Leaders’ Historical Reputations Wax and Wane. Images Fluctuate

As Donald Trump’s presidency comes to an end, it’s important to remember that leaders’ popularity and historical reputations tend to shift over time. Here’s an overview of how that has happened to previous leaders:

Presidents once considered heroes of the Democratic Party — Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson — have been removed from their symbolic pedestals because they were slaveholders and imperialists against Native Americans. Trying to reach out to African Americans and Native Americans, Democrats renamed their Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners. Not wanting to appear culturally insensitive if not offensive, they now hold annual fundraising dinners in honor of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King.

Trump and others take umbridge at this, but they should be asked why the Progressive Teddy Roosevelt is no longer a hero of the Republican Party? We know the answer: TR believed in big government regulations of corporations and was a staunch environmentalist. Senators John McCain and Elizabeth Warren cited TR as a hero, but they, too, are not popular in Trump’s Republican Party.

Such shallow, politically-correct evaluations have little to do with understanding leaders in the historical contexts of their own times, and are examples of presentism — uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, the tendency to interpret people of the past in terms of modern values and concepts.

I have observed that if Abraham Lincoln lived to serve out his second term, he would not necessarily be viewed as one of the country’s greatest presidents, because “winning” Reconstruction was a far more difficult task than winning the civil war, and calming or bringing peace to the bitter factions that divided the nation after that war was next to impossible.

Historian H.W. Brands has made a similar observation about Lincoln. During the war, Lincoln could force people to do what he wanted them to do. In a democracy, forcing white Southerners or racist Northerners to treat newly freed African Americans slaves fairly, with equal opportunities, was something Lincoln was bound to fail at. Reconstruction lasted nearly a decade in certain parts of the South. That was a relatively long time for a military occupation of a defeated region, Brands noted. Best biographies of Abraham Lincoln.

Ulysses S. Grant was long considered one of the nation’s worst presidents. Two recent biographies by Ron Chernow and H.W. Brands have lifted his reputation considerably. “After enjoying an early period of spirited acclaim, Grant’s reputation suffered within a few decades of leaving office and did not recover until the last two decades of the twentieth century,” wrote Stephen Floyd on his Best Presidential Biographies website. Only relatively recently have historians determined that Grant’s reputation was unfairly tarnished for a very long time. The best biographies of Ulysses S. Grant.

Franklin Roosevelt would have been considered a mediocre president if he only served two terms, Brands observed. Only in his third term, with the build-up to World War II did the country fully recover from the Great Depression. And then he led the country and the allies to win the war. Best biographies of Franklin Roosevelt.

Harry Truman was deeply unpopular for much of his seven years, and especially when he left office in 1953. But his historic reputation is far better, that his decisions after World War II and during the Cold War were basically sound. At home, he advanced civil and labor rights. Best biographies of Harry Truman.

A famous 1967 Murray Kempton article in Esquire about Dwight Eisenhower pointed out how Ike was underestimated by the press that covered him. This and other accounts of Eisenhower’s presidency through the 1980s, wrote Robert F. Burk, a professor of history at Muskingum College, were “far more appealing than the ones offered by Eisenhower’s contemporaries.” Best biographies of Dwight Eisenhower.

Kennedys’ Metamorphosis

John Kennedy, still a favorite with the public, is generally viewed in the middle range by historians. The public seems to think he would have avoided the Vietnam disaster, while passing landmark civil rights and anti-poverty legislation, but historians are not so sure. After an early glut of hagiographies of Kennedy by contemporaries sentimental over his tragic assassination, later accounts by journalists and historians have taken a more skeptical if not cynical view. Most notably, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s “Dark Side of Camelot” in 1997 severely damaged JFK’s reputation. Yet on the 100th anniversary of JFK’s death in 2017, several flattering accounts were listed among the best biographies.

His brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, has also undergone a metamorphosis in death. Neal Gabler’s massive two-volume biography of Ted in 2020 portrays him as “the best of the Kennedys,” according to The New York Times. This is ironic, since Kennedy was often spotlighted during 47 years in public life as an irresponsible hedonist who selfishly divided the Democrats in 1980, causing Jimmy Carter’s defeat; a hyper-partisan who initiated the “Borking” of potential Supreme Court Justices in 1987, and could not possibly measure up to his brothers. The 2018 film, “Chappaquiddick,” did not enhance his historical reputation, to say the least. This new biography might improve his reputation among students who barely remember him, especially if it leads to movies or documentaries on Kennedy’s contributions to civil rights, immigration or health care reform.

