Posted on 12/02/2006 9:40:43 AM PST by WinOne4TheGipper
Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55 historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure," such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study the American past.
Changes in presidential rankings reflect shifts in how we view history. When the first poll was taken, the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War was regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by granting black men the right to vote. As a result, President Andrew Johnson, a fervent white supremacist who opposed efforts to extend basic rights to former slaves, was rated "near great." Today, by contrast, scholars consider Reconstruction a flawed but noble attempt to build an interracial democracy from the ashes of slavery -- and Johnson a flat failure.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
By "people" he OBVIOUSLY means foreign terrorists. Typical liberal double speak.
Hey, Foner. American jurisprudence 1) applies only to American citizens and 2) does not extend outside our borders.
Go on and get arrested iside a muslim country ruled by Sharia laws. See if you have any rights under their laws or ours.
He has my vote too. I just sent him a little message.
It is impressive to discuss American history with someone who would not be expected to have studied it . . . and has opinions about things which I haven't taken note of.I will note of Coolidge that Ronald Reagan, during his tenure in the White House, put up Coolidge's portrait in the oval office. And that is recommendation enough for me.
As a professor of history, he should know better.
Coolidge isn't thought of all that badly by historians. Corruption certainly isn't the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Calvin Coolidge. So far as I know, his administration was clean. Foner and other liberal historians are trying to draw a parallel between Pierce and Buchanan in the 19th century and Harding and Coolidge in the 20th century as "do nothing" President who let the country slide into crisis -- Civil War or Great Depression -- but it's not really a fair rap.
James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson are the victims of changing ideas of racial justice or political correctness. Polk was certainly a competent President, who achieved what he set out to do, and Johnson surely did defend the prerogatives of the Presidency, whatever one thinks of their ideas about territorial expansion, race, or White rule.
One might do better comparing Bush to Woodrow Wilson. Both men may have bit off more than they could chew, but their actions had more to do with democratic idealism than with land hunger or national self-assertiveness.
Journalists like to boast that journalism is "the first draft of history." And I have to say that most historians do write history as no more than a rewrite of journalism.Real history, of course, would have to fill in what contemporary journalists systematically left out, and discount the self-promotion of journalism. History is supposed to be the big picture; journalism is an obsession with the immediate.
Are we ranking presidents during our lifetimes?
Here we go, best to worst:
Reagan
*gap*
Bush 43
Bush 41
Ford
*big gap*
Nixon
Clinton
*gap*
Carter [spit]
Johnson [spit]
Women and children hardest hit! :-)
Bush is bad because he is mean to foreign terrorists.
FDR is good because he was just mean to Japs in America.
LOL! Simple scumbags like Foner are a dime a dozen.
Damn. You're young.
Was very surprised Carter wasn't mentioned. His four years were a complete debacle. Panama Canal, Iran, Economy. The only good thing that came out of the Carter Administration was Reagan.
Changes also reflect shifts towards a professoriate composed entirely of people who think like Foner.
I dont remember that *gap* guy
That's how I knew his name wouldn't not be mentioned. No objective comparison of Carter and Bush could possibly have Carter coming out ahead.
Whenever someone says Bush is the worst ever, ask them about interest rates, inflation rates, and unemployment rates. Under Carter, each rate ballooned to double-digits. Bush's employment numbers are the stuff of legend.
Although he has never said whether or not he is publicly, I believe Jimmy Carter is a pacifist, and as such, lied when he took his oath of office to protect the country. Remember, this is the guy who wrote that there was no legitimate reason for the Revolutionary War.
I pretty much agree with your list, except I'd put LBJ just ahead of Carter. At least Johnson had enough integrity to retire to his ranch, keep his mouth shut, and then expire in a couple of years. Jimmy the Jerk is still running around the world, badmouthing the U.S. and Israel, interfering with foreign affairs and being a truly poisonous enemy of our country. Just his meddling in the North Korea nuclear negotiations in the 1990s is enough to have him tried and executed for treason.
Harding took over an economy teetering on recession - if I recall correctly, he cut taxes and let the free market do its work.
Regards, Ivan
That's a very thoughtful observation. Thank you.
Good point.
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