Historical rankings of United States Presidents

Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : Historical rankings of United States Presidents

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Many surveys have been conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as President of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion.

These standings vary only slightly. Three Presidents—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt—always are ranked at the top of the known lists. Normally ranking just below those three are Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. The remaining "top 10" ranks are often rounded out by Andrew Jackson, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and James K. Polk. In recent polls, James Madison, James Monroe and Ronald Reagan have sometimes been ranked in the top 10.

Ranking at the bottom of most polls are Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Warren G. Harding.

Some presidents present special problems because their foreign policy success/failure stands in contradiction to their domestic policy failure/success. Political Scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles. On some very important dimensions both Wilson and L.B. Johnson were outright failures in my view; while on others they rank very high indeed. Similarly with Nixon." Historian Alan Brinkley said: 'There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Wilson, Johnson, Nixon).' James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, 'How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?'" [Skidmore 2001]

Surveys of scholars

Over 1000 scholars have participated in the surveys. The issue of the validity of the rankings has been of special interest to historians and political scientists, who have tried to specify the relative importance of personality, leadership, issues and partisanship. Quantitative ranking by groups of scholars have been in favor in recent decades, displacing the traditional methods of evaluation by individual writers as typified by Bailey (1966) and most biographers. For a description of each of the polls, see the survey details section below.

Because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted as both the 22nd and 24th President, the total number of Presidents in each poll is at least one less than the number of the most recently-serving President in the poll. Because of their short time in office, Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield are sometimes omitted from these polls.

#	President	Schlesinger 1948 poll rank	Schlesinger 1962 poll rank	1982 Murray-Blessing survey of 846 historians	Chicago Tribune 1982 poll rank	Siena 1982 poll rank	Siena 1990 poll rank	Siena 1994 poll rank	Ridings- McIver 1996 poll rank	CSPAN 1999 poll rank	Wall Street Journal 2000 poll rank	Siena 2002 poll rank	Wall Street Journal 2005 poll rank	Average
	Total Presidents in survey	29	31	36	38	39	40	41	41	41	39	42	40
1	George Washington	2	2	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	1	4	1	2.83
2	John Adams	9	10	9	14 (tie)	10	14	12	14	16	13	12	13	12.17
3	Thomas Jefferson	5	5	4	5	2	3	5	4	7	4	5	4	4.42
4	James Madison	14	12	14	17	9	8	9	10	18	15	9	17	12.67
5	James Monroe	12	18	15	16	15	11	15	13	14	16	8	16	14.08
6	John Quincy Adams	11	13	16	19	17	16	12	18	19	20	17	25	16.9
7	Andrew Jackson	6	6	7	6	13	9	11	8	13	6	13	10	9
8	Martin Van Buren	15	17	20	18	21	21	22	21	30	23	24	27	21.58
9	William Henry Harrison	—	—	—	38	26	35	28	35	37	—	36	—	33.57 (7 rankings) 37.08 (12 rankings, non-rank=42)
10	John Tyler	22	25	28	29	34	33	34	34	36	34	37	35	31.75
11	James K. Polk	10	8	12	11	12	13	14	11	12	10	11	9	11.08
12	Zachary Taylor	25	24	27	28	29	34	33	29	28	31	34	33	29.58
13	Millard Fillmore	24	26	29	31	32	32	35	36	35	35	38	36	32.41
14	Franklin Pierce	27	28	31	35	35	36	37	37	39	37	39	38	34.92
15	James Buchanan	26	29	33	36	37	38	39	40	41	39	41	40	36.58
16	Abraham Lincoln	1	1	1	1	3	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	1.58
17	Andrew Johnson	19	23	32	32	38	39	40	38	40	36	42	37	34.67
18	Ulysses S. Grant	28	30	35	30	36	37	38	38	33	32	35	29	33.42
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	13	14	22	22	22	23	24	26	25	22	27	24	22
20	James Garfield	—	—	—	33	25	30	27	30	29	—	33	—	29.57 (7 rankings) 34.75 (12 rankings, non-rank=42)
21	Chester A. Arthur	17	21	26	24	24	26	26	32	28	26	30	26	25.5
22, 24	Grover Cleveland	8	11	17	13	18	17	19	17	16	12	20	12	15
23	Benjamin Harrison	21	20	23	25	31	29	28	31	31	27	32	30	27.33
25	William McKinley	18	15	18	10	19	19	18	17	15	14	19	14	16.33
26	Theodore Roosevelt	7	7	5	4	5	5	3	5	4	5	3	5	4.83
27	William Howard Taft	16	16	19	20	20	20	21	24	20	19	21	20	19.67
28	Woodrow Wilson	4	4	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	11	6	11	6.58
29	Warren G. Harding	29	31	36	37	39	40	41	38	38	37	40	39	37.33
30	Calvin Coolidge	23	27	30	27	30	31	36	33	27	25	29	23	28.42
31	Herbert Hoover	20	19	21	21	27	28	29	24	34	29	31	31	26.17
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	3	3	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	3	1	3	2
33	Harry S. Truman	—	9	8	8	7	7	7	7	5	7	7	7	7.18 (11 rankings)
34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	—	22	11	9	11	12	8	9	9	9	10	8	10.73 (11 rankings)
35	John F. Kennedy	—	—	13	14 (tie)	8	10	10	15	8	18	14	15	12.5 (10 rankings)
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	—	—	10	12	14	15	13	12	10	17	15	18	13.6 (10 rankings)
37	Richard Nixon	—	—	34	34	28	25	23	32	25	33	26	32	29.2 (10 rankings)
38	Gerald R. Ford	—	—	24	23	23	27	32	27	23	28	28	28	26.3 (10 rankings)
39	Jimmy Carter	—	—	25	26	33	24	25	19	22	30	25	34	26.3 (10 rankings)
40	Ronald Reagan	—	—	—	—	16	22	20	26	11	8	16	6	13.88 (8 rankings)
41	George H. W. Bush	—	—	—	—	—	18	31	22	20	21	22	21	22.14 (7 rankings)
42	Bill Clinton	—	—	—	—	—	—	16	23	21	24	18	22	20.67 (6 rankings)
43	George W. Bush	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	23	19	21 (2 rankings)

