Were we to expand the list to include influential thought that may have had a more pernicious aspect to it the list could grow even more interesting (and contrversial.)

Off the top of my head I think of John C. Calhoun, Woodrow Wilson and almost everyone involved in the early years of establishing Political Science as a academic discipline (especially Charles E. Merriam.)

I also notice my list has no real conservatives on it. Were the list expanded to 30 I’m sure I’d find a place for Milton Friedman and Forest McDonald.

And I do have to question the list being 10 White men. I feel like Du Bois, particularly, has to be on the list somewhere.

Du Bois would have made the next ten. Thorstein Veblen, O.W. Holmes and Upton Sinclair would have made the honorable mention list as well.

Peirce a political philosopher? That IS broad.

I know…but if you go back an re-read “The Fixation of Belief” with an eye for its political implications, they are profound. Read that way they are in fact the most original words any American has added to political theory excepting Federalist #10.

You’re telling me Daniel Webster doesn’t make that list????

If there was an “orator” list I’m sure he’d be there.

But Webster is in good company, nobody mentioned Paine either.

I’ve met hooks; she’s an interesting cat.

I’m a huge Ben Franklin fan (far more than any other founder), but I don’t consider him to have had sufficient impact on political thought.

And I do have to question the list being 10 White men. I feel like Du Bois, particularly, has to be on the list somewhere.

As for Kenneth Waltz, I kind of split American political thought from IR in my head, but on the IR side of it he certainly is deserving, I feel.

And I would throw up Alexander Wendt on the honorable mention list. He’s a relative newcomer, but I think in 50 years, his strand of constructivism could be talked about the way we talk about Waltz and neorealism today.

10) Frederick Jackson Turner, Historian (1861-1932)
9) Elmer Eric Schattschneider, Political Scientist (1892-1971)
Thomas Samuel Kuhn, Physicist and Historian (1922-1996)
7) Benjamin Franklin, Renaissance Man (1706-1790)
6) Charles Austin Beard, Historian (1874-1948)
5) William James, Psychologist and Philosopher (1842-1910)
4) Edmund Sears Morgan, Historian (1916-)
3) Henry David Thoreau, Writer (1817-1862)
2) Charles Sanders Peirce, Philosopher (1839-1914)
1) James Madison, President (1751-1836)

Well, my list certainly wouldn’t get past the PC police, would it?

Gerrit Smith was actually a friend of Frederick Douglass for a time, up until the Brown incident. He was also a co-founder of the Liberty Party, and was one of the main supporters of the idea that slavery was not supported by the constitution. Wiki has a short article that has a bit more on him if you are interested.
BTW, I always found it amusing that his second wife was a Fitzhugh, making him related to one of the largest slave holding families, which included Robert E. Lee. Also extremely ironic since he was good friends with John Brown and helped to fund (without realizing what he was funding) Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

I didn’t know she had passed away last year, however. That is sort of sad as she was much debated when I was in grad school.

I’m gonna sit back and think of my own Top 10, but I don’t think any of yours will crack the list..except maybe Madison.

Also, would you limit this to the post 1776 era?

Just for fun, I’m going to take a flier on the six you haven’t heard of as…

Davis, hooks, Sandel, Nozick, Young, and Dewey?

Yesterdays lunatic fringe is today’s mainstream. Unless you still consider Frederick Douglass lunatic fringe :-p

David,
Good list, though obviously I think something like that could go on forever. Plus, there are many more names no one knows, and I didn’t recognize six you listed btw. For instance, and I would put him under honorable mention, Gerrit Smith. But of course, I’m showing my bias since I’ve been busy researching his time in Congress for the past year.