E-book reviews: 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America - might next one make it 10?
Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama all make Brion McClanahan’s hall of shame. Among his hero presidents are Calvin Coolidge, Grover Cleveland and Thomas Jefferson
9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America
by Brion McClanahan
Regnery History (e-book)
3.5/5 stars
Had historian Brion McClanahan waited a little longer to publish his original take on what makes a president champion or chump he could have hit double figures, such are the probable forthcoming nominations. But this is a serious analysis and a popularity contest it isn’t – hence the surprising skewering of presidents usually and emotively considered successes, among them Barack Obama, Franklin D. Roosevelt, even Abraham Lincoln. Americans love their constitution and will use it to justify anything; how odd then that, as McClanahan demonstrates, they concurrently, wistfully, lionise those presidents who have most successfully destroyed, emasculated or ignored constitutional government to raise state militia, obliterate capitalism, nationalise industries, trample civil liberties and usher the United States into war. If the nine are villains, however, McClanahan also offers four heroes who “tried to save” America: Jefferson, Tyler, Cleveland and Coolidge, who variously cut taxes, torpedoed unnecessary legislation and were cautious over foreign policy. The country, he argues, labours under an “imperial presidency” and that, “Congress has abandoned … their legal authority to challenge the president, and the people have decided it is easier to vote … for a virtual dictator than place their hope in Congress”.