The middle brother, Robert Kennedy was once considered the best, most inspiring and tragic figure, as portrayed by journalists, and especially by RFK’s historian-friend Arthur Schlesinger’s two volume biography, Robert Kennedy and His Times, published a decade after his death. RFK has sadly faded from the scene, or from widespread public renown, since unlike his brothers, he has no presidential library of his own nor institute named in his honor, as Ted does. Even so, on the 50th anniversary of his assassination in 2018, three insightful biographies were recommended by the Latino publication Al Dia News.

Lyndon Johnson, who fluctuated from very popular at the beginning of his five years in office to very unpopular at the end, has actually had his reputation enhanced by the public release of dozens if not hundreds of hours of tape-recorded telephone calls. The best biographies of Lyndon Johnson.

Richard Nixon, whose reputation plummeted during the Watergate scandal and by the release of White House tape recordings of conversations, has never recovered public regard. He was despised by liberals during his life, but is appreciated now for starting the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding social security, opening up relations with Red China, proposing a guaranteed annual income and national health insurance. Best biographies of Richard Nixon.

Jimmy Carter, who was extremely unpopular in his last year, has become far more popular and respected as an ex-president and in retrospect. A 2020 book by journalist Jonathan Alter, His Very Best, paints Carter as a visionary. Best biographies of Jimmy Carter.

Ronald Reagan, a popular president in office, is currently pretty popular with historians and with the public, a far cry from Laurence Leamer’s 1983 partisan book, Make Believe: The Story of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, or Washington Post journalist Haynes Johnson’s 1991 account of the Reagan presidency, Sleepwalking Through History. H.W. Brands’ Reagan: The Life (2015) called him a visionary and transformative president. Best Biographies recommends a number of others.

George H.W. Bush, very unpopular in the 1992 election, has emerged with a stellar reputation from popular historian Jon Meacham with his biography, Destiny and Power. Some good biographies of this Bush in historical context are beginning to emerge.

Bill Clinton, a very popular president while in office, currently looks far worse in retrospect, especially by progressives, based on his treatment of women and being so foolish and undisciplined as to give his adversaries a sword (his affair with an intern) with which to knock his presidency off track and damage his vice president, Al Gore, in the 2000 election, which Gore likely would have won if not for Clinton’s foibles. Patrick Maney, one of the first historians to try to place Clinton in historical context, in 2016 called him a “New Gilded Age President.” The remaining best biographies of Clinton are, so far, by journalists, not historians, who do not put him in historical context.

When George W. Bush entered office in 2001, he was viewed widely as a genial if not very intelligent nor articulate good ole boy, preferable to the insufferably pompous Al Gore. W was someone you’d like to have a beer with. Except for high marks in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he was viewed by the time he left office as a very mediocre president, and remains so, mainly because of his misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the bursting of the economic bubble that led to the Great Recession. That hasn’t changed much, though those occasions when he acted presidential and spoke eloquently are remembered quite favorable in contrast to Donald Trump. The PBS American Experience documentary on Bush may change some views of him. George W. Bush: Born to a Political Dynasty. Tested By Political Reality. It is fair-minded and dispenses with the more hyper-partisan myths that Bush invaded Iraq simply because Saddam Hussein tried to kill his dad, or because Vice President Dick Cheney’s former employer Halliburton lobbied for war in order to gain lucrative reconstruction contracts.

Kevin Philips’ populist, negative biography of the Bush family, Dynasty, Aristocracy, Fortune and Deceit in the House of Bush, is not especially fair compared to Meacham’s biography, but it might help to explain populist perceptions, the rise of Donald Trump and the rejection of Jeb Bush by the Republican Party. Best Biographies don’t yet have much to recommend for George W. Bush.

It’s too early to evaluate Barack Obama‘s presidency. He left office in 2017 a far more popular president than his potential successor, Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote in 2016 by three million but lost the electoral college vote by about 80,000 votes in three states. His memoirs, and those of his wife Michelle, are bestsellers. Riding on Obama’s popularity, his vice president, Joe Biden, succeeds him as president, which will for a time enhance his image. His historical reputation, in fact, may be tied to Biden’s success. A downturn in Obama’s reputation is sure to come eventually, before his historical stock rises again. Best Biographies of Barack Obama.

In short, political reputations rise and fall.