Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents - Softcover

Miller, Nathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684852063 ISBN 13: 9780684852065

Publisher: Scribner, 1999

Synopsis

Picking America's best presidents is easy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt usually lead the list, But choosing the nation's worst presidents requires more thought. In Star-Spangled Men, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller puts on display those leaders who were abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, he presents a rogues' gallery of the men who dropped the presidential ball, and sometimes their pants as well.
Miller includes Richard M. Nixon, who was forced to resign to escape impeachment; Jimmy Carter, who proved that the White House is not the place for on-the-job training; and Warren G. Harding, who gave "being in the closet" new meaning as he carried on extramarital interludes in one near the Oval Office. This current edition also includes a new assessment of Bill Clinton -- who has admitted lying to his family, his aides, his cabinet, and the American people.

About this title

Review:

In Star-Spangled Men, presidential biographer Nathan Miller compiles a subjective list of the 10 crummiest presidents in history. His criteria for ignominy: "bad character, the inability to compromise, a lack of vision, poor political skills, dishonesty, and an inability to communicate." Richard Nixon and Andrew Johnson are obvious choices, Jimmy Carter and William Howard Taft somewhat less so, though probably deserving according to Miller. Many readers probably can find a selection or two to quarrel with on these pages (Is Calvin Coolidge really one of the 10 worst?), but nonetheless will appreciate Miller's candid assessments. (The most controversial part of the book is certainly its brief epilogue, which details "the two most overrated presidents": Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy.) Miller provides 10 neat summaries of 10 arguable failures in this good bit of opinionated writing that turns the klieg lights on some of American history's dimmer stars.

From Library Journal:

Few Americans, let alone historians, express much interest in the worst events or characters, as such, in our history, but presidential historian Miller (The Roosevelt Chronicles, LJ 10/15/97) decided to investigate whom he considers to be the ten worst presidents. His self-described subjective but nonpartisan criteria for measuring our "failed" leaders include bad character, dishonesty, inability to compromise, lack of vision, weak political skills, failure to communicate, and?his most important consideration?"How badly did they damage the nation they were supposed to serve?" Each individual?Carter, Taft, Harrison, Coolidge, Grant, Andrew Johnson, Pierce, Buchanan, Harding, and Nixon?receives about 20 pages, in which Miller provides little more than a Reader's Digest version of a political biography. In the last chapter, the author writes about Jefferson and Kennedy?in his opinion, the two most overrated presidents. There is little to recommend this book to anyone who seriously wants to understand any of these presidents, especially the two "overrated" ones.?Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684852063
• ISBN 13: 9780684852065
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272