Presidents by average scholar rank

#	President	Political Party	Average ranking	Noted For:
1	Abraham Lincoln	Republican	1.58	Emancipation Proclamation, American Civil War leadership
2	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democrat	2	Leadership during World War II and Great Depression, New Deal, rural electrification, Social Security
3	George Washington	Federalist-leaning non-partisan	2.83	First President; founder of the republic; establishment of many precedents through acts such as Judiciary Act of 1789, Residence Act of 1790, Bank Act of 1791, Coinage Act of 1792, Naval Act of 1794 and the establishment of the United States Cabinet, response towards the Whiskey Rebellion
4	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	4.42	Intellectual leadership, Louisiana Purchase, states-rights
5	Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	4.83	Charisma, conservationism, trust-busting "Square Deal," Panama Canal
6	Woodrow Wilson	Democrat	6.58	World War I leadership, major legislation including (reluctant) support for women's suffrage
7	Harry S. Truman	Democrat	7.18	World War II and Cold War leadership, Marshall Plan, desegregation of armed forces
8	Andrew Jackson	Democrat	9	Enhanced power of executive, handling of Nullification crisis, Bank War, Indian Removal Act, genocide, eliminated national debt, balanced budget
9	Dwight Eisenhower	Republican	10.73	Cold War leadership, interstate highway system, economic prosperity
10	James K. Polk	Democrat	11.08	Mexican-American War leadership, acquisition of Mexican territories (California, Texas, etc.) and much of the Oregon Territory
11	John Adams	Federalist	12.17	Set precedent for peaceful transfer of power between rival political parties, XYZ Affair, established Department of Navy
12	John F. Kennedy	Democrat	12.5	Cold War leadership, proposed Civil Rights legislation, defused Cuban Missile Crisis, early death left impression of unfulfilled promise
13	James Madison	Democratic-Republican	12.67	Blamed for failing to prevent the War of 1812, presided over post-bellum Era of Good Feelings
14	Lyndon B. Johnson	Democrat	13.6	Vietnam War failure, Civil Rights, Great Society
15	Ronald Reagan	Republican	13.88	Hastened end of Cold War, economic expansion, increased national debt
16	James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	14.08	Monroe Doctrine, admission of five states to the Union
17	Grover Cleveland	Democrat	15	Creation of both the American Federation of Labor and the Interstate Commerce Commission
18	William McKinley	Republican	16.33	Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, and the Annexation of Hawaii
19	John Quincy Adams	National Republican/Whig	16.9	Presided during the end of the Era of Good Feelings
20	William Howard Taft	Republican	19.67	Admittance of New Mexico and Arizona
21	Bill Clinton	Democrat	20.67	NAFTA, reluctant support for welfare reform, deregulation of telecommunications industries, economic expansion, impeachment, balanced the budget
22	George W. Bush	Republican	21	War on Terrorism, PATRIOT Act, Invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina response, intelligence reform, Guantanamo, increased national debt
23	Martin Van Buren	Democrat	21.58	Panic of 1837, enforcement of Treaty of New Echota led to displacement of Cherokees
24	Rutherford B. Hayes	Republican	22	Compromise of 1877 and Desert Land Act of 1877
25	George H. W. Bush	Republican	22.14	Gulf War, end of Cold War, economic recession
26	Chester Arthur	Republican	25.5	Revitalization of US Navy
27 (tie)	Jimmy Carter	Democrat	26.3	Handling of Iranian hostage crisis, energy crisis, poor economy.
27 (tie)	Gerald Ford	Republican	26.3	Lack of charisma, pardoned Richard Nixon
29	Herbert Hoover	Republican	26.17	Handling of onset of the Great Depression, handling of Bonus Army demonstration
30	Benjamin Harrison	Republican	27.33	Failure to convince country of his leadership capabilities, tariff issue handling, loss of party leader support
31	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	28.42	Lack of interest in exerting executive or federal power (regarded as a strength by some)
32	Richard Nixon	Republican	29.2	Normalization of relations with China; withdrawal from Vietnam War; corruption, notably the Watergate scandal; resignation to avoid impeachment
33	James A. Garfield	Republican	29.57	Brief administration (six months)
34	Zachary Taylor	Whig	29.58	Short term, did not support Compromise
35	John Tyler	Whig/none	31.75	Lack of support from any political party
36	Millard Fillmore	Whig	32.41	Fugitive Slave Act, lack of leadership during growing sectional divisiveness
37	Ulysses Grant	Republican	33.42	Corrupt administration, failure of Reconstruction
38	William Henry Harrison	Whig	33.57	Briefest administration (30 days)
39	Andrew Johnson	Democrat	34.67	Impeded Reconstruction, impeachment
40	Franklin Pierce	Democrat	34.92	Failure to avert Civil War, intimidated into allowing Kansas-Nebraska Act, overall weak leadership
41	James Buchanan	Democrat	36.58	Failure to avert Civil War, ruined his party, weak leadership, prone to frequent bouts of depression which invariably affected his leadership abilities
42	Warren G. Harding	Republican	37.33	Corrupt and short administration

