The Most Important City In History

I would say that the most important city in the U.S. is where i am now: Boston..

It's probably the most historically significant, it's a world class city, we're commanly refered to as the cradle of western society, The Athens of America, we probably have one of the top if not the top universities there are, (Harvard), the best tech university, (M.I.T.) the best music school (Berkley), JFK was born here, John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born nearby, Lincoln love visiting, and staying. A galloping John Revere shouted "The British coming!" right by the state house here in,.. George Washington fought the revolutionary war nearby. It's been around since the 1630's, We've got the first underground railway system, (the green-line)Barack Obama use to live nearby and went to school here, Numerous presidents from the US president to other leaders of men and land went to school here. It's probably got the best hospitals in the nation (Children's Hospital, Mass. General Hospital) Hell i think even osama bin laden went to school here or has family here..I think 2 out of the 4 jetliners during 9/11 left from here in Boston.

We're definitely an important sports city. The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years ('02, '04, & '05"😉 and went to the super bowl in '07) making them the best nfl team of the decade.

The Boston red sox won the world series in '04 and in '07.

The Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship in 2008 and will win it again this year cause they're 10x better than they were last year. (They currently have the best record.) So you could imagine being apart of that with this place being a college town as well and how crazy it gets..

But yea, that's all i could quickly come up with in my head for now..

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
t's a world class city, we're commanly refered to as the cradle of western society,

Wait, what?

Who refers to Boston as the 'cradle of western society'?
Who are those people and where are they, since I have never heard of anyone refer to any American city as a cradle of western society - cradle implying the begining of.

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Wait, what?

Who refers to Boston as the 'cradle of western society'?
Who are those people and where are they, since I have never heard of anyone refer to any American city as a cradle of western society - cradle implying the begining of.

They probably mean the beginning of historical americanism and patriotism in this country. I know our gov't and laws, ways and means; structures, etc, were influenced by europe and greece and even egypt but Boston is where americana started.

Boston is where the significant begining of american (a.) arts, a. business, a. medicine, a. politics, a. education, and a. sports began or was influenced by the city, here in the U.S. For the past few hundred years.

Since when did American become Western Society?

It might be viewed as the poster boy of the West but no serious academic should make the leap from a popular image to historical reality. The West existed long before the United States- the West was in essence, Rome.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
They probably mean the beginning of historical americanism and patriotism in this country. I know our gov't and laws, ways and means; structures, etc, were influenced by europe and greece and even egypt but Boston is where americana started.

Boston is where the significant begining of american (a.) arts, a. business, a. medicine, a. politics, a. education, and a. sports began or was influenced by the city, here in the U.S. For the past few hundred years.

Key words being ''American'' not ''Western''.

As Grand-Moff-GAv mentioned, West as a society existed long before America. You may be as bold to say that America was born out of already existing Western society.

Originally posted by Grand-Moff-Gav
Since when did American become Western Society?

well internationally aren't we (the u.s.) refered to as the west? If so wouldn't that make the u.s., which obviously has a society, a western society.

with the regional areas around Saudi Arabia it's called the middle
"east" with places like asia specifically Japan called the far east hence the saying "the sun rises in the east", and in our (the u.s.'s) case "sets in the west"?

And i've never heard of Rome being refered to as the west (unless you were in Greece) The center maybe. Not saying you're wrong just never heard of it.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
well internationally aren't we (the u.s.) refered to as the west? If so wouldn't that make the u.s., which obviously has a society, a western society.

with the regional areas around Saudi Arabia it's called the middle
"east" with places like asia specifically Japan called the far east hence the saying "the sun rises in the east", and in our (the u.s.'s) case "sets in the west"?

And i've never heard of Rome being refered to as the west (unless you were in Greece) The center maybe. Not saying you're wrong just never heard of it.

Seriously, what?

When we refer to 'West' we're not refering literaly to Geographical location, which is obvious.

And Rome is refered to as the cradle of Western Civlisation.

i said internationally not geographically.

I think when people say the West they usually N.America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Boston is a complete non-choice. Whilst it is a major city with historical significance, in any attempt to define a 'most important' city it is dwarved in historical importance by the European and Middle Eastern examples given, and in political importance/power by New York and Washington. And London for that matter.

This isn't a 'best city' poll.

And meanwhile FOTN, no, the US is not referred to as 'the West'. As GMG says, that's pretty much everyone on the US's side in the Cold War.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
I would say that the most important city in the U.S. is where i am now: Boston..

It's probably the most historically significant, it's a world class city, we're commanly refered to as the cradle of western society, The Athens of America, we probably have one of the top if not the top universities there are, (Harvard), the best tech university, (M.I.T.) the best music school (Berkley), JFK was born here, John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born nearby, Lincoln love visiting, and staying. A galloping John Revere shouted "The British coming!" right by the state house here in,.. George Washington fought the revolutionary war nearby. It's been around since the 1630's, We've got the first underground railway system, (the green-line)Barack Obama use to live nearby and went to school here, Numerous presidents from the US president to other leaders of men and land went to school here. It's probably got the best hospitals in the nation (Children's Hospital, Mass. General Hospital) Hell i think even osama bin laden went to school here or has family here..I think 2 out of the 4 jetliners during 9/11 left from here in Boston.

We're definitely an important sports city. The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years ('02, '04, & '05"😉 and went to the super bowl in '07) making them the best nfl team of the decade.

The Boston red sox won the world series in '04 and in '07.

The Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship in 2008 and will win it again this year cause they're 10x better than they were last year. (They currently have the best record.) So you could imagine being apart of that with this place being a college town as well and how crazy it gets..

But yea, that's all i could quickly come up with in my head for now..

Sports is irrelevant man in the grand scheme of things. If you want to talk sports, Madison Square Garden alone rivals all sports history in boston, and that doesn't even include the yankees.

Harvard isn't in the actual city of boston, so you can't really invoke harvard's name. I went to university near boston, so I know that Cambridge (where Harvard is) is it's own township. MIT is in downtown boston near MGH so i agree with that.

It's true the revolution was borne in boston...but the importance of all of that is historically contingent on the French. The revolutionary war would have been utterly lost if the French did not side with us...so saying any american city is important is iffy at best. The only case can be made is in contemporary times, in which case NYC dominates.

And let's not forget that the U.S. is an extremely young country. Examples already cited have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years. Those cities have stood the test of time....nothing here in the U.S. even comes close. i mean damn, I may be nuked in my sleep by bin laden tomorrow, and manhattan becomes just another pile of rubble. So i think u.s. cities should be excluded.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Boston is a complete non-choice. Whilst it is a major city with historical significance, in any attempt to define a 'most important' city it is dwarved in historical importance by the European and Middle Eastern examples given, and in political importance/power by New York and Washington. And London for that matter.

This isn't a 'best city' poll.

And meanwhile FOTN, no, the US is not referred to as 'the West'. As GMG says, that's pretty much everyone on the US's side in the Cold War.

?

Boston is a perfectly practicable choice. The poster left the thread open ended if you really look at it..

He/she didn't specifically write "the most important city in history in the world". Although you could've just as rightfully responded in that way as well. So I wrote about what I thought was the most important city in history in the U.S.

To me, Boston is the most historically significant city in the US.

More important than Washington DC and New York?

There is no way to pick really.

"The most important city in the history of the world"..way too broad.

I guess I would say either New York or Rome though.

Hell you can even argue Philadelphia. The world's superpower was born in that city.

Nothing the U.S. has done so far even merits inclusion. Again, what does it matter that the world's superpower since World War One, against Babylon or Egypt or Rome or Byzantium?

Come on guys. I'm American also but stop being so narrow in vision...the U.S. was an ineffectual power two hundred years ago, and 100 years ago was just starting to get involved in world affairs.

What is less than a century of superpower status...when other cities have controlled superpowers that have lasted for a millennium?

Originally posted by Tenebrous
Nothing the U.S. has done so far even merits inclusion. Again, what does it matter that the world's superpower since World War One, against Babylon or Egypt or Rome or Byzantium?

Come on guys. I'm American also but stop being so narrow in vision...the U.S. was an ineffectual power two hundred years ago, and 100 years ago was just starting to get involved in world affairs.

What is less than a century of superpower status...when other cities have controlled superpowers that have lasted for a millennium?

With the sheer exception that, even as super-power empires go, America has the greatest communications reach than any power in history

New York has a cultural influence on the planet that has not been met in history.

Originally posted by Grand-Moff-Gav
More important than Washington DC and New York?

Historically, inside the U.S.? Yes.

To name a few things outta the many we've been around since 1630, we had the American Revolution happen here, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, The Seige of Boston by the British, we're the largest city in New England yet we're not as massive a city as NY or DC yet we had this happen here and then some..All extremely important evenys that changed the shape of the country at that time. So much so that the smallest shifts in these events would meant bad news for the whole country.

Alexandria, because of all of the cultural, and artistic breakthroughs that occurred there.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
?

Boston is a perfectly practicable choice. The poster left the thread open ended if you really look at it..

He/she didn't specifically write "the most important city in history in the world". Although you could've just as rightfully responded in that way as well. So I wrote about what I thought was the most important city in history in the U.S.

To me, Boston is the most historically significant city in the US.

Frankly, not to many people, and in any case, only in the US, not the world, and from any objective standpoint Boston is way short of being termed ' the most important city in history' on so many levels. As I say, its historical importance is dwarved by many other choices (some important things happened in it, sure, but that's something that can be said of dozens of places; it's affect in history cannot even bgin to rivasl chices like Constantinople, Jerusalem and London), and its political importance likewise (Boston's political clout and culutral influence is miniscule compared to NY). Complete non-starter.

Sure, you can believe whatever you like, but that's a pick that just makes you look rather silly.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Frankly, not to many people, and in any case, only in the US, not the world, and from any objective standpoint Boston is way short of being termed ' the most important city in history' on so many levels. As I say, its historical importance is dwarved by many other choices (some important things happened in it, sure, but that's something that can be said of dozens of places; it's affect in history cannot even bgin to rivasl chices like Constantinople, Jerusalem and London), and its political importance likewise (Boston's political clout and culutral influence is miniscule compared to NY). Complete non-starter.

Sure, you can believe whatever you like, but that's a pick that just makes you look rather silly.

Sorry just can't see myself or anyone else looking at me as silly for thinking Boston is the most historical city in the U.S., firstly. Secondly, as i've wrote before, i'm refering to the U.S. only and not the entire world. Had I made it globally I would've done so by mentioning one of the european cities like London or Rome. Or the capital of Mongolia..but I didn't choose that option as was offered.

And historical ny's really mostly just long island which in no way dwarves boston when it comes to politics. Hell Massachusetts, which has Boston as it's capitol, has churned out more U.S. Presidents than n.y. has.