For a year and a half now, off and on, I've been posting reviews of the 42 volumes (covering 43 presidencies, as one man had two) of the American Presidents series, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and after his death by Sean Wilentz, in gulps of three books each. And now it's completed. Here's links to the whole set:
I. 1789-1809 (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
II. 1809-1829 (Madison, Monroe, Adams)
III. 1829-1841 (Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison)
IV. 1841-1850 (Tyler, Polk, Taylor)
V. 1850-1861 (Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan)
VI. 1861-1877 (Lincoln, Johnson, Grant)
VII. 1877-1885 (Hayes, Garfield, Arthur)
VIII. 1885-1901 (Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley)
IX. 1901-1921 (Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson)
X. 1921-1933 (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover)
XI. 1933-1961 (Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower)
XII. 1961-1974 (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon)
XIII. 1974-1989 (Ford, Carter, Reagan)
XIV. 1989-2009 (Bush, Clinton, Bush)
It struck me that the books varied in quality, from the outstandingly insightful to the ploddingly perfunctory, independently of the value of the president they discussed. So why not rate or grade them? Pay attention, as this is the only presidential historical rating list you'll ever see with Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon at the top:
A (Outstandingly insightful)
Madison, Andrew Johnson, Nixon, Reagan
B (Either outstanding with minor flaws, or just below that in insight)
Washington, Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Buchanan, Arthur, Taft, Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush
C (Good solid work)
John Adams, Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Pierce, Lincoln, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Wilson, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, Clinton
D (Either good work with major flaws, or just not very successful)
Monroe, Polk, Taylor, Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, Harding, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ford
F (Not a very good book at all)
Fillmore, Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt
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