1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [35]
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1868–1963) The first African American to earn a Ph.D. (in sociology, from Harvard, 1895), Du Bois hoped that sociology could be used to win the social changes that would bring equality of treatment and opportunity for the races in America. Disillusioned in this belief, he organized the so-called Niagara Movement, which opposed the “accommodationist” view of Booker T. Washington, who was willing to trade social equality for expanded economic opportunities for black Americans. Arguing that both were immediately necessary, DuBois was instrumental in transforming the Niagara Movement into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois edited the NAACP’s important magazine, The Crisis, a position that made him for some two decades the most influential leader of black America.
Dulles, Allen (1893–1969) The younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles served during World War II, from October 1942 to May 1945, as chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) branch in Bern, Switzerland, where he was effectively America’s head spymaster in Europe. After the war, Dulles was instrumental in creating the CIA, of which he became director in 1953, overseeing the agency’s expansion during the height of the Cold War.
Dulles, John Foster (1888–1959) A career diplomat, Dulles was one of the architects of the United Nations. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him secretary of state. He served until illness forced his resignation in 1959. As secretary, Dulles formulated much of the policy that would guide the United States through the Cold War. Some condemned him as inflexible, but others saw his unwavering firmness as critically important in containing the expansion of international communism.
du Pont, Eleuthère-Irénée (1771–1834) Born into a prominent French family, E.I. du Pont learned the explosives business at the French gunpowder works before he immigrated to America in 1800. He found American gunpowder to be of low quality and high price, and built a gunpowder plant in 1802 near Wilmington, Delaware, producing a much-improved product, which made him a fortune, especially during the War of 1812. This led to the founding of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. in 1833, which became one of the world’s great chemical manufacturers in areas ranging from explosives to plastics.
Durand, Asher (1796–1886) Durand made his early living as an engraver. After touring Europe in 1840–1841 and studying the work of the old masters, he returned to America and began painting Hudson River, Adirondack, and New England landscapes, rendering them precisely but with a generous Romantic sensibility. Among the founders of the Hudson River School of landscape artists, he was one of the first American painters to work outdoors in nature.
Durant, Will and Ariel (1885–1981 and 1898–1981) Will Durant married his student, Ada Kaufman (whom he called Ariel), while he was teaching at the Ferrer Modern School in New York City in 1913. The couple collaborated on the massive eleven-volume Story of Civilization (1935–1975), which became perhaps the most popular and genuinely authoritative work ever published on philosophy and history, bringing these subjects to a wide audience of general readers.
Duryea, Charles and J. Frank (1861–1938 and 1869–1967) When bicycle mechanic Charles Duryea saw a stationary gasoline engine at a state fair in 1886, he got the idea of using it to power a carriage. He drew up designs, and in 1891 he and his brother Frank built an automobile and an engine in a Springfield, Massachusetts, loft. There is a dispute as to when the vehicle was finally completed, but it made its first run on the streets of Springfield on September 22, 1893.
Dylan, Bob (1941– ) Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan reinvented himself as a latter-day Woody Guthrie and made a sensation during the folksong revival of the early 1960s with his 1963 album, Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Combining folk traditions with