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Other Heroic Presidents

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Acting Presidents

Part of the book series: The Evolving American Presidency Series ((EAP))

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Abstract

“A nation reveals a lot about itself by the leaders it remembers and honors, by those it rates as great and by those it forgets,” write Thomas Cronin and Michael Genovese.1 In this chapter, we will examine presidents portrayed on stage as praiseworthy. Although or perhaps because judging the quality of presidents is not something that can be done objectively, Americans have long debated which presidents to rank highly. More formal surveys of historians began with one conducted for Life magazine by Arthur Schlesinger Sr. in 1948. Despite some reputational changes, subsequent versions have shown considerable consistency in the overall rankings. Polls of the general public have varied more over time, revealing a bias in favor of recent officeholders. For example, when a 2009 Gallup Poll asked which of five presidents respondents would “regard as the greatest,” Ronald Reagan led with 24% followed by John Kennedy and Lincoln 22%, Franklin Roosevelt 18%, and Washington well behind at 9%. In comparison, a C-SPAN survey of historians taken at about the same time ranked Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin Roosevelt as its top three, with Kennedy sixth and Reagan tenth.2

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Bruce E. Altschuler
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© 2010 Bruce E. Altschuler

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Altschuler, B.E. (2010). Other Heroic Presidents. In: Acting Presidents. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115316_2

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