Person of the Year Criteria and Mission
~~Criteria~~
1. At its core, this project highlights individuals who have had the largest impact on history. The most important clarification is that this project does not make moral judgements, meaning that the people highlighted may have had an enormous impact for good, a huge impact for evil, or a mix of both. People like Genghis Khan, Hitler, and Stalin will be held to the same criteria as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Florence Nightingale, how much have they impacted history?
2. Each year must be represented by a single, named individual. This even excludes people that are normally attached such as the Wright Brothers or Brothers Grimm.
3. Each person can be selected only once with the general intent of selecting them at the earliest point they would have made a large enough impact. For example, even though Albert Einstein was influential during WWII and with his 1917 theory of general relativity, he first became notable with his 1905 discovery of the E=mc^2 equation and so represents that year
4. The person needs to be living during the entirety of the year they are representing
5. Influence can be difficult to measure, especially when it comes to comparing something like political influence to artistic influence. Generally, this list leans towards political influence, as this arguably has the largest impact on people’s lives, but, especially after centuries, artistic names have a tendency to endure longer than political names (Think Leonardo da Vinci, vs. his patron, Francis the King of France). With that in mind, philosophers, scientists, musicians, artists, etc. whose work still has an impact today are also included, although this can be difficult to assess without decades of hindsight.
6. In general there is an effort to include non-Western, as well as Western individuals. I myself, as well as likely many of the people reading this list are Westerners, so even though someone like King Henry V of England may be more famous to us, it is important to compare influence to that of someone like the Yongle Emperor of China, at the time. India and China especially have very large populations and are represented more than they might be if fame and name recognition were the only metric. That said, there is a balance to be struck. Certain areas are simply more influential at certain points in history. For example, the Dutch during the 17th century will be very represented, while in the 20th may not be at all.
7. This project highlights people, not offices. So even though we may know a lot about all the popes and US presidents, if the individual in that office did not make a particularly large impact, an individual not coming from a traditionally powerful office with near the same impact may supplant them.
8. The year each person represents should have significance to them. Sometimes, however, certain years get “crowded” with many individuals making their largest impact. Therefore, to ensure the most important individuals are highlighted, they may be shifted slightly off their most influential. For example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was extremely impactful 1941-1945, but because that is such an eventful period, he is highlighted in 1933. It can also be possible that a certain era is so “crowded” that there is no space for notable individuals. For example, Jonas Salk is not able to be the person of the year for 1955 because of Mao Zedong, even though in another era there would be “room” for him
9. It’s an imperfect project that is of course, highly subjective. Therefore, none of the tweeted individuals are final. There is always room for input. Therefore, if you think someone important was missed or have comments, please comment and dm with suggestions.
~~What this project is trying to achieve~~
The Time Person of the Year project has been a fascination of mine for a long time. It serves as an invaluable time capsule of what figures were considered most important and impactful over time. Unfortunately, it has a few shortcomings. First, it sometimes ends with unsatisfying nominations that rather than highlighting individuals capture the events of the year (eg: “You” and “The Computer”). Second, as a magazine that needs to sell, Time is incentivized to select figures that align more closely with the readers, as opposed to having an unbiased view (for example in selecting Rudy Giuliani in 2001, as opposed to the figure that was the impetus for that year’s famous event: Osama bin Laden). Most importantly, the Time list only goes back to 1927, missing millennia of fascinating history that had already passed.
I would hope that this project can overcome some of these shortcomings, and highlight some overlooked figures along the way (along with some deservingly well-known ones). Full transparency, in the initial phase of the project I would like to grow the following and build a community of people interested in the project. None of these announcements are final, so once we reach a critical mass I hope to engage the infinite knowledge of the online community to come up with a list that truly captures the most significant figures in human history and provides a new angle to learn about all periods of history. Excited to see our final result!
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