Presidential Performance: A Comprehensive Review

by Max J. Skidmore

Overview

Presidential rankings emerged in 1948 when Life Magazine published an article by the prominent historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., who had selected 55 experts on the presidency and asked them to rank the presidents. He asked his respondents to rank presidents into categories of "Great," "Near Great," "Average," "Below Average" and "Failure." The result was a substantial article that attracted wide public attention. His work and similar studies have not escaped criticism, however.

Many general works on the presidency have discussed presidential greatness and identified presidents who stood out for good or ill. There are likely unavoidable inadequacies in all ranking schemes, regardless of the complicated measures that many authors employ in their attempts to be "scientific." This book provides useful criticism of these presidential rankings. It is arranged chronologically, and discusses each presidential performance and each ranking study in detail. Perhaps it would be sufficient to say that most who held the office were right for their time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786418206
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/24/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	421
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Max J. Skidmore is the Curators’ Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He lives in Overland Park, Kansas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction     

1. George Washington     
2. John Adams     
3. Thomas Jefferson     
4. James Madison     
5. James Monroe     
6. John Quincy Adams     
7. Andrew Jackson     
8. Martin Van Buren     
9. William Henry Harrison     
10. John Tyler     
11. James K. Polk     
12. Zachary Taylor     
13. Millard Fillmore     
14. Franklin Pierce     
15. James Buchanan     
16. Abraham Lincoln     
17. Andrew Johnson     
18. Ulysses S. Grant     
19. Rutherford B. Hayes     
20. James A. Garfield     
21. Chester Alan Arthur     
22. Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)     
23. Benjamin Harrison     
24. Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)     
25. William Mckinley     
26. Theodore Roosevelt     
27. William Howard Taft     
28. Woodrow Wilson     
29. Warren G. Harding     
30. Calvin Coolidge     
31. Herbert C. Hoover     
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt     
33. Harry S Truman     
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower     
35. John F. Kennedy     
36. Lyndon B. Johnson     
37. Richard M. Nixon     
38. Gerald R. Ford     
39. James Earl (Jimmy) Carter     
40. Ronald W. Reagan     
41. George Herbert Walker Bush     
42. William Jefferson Clinton     
43. George W. Bush     

Notes     
Bibliography     
Index