Scholar surveys details

The 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. of Harvard University ([link]). The 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians; the results of this survey are given in the book The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents by William A. Degregorio. Schlesinger's son Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. conducted another poll in 1996, not currently on the above chart.

The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians conducted by the Chicago Tribune. A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of President Eisenhower, who was ranked #22 in 1962, but was ranked #9 in the 1982 survey.

The Siena Research Institute of Siena College conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, and 2002. The 1994 survey placed only two Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points, and placed two Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, below 50 points. ( [link], [link])

The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1989 to 1996 by William J. Ridings, Jr. and Stuart B. McIver, and published in the book Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent. More than 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were included, and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in African-American studies", as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the Presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments & crisis management, political skill, appointments, character & integrity), and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.

The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership was a 1999 survey of academic historians. It found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt the three best presidents by a wide margin and William Henry Harrison, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan the worst. ([link])

A 2000 survey by The Wall Street Journal was published in Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House, and is also available [online]. The participants consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number of liberals and conservatives in the survey, as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one group or the other, but never balanced. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably similar" to the "mostly liberal" 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference being the much higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan in the 2000 poll. According to the editors, this poll also included responses from more women, minorities, and young professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll.

Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with James Lindgren of Northwestern University Law School for the Federalist Society. ([]) As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight." Editor James Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time, while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving President Bush an overall rating of "average". ([link])

Liberal and Conservative raters

The Murray-Blessing 1982 survey asked historians whether they were liberal or conservative on domestic social and economic issues. The table shows the two groups had only small differences in ranking the best and worst presidents.

Rankings by Liberals and Conservatives

rank	Liberals (n=190)	Conservatives (N=50)
1	Lincoln	Lincoln
2	FD Roosevelt	Washington
3	Washington	FD Roosevelt
4	Jefferson	Jefferson
5	T Roosevelt	T Roosevelt
6	Wilson	Jackson
7	Jackson	Truman
8	Truman	Wilson
9	LB Johnson	Eisenhower
10	John Adams	John Adams
30	Coolidge	Carter
31	Pierce	Nixon
32	Buchanan	Pierce
33	An. Johnson	An. Johnson
34	Grant	Buchanan
35	Nixon	Grant
36	Harding	Harding

Source: Murray and Blessing p 135

Popular opinion

Quinnipiac University poll

A Quinnipiac University poll, taken May 23-30, 2006, asked 1,534 registered American voters to pick the best and worst U.S. President of the last 61 years. [link].

"Thinking about the United States Presidents we have had since World War II – Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, which one would you consider the best president?"

