Is it not fitting that in this blog post we are discussing our presidents during our nation's birthday?!
I am a HUGE presidential history buff, and have thoroughly enjoyed my research on the individuals who have occupied the White House (including George Washington). I also take great pride in teaching about the presidents (the strongest and weakest leaders our country has had) in my college history classes. Often, the presidents are stereotypes/portraits of America's time periods.
 |
| Lincoln, Washington, FDR, TR, Eisenhower, Truman, Jefferson, Kennedy, Raegan, and Obama are our top ten strongest/greatest presidents according to a group of C-SPAN historians. |
At the end of each presidential administration, a group of award-winning historians, university professors, and presidential biographers gather and deliberate the rankings of the individuals who have once held our nation's highest elected office. The C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey is divided into ten sections (known as 'Individual Leadership Characteristics'). These methods of assessment include crisis leadership, economic management, public persuasion, moral authority, international relations, pursued equal justice for all, vision/setting an agenda, relations with Congress, administrative skills, and performance within context of the times. 142 presidential historians recently took the 2021 survey, and ranked each president on the assessment methods on a scale of 1 to 10 with the higher number deemed "very effective." I was giddy when they released the official results a couple of days ago...
Abraham Lincoln, president during the Civil War and commonly known as the Great Emancipator, was ranked first (for the fourth consecutive time). Despite the many hardships he endured, personally and politically, it appears that our nation's scholars still admire the Illinois lawyer-turned D.C. politician for his persistence in winning a bloody, tiresome conflict as well as fiercely advocating for the elimination of slavery among a large opposing entanglement of politicians. The father of our country and hero of the American Revolution, George Washington was ranked second. Washington shed blood and returned to the political scene after a brief retirement to ensure that the young country he had helped build would stay afloat, politically and financially. Since he was the first occupant of the executive branch and created the inaugural cabinet, many of Washington's presidential precedents are employed today. And Franklin D. Roosevelt rounds out the top three presidents in the survey. FDR is our longest-serving president, occupying the Oval Office during the Great Depression and World War II, between 1933 and 1945. He expanded executive power during America's darkest days by creating federal employment programs in the 1930s and strategized a successful end to the world's bloodiest conflict in the 1940s (plus he had to collaborate with a grumbling, no-nonsense Brit named Churchill and a fierce sparring-machine named Stalin-- not an easy task!). FDR is best remembered as the first president to directly talk with the American public in their homes via his famous fireside chats on the radio.
 |
| When the nation was splitting in 1860, Abe Lincoln, the quiet and humble lawyer from Illinois, was the best man for the Oval Office. He remains today as one of the strongest presidents we have had. |
Teddy Roosevelt, the rough-and-ready cowboy from the Spanish-American War, was ranked fourth by historians. The mustached 'bull-moose' continued his predecessor's work at the start of the twentieth century by developing a small American empire (traits of imperialism) and protecting the democracies in the Western Hemisphere (by signing the Roosevelt Corollary). Dwight D. Eisenhower was after TR. Eisenhower is commonly talked about in history classes as the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe during WWII. However, his story did not end in 1945 and, as a two-term president, presided over a raging economy, the baby boom, and the start of public schools' racial integration in the 1950s. Harry S. Truman was put in sixth place by the survey takers. Despite a record-low approval rating at the end of his presidency, the MO senator who never wanted to become president played an instrumental role in cementing the United States' supremacy at the start of the Cold War (Truman's administration dealt with the Korean War and Iron Curtain in Europe). Thomas Jefferson, our third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, follows suite. Jefferson rightly deserves a place in the top-ten as one of America's most brilliant, inquisitive, and scholarly leaders. His words ('life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness') are inked on our hearts. John F. Kennedy was ranked eighth. Although many have verbally opposed this choice, JFK's charismatic character brought America to its feet when the Soviets appeared to be winning the Cold War. Ronald Reagan, best remembered as the cool, sophisticated actor who rode horses with British PM Maggie Thatcher and passed some of the largest tax cuts in history, was next on the list. Barack Obama, our first black president whose warm smile and brilliant intelligence gave the nation hope and reassurance after the catastrophic 2008 economic recession, rounded out the top ten.
One of the most interesting parts of this survey is seeing how presidents' approval ratings among our nation's top scholars change over time. For example, Ulysses S. Grant, although successful on the Civil War battlefields, was not regarded as an effective president for many decades (his administration was swamped with corruption). In 2000, Grant was ranked a low 33rd by historians. However, perceptions have changed (and a number of glorified biographies on Grant have emerged in the past decade). Grant is now ranked 20th, with historians citing the Civil War general's prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan in the South and protection of African American civil rights. On the opposite end, Andrew Jackson was in the 13th place in the 2000 and 2009 surveys, with many scholars citing the bold statesman's incredible public persuasion skills (Jackson was the first 'commoner' elected to the presidency, and threw a huge inaugural party- with a large slab of cheese- to celebrate!). In recent years, scholars have reviewed the legacy of this once-formidable political titan and have criticized Jackson for his cruel and inhumane treatment of the Native Americans during his time in the Oval Office (the Trail of Tears).
 |
| Opinions about presidents change over time (often due to the political climate). In recent years, Ulysses S. Grant, once regarded as an ineffective president, has been revered as an innovative leader. |
This survey was the first C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey that ranked former president Donald J. Trump. Despite what many people believed, historians did not rank Trump at the bottom tier. He was placed 41st out of the 44 presidents surveyed (Joe Biden will join the list at the end of his first/second term(s)). Despite his successes in the 2017 tax cuts and 2018 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as well as still having major influence in the Republican Party, Trump's one-term presidency was smeared by his hateful rhetoric (often on Twitter), mishandling of the Coronavirus Pandemic, and his refusal to publicly concede the 2020 presidential election, which led to the violent January 6 riots at the Capitol. Additionally, Trump had calamitous relationships with his political peers on the Hill, and is the only president to be impeached, twice. Trump may move up the presidential ranks when the next surveys are released (his GOP predecessors, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush have moved up), or his unpredictable four years in the White House might be a footnote in the history books. Time will tell... Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan were ranked behind Trump, at the bottom.
My personal thoughts: I relished these survey results, and appreciated the time and thought my fellow historians put in to provide their rendition of Who is our Greatest President? And Who is our Worst President?. I was surprised at a few of the rankings; most notably, Jimmy Carter- 26th, John Adams- 15th, and Lyndon B. Johnson- 11th. In my honest opinion, these three gentlemen should have been ranked higher. Despite the economic woes he faced at the end of the 1970s, Carter pursued Middle East peace treaties and promoted environmental protection policies (and let's not forget about his spell-binding post-presidency with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002...). Adams gave his soul for this country, as a revolutionary politician and an extraordinary citizen. He created the vice president role and established the U.S. Navy in 1798. And LBJ (the Texan senator is one of my favorite presidents)… presided over the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act (two groundbreaking bills ensuring racial equality in the US) as well as expanded federal social programs that we still use today, including public broadcasting, urban and rural development, and Medicare/Medicaid. The horrors of the Vietnam War led to LBJ's political demise, yet his domestic agenda will always be praised by scholars and the public. Overall, the presidential survey results in 2021 show us which political traits and personal qualities we enjoy studying in the individuals we elect to the White House.
 |
| LBJ swiftly took office in November 1963 after the assassination of JFK. He loudly and proudly advocated for racial equality. LBJ is one of my favorite presidents. |
Have a great July 4, folks!!
The C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey:
https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall
No comments:
Post a Comment