Historical rankings of U.S. Presidents
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The English used in this article may not be easy for everybody to understand. (January 2012) |
Historians (and sometimes political scientists) are surveyed and asked to give them number ratings on their overall performance or on different aspects of their leadership.
Several different factors are considered in deciding what makes one a good or bad president. These include their character, their vision for the country, their relations with congress, their relations with foreign leaders (diplomacy), how they managed the economy, how they managed the military, and their overall political skill.
To make sure the rankings are fair, many surveys equally balance the opinions of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans.
It is sometimes difficult to accurately rank a president because all of the presidents faced completely different challenges and lived in different times.
Historical opinions of U.S. presidents often change over time. For example, Harry Truman had very low approval ratings right after he left office, but many historians now consider him among the greatest presidents.
Historian Surveys[change]
General Findings[change]
Most surveys agree that the top three presidents are:
- George Washington (the first president of the United States)
- Abraham Lincoln (led the United States through the American Civil War)
- Franklin Roosevelt (elected four times and led the country though the Great Depression and World War II).
The following presidents are usually ranked highly:
- Thomas Jefferson (partly because of the Louisiana Purchase)
- Harry Truman (presided over the beginning of the Cold War and the integration of the Armed Forces)
- Theodore Roosevelt (strengthened the United States Navy and had the Panama Canal built)
- Dwight Eisenhower (presided over the Cold War and created NASA)
- Ronald Reagan (presided over the end of the Cold War)
- James K. Polk (presided over the Mexican American War)
- Woodrow Wilson (presided over World War I)
- Lyndon Johnson (created the Great Society)
- John F. Kennedy (presided over the Cuban Missile Crisis)
Some presidents have mixed ratings. For example, Andrew Jackson is considered to be a leader who stood for the common man, but at the same time historians criticize him because of the Indian Removal Act.
Jimmy Carter, Chester Arthur, William Howard Taft, Benjamin Harrison, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Rutherford B. Hayes, Martin Van Buren, and Richard Nixon are considered to be below average.
John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan are often considered to be among the worst because they failed to prevent the growth of the slavery which resulted in the Civil War.
Andrew Johnson is often ranked among the worst because he was against the Reconstruction.
Warren G. Harding and Ulysses Grant are often considered to be among the worst presidents because they both made the mistake of appointing their corrupt friends into high political offices, although recently Ulysses Grant has moved up in the rankings because of his efforts to give civil rights to African Americans.
Both historian polls and popular opinion polls consider George W. Bush among the worst U.S. presidents, although some would argue that it is too early to rank him because his term ended recently in 2009.
William Henry Harrison and James Garfield are often not ranked because they both died shortly after becoming presidents.
Also, Barack Obama is not ranked because his presidency has not ended yet. For the same reason, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are not ranked in some polls because there presidencies ended within the last ten years.
