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Excerpts

CONTENTS

FOREWORD: Presidents, Greatness, and History by William J. Bennett

INTRODUCTION: The Presidency, Federalist No. 10, and the Constitution by Steven G. Calabresi

THE RANKINGS

The Presidents

1. George Washington (1789-97) by Richard Brookhiser

2. John Adams (1797-1801) by Matthew Spalding

3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-09) by Forrest McDonald

4. James Madison (1809-17) by Lynne Cheney

5. James Monroe (1817-25) by David B. Rivkin, Jr., and Mark Wendell DeLaquil

6. John Quincy Adams (1825-29) by Richard Norton Smith

7. Andrew Jackson (1829-37) by H. W. Brands

8. Martin Van Buren (1837-41) by John Steele Gordon

9. William Henry Harrison (1841) by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

10. John Tyler (1841-45) by John S. Baker, Jr.

11. James Knox Polk (1845-49) by Douglas G. Brinkley

12. Zachary Taylor (1849-50) by Brendan Miniter

13. Millard Fillmore (1850-53) by Melanie Kirkpatrick

14. Franklin Pierce (1853-57) by Cynthia Crossen

15. James Buchanan (1857-61) by Christopher Buckley

16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-65) by Jay Winik

17. Andrew Johnson (1865-69) by Jeffrey K. Tulis

18. Ulysses Simpson Grant (1869-77) by Michael Barone

19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1877-81) by Ari Hoogenboom

20. James Abram Garfield (1881) by Allan Peskin

21. Chester Alan Arthur (1881-85) by John J. DiIulio, Jr.

22. & 24. Stephen Grover Cleveland (1885-89, 1893-97) by Suzanne Garment

23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-93) by Jessica King

25. William McKinley (1897-1901) by Fred Barnes

26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) by John S. McCain

27. William Howard Taft (1909-13) by Theodore B. Olson

28. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) by Max Boot

29. Warren Gamaliel Harding (1921-23) by Jeremy Rabkin

30. John Calvin Coolidge (1923-29) by John O. McGinnis

31. Herbert Clark Hoover (1929-33) by Robert H. Ferrell

32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-45) by Robert H. Bork

33. Harry S. Truman (1945-53) by Terry Eastland

34. Dwight David Eisenhower (1953-61) by Edwin Meese III

35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961-63) by Peggy Noonan

36. Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-69) by Robert Dallek

37. Richard Milhous Nixon (1969-74) by Kenneth W. Starr

38. Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (1974-77) by Thomas J. Bray

39. James Earl Carter, Jr. (1977-81) by Joshua Muravchik

40. Ronald Wilson Reagan (1981-89) by Harvey C. Mansfield

41. George Herbert Walker Bush (1989-93) by Pete du Pont

42. William Jefferson Clinton (1993-2001) by Paul Johnson

43. George Walker Bush (2001-    ) by Paul A. Gigot

Issues in Presidential Leadership

Presidential Leadership in Economic Policy by Robert L. Bartley

Presidential Leadership During Wartime by Victor Davis Hanson

Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary by Robert P. George

Presidential Leadership After Disputed Elections by James Taranto

Appendixes

1. Methodology of Rankings by James Lindgren

2. Survey Participants

3. Election Data, 1789-2000

Acknowledgments

Index