The leaders we deserved (and a few we didn't) : rethinking the presidential rating game / Alvin S. Felzenberg
- Bib ID:
- 4399696
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Felzenberg, Alvin S
- Description:
-
- New York : Basic Books, c2008
- xi, 442 p. ; 25 cm.
- ISBN:
- 9780465002917
- Summary:
-
"Rating the presidents is a perennial pastime in America: historians and pundits have periodically ranked our leaders along a scale ranging from "Great," and "Near-Great," down to "Failure." But as Alvin S. Felzenberg points out, these ratings have many problems. Despite reams of new historical information,the rankings never seem to change very much: for instance, the same six leaders, Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, and the two Roosevelts, always emerge on top. There's a strong bias toward a certain kind of president - those who tended to increase executive power - unless, of course, a president used that power in ways the evaluators didn't approve of. In any case, the idea of rating performance in such a complex job on a simple linear scale is slightly absurd."
"The Leaders we Deserved (and a Few we Didn't) offers a more reliable way of assessing presidential performance. It ranks presidents against several criteria - character, vision, competence, foreign policy, economic policy; human rights, and legacy. The result is a surprisingly fresh look at how the presidents stack up against each other, with some of the standard "greats" coming off far worse in some ways than their supposedly mediocre colleagues."--BOOK JACKET.
- Full contents:
-
- 1. The Rating Game
- 2. Character
- 3. Vision
- 4. Competence
- 5. Economic Policy
- 6. Preserving and Extending Liberty
- 7. Defense, National Security, and Foreign Policy
- 8. What Does It All Mean?
- The Presidential Scorecard
- Economic Data Sources.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-422) and index.
- Subject:
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2008
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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