On a more serious note: I am grateful for the redistribution of cultural capital that the change of imagery on the $10 bill represents. Who appears on currency is much like building renaming and I think there's a good argument for changing faces/names every now and then.
I'd like to make a serious suggestion here. I've just read a terrific manuscript by Tracy Thomas on Elizabeth Cady Stanton that's coming out soon from NYU Press. The book is great and I recommend it when it's out, I'm guessing towards the end of the year. Thomas shows well how much Stanton was decades ahead of her time in political and legal ideas and in some ways how Stanton's ideas flowed out to change out nation in the late 19th century. Thinking now about some other people, Harriet Beecher Stowe should be on anyone's short list of Americans who've changed our country for the better, against fierce odds.
Al: I'm happy about the redistribution too. It's funny though about all the usual choices put forward. Many of them seem to be about a very internal discussion of American history, American constitutional rights, etc. Yet this is a very global country, and its currency is used the world round. Why not have currency which reflects and celebrates that? I still remember the old French 50-franc note with Le Petit Prince on it. Genius and genial.
WHITNEY HOUSTON!
Posted by: tony smith | June 18, 2015 at 01:58 PM
Tony Smith: I cannot disagree, but I'm a bit more partial to Benazir.
Posted by: Jeff Redding | June 18, 2015 at 02:07 PM
I vote for Ayn Rand or Dr Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
Posted by: Jimbino | June 18, 2015 at 02:12 PM
Ayn Rand is not a real person.
Posted by: Jeff Redding | June 18, 2015 at 02:14 PM
Hi Jeff,
On a more serious note: I am grateful for the redistribution of cultural capital that the change of imagery on the $10 bill represents. Who appears on currency is much like building renaming and I think there's a good argument for changing faces/names every now and then.
I'd like to make a serious suggestion here. I've just read a terrific manuscript by Tracy Thomas on Elizabeth Cady Stanton that's coming out soon from NYU Press. The book is great and I recommend it when it's out, I'm guessing towards the end of the year. Thomas shows well how much Stanton was decades ahead of her time in political and legal ideas and in some ways how Stanton's ideas flowed out to change out nation in the late 19th century. Thinking now about some other people, Harriet Beecher Stowe should be on anyone's short list of Americans who've changed our country for the better, against fierce odds.
Posted by: Al Brophy | June 21, 2015 at 01:28 PM
The problem with Elizabeth Cady Stanton is that like many suffragettes she publicly espoused some truly vile racist rhetoric.
Posted by: DC | June 21, 2015 at 02:55 PM
Al: I'm happy about the redistribution too. It's funny though about all the usual choices put forward. Many of them seem to be about a very internal discussion of American history, American constitutional rights, etc. Yet this is a very global country, and its currency is used the world round. Why not have currency which reflects and celebrates that? I still remember the old French 50-franc note with Le Petit Prince on it. Genius and genial.
Posted by: Jeff Redding | June 21, 2015 at 04:04 PM