Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty

Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty

by Ivan Eland
Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty

Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty

by Ivan Eland

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Overview

Evaluating presidents on the merits of whether their policies promoted peace, prosperity, and liberty, this ranking system takes a distinctly new approach. Historians and scholars have long tended to give higher rankings to presidents who served during wartime, were well spoken, or exceeded in expanding the power of the executive office. However, this new examination cuts through these longstanding biases and political rhetoric to offer a new nonpartisan system of ranking that is based purely on how well each president’s policies adhered with the founders’ original intention of limiting federal power in all its aspects. As a result, the book provides an alternative history of the United States as seen through the founders’ likely vision of subsequent presidential actions. These presidential rankings will surprise most and enlighten even acknowledged experts on the presidency.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781598130225
Publisher: Independent Institute, The
Publication date: 01/09/2009
Series: Independent Studies in Political Economy
Pages: 448
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Ivan Eland is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. A leading expert on defense issues, he is a frequent guest on ABC, NPR, CNN, Fox News and the BBC, and is the author of The Empire Has No Clothes. He lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 A Precedent-Setting Presidency - Both Good and Bad George Washington 19

2 Used the Quasi-War with France to Restrict Civil Liberties John Adams 25

3 A Hypocrite on Limited Government Thomas Jefferson 30

4 Started an Unneeded War That Got the U.S. Capital Burned James Madison 38

5 The First Wisps of Permanent Government Expansion James Monroe 50

6 A Federalist Wearing a Democrat's Clothes John Quincy Adams 55

7 Aggressive against Indians and Southerners Andrew Jackson 60

8 Practiced What He Preached Martin Van Buren 70

9 Served for Thirty-one Days William Henry Harrison 76

10 "…and Tyler Too!" John Tyler 77

11 War for Land to Carry Out Aggressive Manifest Destiny James K. Polk 83

12 Risked Civil War Years before It Happened Zachary Taylor 92

13 Avoided an Earlier Civil War, but at a Cost Millard Fillmore 96

14 Made Civil War More Likely Franklin Pierce 101

15 Should Have Let the South Go in Peace James Buchanan 106

16 Provoked a Catastrophic Civil War That Achieved Far Less Than Believed Abraham Lincoln 116

17 Uncompromising Attitude Led to Harsh Reconstruction Policies Andrew Johnson 131

18 Better Than Expected, but Still Poor Ulysses S. Grant 139

19 Practiced Military Restraint, Except with Indians Rutherford B. Hayes 150

20 Served for Six Months James A. Garfield 157

21 Promoted Limited Government and Fought Inflation Chester A. Arthur 158

22 Exemplar of Honesty and Limited Government Grover Cleveland 163

23 Bad Economics and the Use of Coercion at Home and Abroad Benjamin Harrison 172

24 Served a Second. Nonconsecutive Term Grover Cleveland 177

25 The First Modern President, with Imperialist Aspirations William McKinley 178

26 Overrated in Accomplishments and Significance Theodore Roosevelt 187

27 Not a Hefty Policy Innovator William Howard Taft 206

28 Made the World Safe for War, Autocracy, and Colonialism Woodrow Wilson 212

29 Scandals Masked a Good Presidency Warren G. Harding 230

30 Silent Cal's Presidency Should Silence the Critics Calvin Coolidge 236

32 Sucked the Economy into the Great Depression Herbert Hoover 242

32 Lied the Nation into War and Expanded Government Franklin D. Roosevelt 248

33 The First Imperial President Harry S Truman 267

34 Overt Dove and Covert Hawk Dwight D. Eisenhower 286

35 Almost Incinerated the World So as Not to Appear Weak John F. Kennedy 299

36 A Failure with Both Guns and Butter Lyndon B. Johnson 312

37 Undermined the Republic at Home; Had a Mixed Record Abroad Richard M. Nixon 324

38 Pardon Mel Gerald R. Ford 335

39 The Best Modern President James Earl Carter, Jr. 344

40 Not Really That Conservative Ronald Reagan 359

41 "Read My Lips," No Real Accomplishments George W. Bush 372

41 More Fiscally Conservative Than Reagan and the Bushes William J. Clinton 382

43 Interventionist Policies Undermined the Republic at Home and Peace Abroad George W. Bush 401

44 Only a Slightly Improved Version of George W. Bush Barack Obama 427

Conclusion 454

Notes 459

Index 489

About the Author 515

What People are Saying About This

Ron Paul

While conventional accounts glorify the flagrant misdeeds of the 'Imperial Presidency,' this insightful and crucial book provides an inspiring vision for both conservatives and liberals.

Ronald Hamowy

We are propagandized to adulate all American presidents regardless of what their record might have been. Dr. Eland has provided a far more accurate account of the actions of these men (and they are indeed men, not gods). (Ronald Hamowy, professor emeritus of history, University of Alberta, Canada)

Jonathan Bean

This new 'gold standard' for measuring presidential performance . . . will challenge your view of political history, one president at a time. (Jonathan Bean, professor of history, Southern Illinois University)

Thomas DiLorenzo

According to American historians, the best presidents get us into the biggest wars, impose the most interventionist economic policies, and trample civil liberties by expanding executive power beyond what the Constitution permits. Eland makes a novel proposal: Why not rank presidents according to the traditional American values of peace, prosperity and liberty? Read this important new book and find out why John Tyler may be America's greatest president! (Thomas DiLorenzo, professor of economics, Loyola College, Maryland; author, The Real Lincoln, Lincoln Unmasked, and Hamilton's Curse)

Richard Shenkman

Judging presidents by a deceptively simple metric-their impact on peace, prosperity and liberty-leads Eland to reach radical conclusions about the rankings of presidents. (Richard Shenkman, editor, History News Network, and author, Just How Stupid Are We? and Presidential Ambition )

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