1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [93]
Murtha, John (1932– ) Murtha joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, served as a drill instructor, and was subsequently commissioned an officer. A member of the Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam War, Murtha volunteered to serve in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967 and was highly decorated. Elected to Congress from Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district in 1974, he earned a reputation as a populist Democrat. He came to national prominence on November 17, 2005 when he called for U.S. withdrawal from the Iraq war, which President George W. Bush had begun in 2003. Within a short time, Murtha became the most vocal and visible critic of the war in Congress.
Muybridge, Eadweard (1830–1904) Born in England, Muybridge immigrated to the United States in his youth and came to international attention in 1868 with a spectacular large-scale portfolio of photographs of Yosemite Valley, California; however, it is on his experiments with photographing motion that Muybridge’s enduring reputation rests. In 1872, financier Leland Stanford commissioned him to settle a wager by proving that, at a given moment, all four legs of a trotting horse leave the ground simultaneously. By 1877, Muybridge created an array of cameras that captured the horse’s motion. Not only did this prove Stanford correct, it was the rudimentary beginning of the art and science of photographing motion. Muybridge later invented the zoopraxiscope, a device that projected images in rapid succession, thereby producing the illusion of live movement. The device was a precursor of cinema.
Nabokov, Vladimir (1899–1977) Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in Russia and immigrated to England in 1919, lived variously in Europe, then came to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1945. A prolific author in Russian as well as English, his most famous novel is Lolita (1955), the narrative of a middle-aged man’s obsession with a seductively nubile young girl. A controversial bestseller, the novel treated sensational and provocative material with extraordinarily elegant word play and intricate, bravura literary effects. The character of Lolita became an icon of popular culture.
Nader, Ralph (1934– ) Nader earned his law degree from Harvard in 1958 and while working as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Labor, published in 1965 Unsafe at Any Speed, which assaulted the U.S. auto industry for sacrificing safety to profits. The book made Nader a household name and prompted passage in 1966 of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which gave the federal government substantial authority in promulgating automobile safety standards. Nader went on to lead a band of dedicated consumer and social activists (“Nader’s Raiders”), who attacked a wide range of public policy issues. He also founded Public Citizen, a major advocacy group. Nader ran for president as Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000.
Naismith, James (1861–1939) In 1891, Canadian-born Naismith was an instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. In search of way to increase YMCA attendance during the winter, he invented an entirely new indoor game, which he called basketball. It used a ball and two peach baskets as goals, and because it was intended for indoor play, players were not allowed to tackle or otherwise make contact with one another, nor were they permitted to run with the ball. Basketball quickly developed into one of the most popular games in the United States.
Nast, Thomas (1840–1902) Born in Bavaria, Nast immigrated to the United States as a boy of six and, at 15, became an artist for Frank