1. Ronald Reagan (28%)
2. Bill Clinton (25%)
3. John Kennedy (18%)
4. Harry Truman (7%)
5. Dwight Eisenhower (5%)
6. Jimmy Carter (5%)
7. Don't Know/No Answer (4%)
8. George W. Bush (3%)
9. George H. W. Bush (2%)
10. Lyndon Johnson (1%)
11. Richard Nixon (1%)
12. Gerald Ford (1%)

"Which of these eleven presidents we have had since World War II would you consider the worst president - Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush?"

1. George W. Bush (34%)
2. Richard Nixon (17%)
3. Bill Clinton (16%)
4. Jimmy Carter (13%)
5. Don't Know/No Answer (5%)
6. Lyndon Johnson (4%)
7. Ronald Reagan (3%)
8. George H. W. Bush (3%)
9. Gerald Ford (2%)
10. Harry Truman (1%)
11. John Kennedy (1%)
12. Dwight Eisenhower (<1%)

Washington College poll

A Washington College poll about presidential greatness, taken 11 February 2005, asked 800 adults nationwide, "Thinking about all the presidents of the United States throughout history to the present, who would you say was America's greatest president?"[link]

1. Abraham Lincoln (20%)
2. Ronald Reagan (15%)
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt (12%)
4. John F. Kennedy (11%)
5. Bill Clinton (10%)
6. Other/Don't Know (9%)
7. George W. Bush (8%)
8. George Washington (6%)
9. Theodore Roosevelt (3%)
10. Dwight Eisenhower (3%)
11. Jimmy Carter (2%)
12. Thomas Jefferson (2%)
13. Richard Nixon (1%)
14. John Adams (<1%)
15. Andrew Jackson (<1%)
16. Lyndon Johnson (<1%)

Gallup poll

A Gallup poll about presidential greatness, taken 7-10 February 2005, asked 1008 adults nationwide, "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?" [link]

1. Ronald Reagan (20%)
2. Bill Clinton (15%)
3. Abraham Lincoln (14%)
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt (12%)
5. John F. Kennedy (12%)
6. Other/None/No opinion (5%)
7. George Washington (5%)
8. George W. Bush (5%)
9. Jimmy Carter (3%)
10. Harry Truman (2%)
11. Theodore Roosevelt (2%)
12. Thomas Jefferson (2%)
13. George H.W. Bush (1%)
14. Dwight Eisenhower (1%)
15. Richard Nixon (1%)

ABC Poll

An ABC News poll about presidential greatness, taken 16-20 February 2000, asked 1012 adults nationwide, "Who do you think was the greatest American president?" [link]

1. Abraham Lincoln (19%)
2. John Kennedy (17%)
3. Franklin Roosevelt (11%)
4. No opinion (10%)
5. Ronald Reagan (9%)
6. George Washington (8%)
7. Bill Clinton (7%)
8. Theodore Roosevelt (4%)
9. George H.W. Bush (4%)
10. Thomas Jefferson (3%)
11. Harry Truman (2%)
12. Richard Nixon (2%)
13. Jimmy Carter (1%)
14. Dwight Eisenhower (1%)

References

• Thomas A. Bailey, Presidential Greatness (1966), a non quantitative appraisal by leading historian
• Degregorio, William A. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. 4th ed. New York: Avenel, 1993. Contains the results of the 1962 and 1982 surveys.
• Faber, Charles and Richard Faber. The American Presidents Ranked by Performance (2000)
• Felzenberg, Alvin S. “There You Go Again: Liberal Historians and the New York Times Deny Ronald Reagan His Due,” Policy Review, March—April 1997.
• Melvin G. Holli. The American Mayor: The Best & the Worst Big-City Leaders (1999)
• Miller, Nathan. Star-Spangled Men America's Ten Worst Presidents (1999)
• Murray, Robert K. and Tim H. Blessing. Greatness in the White House: Rating the Presidents, from Washington Through Ronald Reagan (1994)
• Pfiffner, James P. ; "Ranking the Presidents: Continuity and Volatility" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003 pp 23+
• Ridings, William J., Jr. and Stuart B. McIver. Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0806517999.
• Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur M. "Ranking the Presidents: From Washington to Clinton," Political Science Quarterly (1997) 112:179-90
• Skidmore, Max J. Presidential Performance: A Comprehensive Review (2004)
• Skidmore, Max J. "Ranking and Evaluating Presidents: The Case of Theodore Roosevelt" White House Studies. Volume: 1. Issue: 4. 2001. pp 495+.
• Taranto, James and Leonard Leo, eds. Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House. New York: Wall Street Journal Books, 2004. ISBN 0743254333, for Federalist Society surveys.

External links

• ["Ranking Presidents: Utter Nonsense Or Useful Analysis?], 2001 column by John Dean
• ["The Worst President in History?"], 2006 Rolling Stone article by Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz
• ["No More Great Presidents"], 1997 column by political economist Robert Higgs

Lists of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States [http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit ]
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