; he broke the westward thrust of the Ottomans, liberating central Europe after a century and a half of Turkish occupation; and he was one of the great patrons of the arts whose building legacy can still be seen in Vienna today [...] Napoleon I considered Eugene one of the seven greatest commanders of history." Never heard of him before I stumbled upon him while doing research for a game of Vampires: The Masquerade.

Overrated: In a way I want to say Astrid Lindgren (within Sweden), but then I can't remember any kids books or shows anywhere near her quality. Her popularity just seems a bit extreme for writing children's books.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Underrated: Frederick Von Steuben, he wrote the "Blue Book" for drill tactics and discipline of the Continental Army which led America to Victory in the Revolutionary War, no body really knows America owes her freedom to a Prussian.

Actually, America owes its freedom to a band of malcontents in Vermont given that it was a group comprised largely of these people who had already been fighting a guerrilla war against the royal power for more than a decade are the ones who were responsible for the win at Saratoga and France's decision to directly intervene in the war.

 

[j0frenzy]

snip

You're also discounting that he lived at a point in time where he had to work exponentially harder for his accomplishments because of his race.

Granted. I don't think he didn't do anything, just not anything important enough to get drilled in my head at a young age. I mostly pin the blame on me caring so much about him on Black History Month and he is sort of my poster child of what is wrong with it. If he were white, I would probably know nothing about him and would be very interested in what you had to say about him.

Again, if he'd been white, he wouldn't have the whole 'overcoming adversity' angle.

Would that in any way devalue his work. If his work is good, then his race should be irrelevant. Adversity can add to a story, but he was not the only person black scientist. He should not be the one we are taught almost exclusively unless there is a reason to.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Overrated: George Washington. The man was a disaster on the battle field, but he always knew where to shift the blame.

Underrated: A lot of people going Tesla, so I think that I will go for Lord Dowing. Won a great air engagment in WW2, didn't get the credit for many years.

I will agree with you that George Washington wasn't that great of a general. He didn't really help the colonial army win many battles. But he was pretty good at keeping it around. Which was a big part in helping the colonials win in the end.

As for my own:
Overrated: Eh, don't know. Probably who ever's the most popular historical figure of all. They probably didn't deserve it.

Underrated: The random Polish dude who lived on a farm in 1847 and did something to change the world. That guy never got the respect he deserved.

 

[Shirokurou]

Overrated: Napoleon.

Underrated:... Can't really say.

In response to Napoleon being overrated uh Austerlitz ever heard of it?United Germany?How about modern europe?
Overrated:Ulysses S. Grant
Underrated:Tie between Alexander Suvorov and Robert E. Lee.

Totally agreeing the Suvorov falls into underrated.

About Napoleon... That are people who were far more talented and my dad went on for hours about "Napoleon being pretty incompetent, but everybody else was worser"
United Germany = Bismarck
Modern Europe - post WWII, so I really can't see what you were trying to say.

 

[Veylon]

Overrated: General MacArthur. He botched the defense of the Philipines, got to return after the Navy did all the fighting, and was openly mutinous during the Korean War. Yet all anyone remembers is him melodramatically proclaiming he would return, before covertly slipping away from the scene of his defeat and leaving his men to the Bataan death march. His accomplishment he should be remembered for is Inchon, which saved the Korean War right there.

Underrated: Nicolae Tesla. He's getting more fame now, but he's been overshadowed by Edison for a long time. Unlike Edison, he never formed a vast overarching company based around his inventions and was thus relegated to history's sidelines.

 

[priestswearseatbelts]

Underrated : William Harvey. I have to mention 'De Motu Cordis'.... but that's pre 1660 (by about 38 years) ... post 1660 ... Ernst Mach (I know he has principles and measurements dedicated to him). His criticism of newton, in a Newtonian peer group, was brave and ground breaking. His works are intertwined with Einsteins theories. History would have us believe that Einstein held Mach in contempt for demanding physical proof, of certain theoretical works.... I'll be here all day.

Kids should recognize this name. As much as, if not more than, Newton, Einstein and Galileo.

Overrated: Pick a celebrity famous and rich.... for being famous and rich..... or the relative of someone famous and rich.... for being famous and rich.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Since I'm in that 'what-a-dick' mode, I will continue to be so.

Overrated: Christopher Columbus

Fairly sure that was 1492, or something like that.

Overrated - Christopher Columbus

Underrated - Nikola Tesla

You been playing AC2 a bit too much? Hmm?!

Anyway, OT:

Overrated: whoever mentioned Bernard (fucking) Montgomery, I fully agree. Go Claude Auchinleck, Montgomery basically nicked his plan, took the credit for it, almost messed up in Africa (he didn't only because Churchill was willing to give him anything short of a blowjob to get things done). He was a shit public speaker, dropped a clanger with Op MktGdn, badmouthed every other allied general behind their backs and to top it off, was an anti-French homophobe which is ironic because he was likely gay himself.

Underrated: Prince Rupert of the Rhine, an absolute genius, but everyone only knows him as a Royalist General of Cavalry, but he developed a new form of brass, built the best cannons of the day (with technology that was better suited in the 18th century), was an awesome mezzotint artist, Admiral of the Restoration Navy and last, and perhaps least, was a founding member of the Royal Society.

 

[SckizoBoy]

United Germany = Bismarck

That's a very sticky point there, because it is debatable whether he single-handedly united and destroyed modern Germany.

Check the relationships between him, Frederick III, Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II. Frederick III wished for the German throne to be like the English one (i.e. constitutional monarchy), so when he was Crown Prince, he often bickered with his father (and publicly on several occasions) thus undermining Bismarck's authority. To circumvent this and remove the CP with a problem of his own, Bismarck turned Wilhelm II into the ultranationalist that everyone knows he was (i.e. if they don't speak German, he didn't want to know them). His 'justification' for this was that he didn't expect to serve three emperors, so it came back to bite him when he was dismissed by Wilhelm II in 1891 (IIRC).

Sorry, was your point that he was under- or over-rated?

EDIT: Just noticed:

Underrated: Prince Eugene of Savoy

*glee*

And to those who said Suvorov, I give you his teacher: Abram Petrovich Gannibal (look him up and be amazed! Yes, he was Ethiopian.)

 

[TheRealCJ]

Most overrated: That one dude from that band

Most underrated: John Ibraham Watkins. A bloke who lived during the last few decades of the British Empire, worked his arse off for many years to feed his family, and died at the turn of the century, age 58.