Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Robert W. Merry (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 26, 2012

The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, A Country of Vast Designs, offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing “Rating the Presidents,” by pitching historians’ views and subsequent experts’ polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents’ own contemporaries.

Merry posits that presidents rise and fall based on performance, as judged by the electorate. Thus, he explores the presidency by comparing the judgments of historians with how the voters saw things. Was the president reelected? If so, did his party hold office in the next election?

Where They Stand examines the chief executives Merry calls “Men of Destiny,’’ those who set the country toward new directions. There are six of them, including the three nearly always at the top of all academic polls—Lincoln, Washington, and FDR. He describes the “Split-Decision Presidents’’ (including Wilson and Nixon)—successful in their first terms and reelected; less successful in their second terms and succeeded by the opposition party. He describes the “Near Greats’’ (Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, TR, Truman), the “War Presidents’’ (Madison, McKinley, Lyndon Johnson), the flat-out failures (Buchanan, Pierce), and those whose standing has fluctuated (Grant, Cleveland, Eisenhower).

This voyage through our history provides a probing and provocative analysis of how presidential politics works and how the country sets its course. Where They Stand invites readers to pitch their opinions against the voters of old, the historians, the pollsters—and against the author himself. In this year of raucous presidential politics, Where They Stand will provide a context for the unfolding campaign drama.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“There is no better guide for evaluating our current presidential candidates than this remarkable book. Reporters, commentators and citizens alike should read Robert Merry’s illuminating journey into the past to discover what made our previous presidents succeed or fail. The history is lively; the writing is graceful; the analysis is brilliant.” (Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln)

"A pleasant romp through the annals of American politics." (The New York Times Book Review)

“It is rare that such a breezy book exhibits both serious intent and skillful analysis…Such grounded reflections make this an unusually authoritative book. While likely to be catnip for aficionados of presidential studies, this will also quickly rank high among serious works on the presidency.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“First-rate history….Where They Stand is both stimulating and refreshing, particularly in its take on presidents such as Andrew Jackson, Polk and Grant, whose legacies have been obscured by time and controversy…. Where They Stand is filled with almost flip-page observations about presidents that are shrewd and provocative.” (The Dallas Morning News)

“[A] shrewdly conceived and elegantly written short book….This is beach reading for wonks that expertly navigates 44 shades of gray.” (History News Network)

About the Author

Robert Merry is the editor of The National Interest. He has been a Washington correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the Executive Editor of the Congressional Quarterly. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The National Review, The American Spectator, and The National Interest. He has appeared in Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Newsmakers, and many other programs. He lives in McLean, Virginia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (June 26, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451625405
• ISBN-13: 978-1451625400
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #493,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in the little fishing town of Gig Harbor, Washington, but my passion for history emerged during my third grade year in Charlottesville, Virginia, where my father pursued a Ph.D. at Mr. Jefferson's University. There I encountered history in abundance, not least the university itself, so much of it designed by Jefferson. Also there was Jefferson's Monticello, nearby Civil War battlefields, numerous statues of famous Americans going back 200 years. I knew from that time that history would be an important part of my life.

My dad eventually became a newspaperman in Tacoma, Washington, and I followed him into that trade. I was editor of my junior high school newspaper, my high school paper, and the University of Washington Daily. Following a stint in the army, most of it as a counterespionage agent in West Germany, I got a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. But it was always my dream to cover big events of historical sweep. Thus, after two years at the Denver Post, I arrived in Washington, D.C., to become a national political correspondent for a Dow Jones weekly newspaper called The National Observer. It was a wonderful editorial product but a business failure, and in 1977 the parent company killed it off. I was pleased to be invited to join the Washington bureau of Dow Jones' other newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, where I spent nearly 10 years covering Congress, the White House, economic policy, and national political campaigns. It was a great experience.

But around 1987 I concluded I was finished with the political chase and wished to become a publishing executive. Thus I became managing editor at Congressional Quarterly Inc., the Washington-based publishing enterprise specializing in news and information on Congress, politics, and public policy. Later I became executive editor and then CEO, a position I held for a dozen years.

So I had two wonderful career segments -- covering Washington for one of the country's leading newspapers; and leading a fine news organization with the hallowed mission of lubricating the wheels of American democracy with ongoing flows of highly valuable civic information.

Along the way I produced three books. First came TAKING ON THE WORLD (Viking, 1996), a biography of prominent postwar columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop. I sought to use these two journalistic giants -- blood relatives of the Roosevelts; close friends of the Kennedys -- as a kind of window on 40 years of American political, diplomatic, and social history. Next came SANDS OF EMPIRE (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a polemical work that explored the philsophical underpinnings of the ideas driving American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era -- and driving policy, as I believed, in the wrong direction.

And now comes A COUNTRY OF VAST DESIGNS, a biography of President James K. Polk and an exploration of the powerful wave of expansionist sentiment that washed over America in the 1840s. In just four years America expanded its territory by a third and accumulated the vast expanse of Texas (annexed at the risk of war with Mexico), the American Southwest (acquired as a result of that war with Mexico), and the Pacific Northwest (brought into the union after a harrowing round of negotiations that almost caused a war with Great Britain). I portray James Polk, the mastermind and driving force behind this expansionist wave, as a smaller-than-life figure with larger-than-life ambitions. He achieved all his goals, but the efforts of this relentless politician sapped his strength and health, and within four months of his leaving office he died in his sleep at age 53.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting hypothesis for a popular topic June 26, 2012

By Todd Bartholomew TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Handicapping our best and worst Presidents is a popular subject with historians and others, with enough books on the subject having been written to fill a small library. Even former presidents have weighed in on the subject. What makes a president great is certainly relative and subjective, and opinions of presidents have often waxed and waned over time. Why an author or historian would want to wade into this quagmire in the first place is a sensible question and certainly as many have avoided it as have delved into it. Presidential historians in particular tend to be either reticent to express opinions or offer them up too freely.

As the song goes, "Ya gotta have a gimmick" and it's tempting to say that of Merry's approach here, but in truth his approach is quite methodical and seems quite valid. Too many authors of this type of presidential evaluation give in to opinion versus empirical facts. And mind you, I've enjoyed many of them but found them profoundly subjective. I've enjoyed Merry's prior books, especially Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop - Guardians of the American Century and was amused when an advance copy of "Where They Stand" was sent to me. Merry comes up with a fairly sensible idea for assessing the relative success of a president which make a lot of sense. Merry identifies three keys to determine their success: that the party and the electorate wanted that president re-nominated and that they completed two successful terms, they consistently are in the upper quartiles of historians lists of great presidents, and that they are leaders of destiny who changed the political landscape and redirected the destiny of the nation. The third and final measurement is perhaps the trickiest and still a bit subjective. But overall this seems a pretty good schema for assessment; after all, if a president can't win a second term how good are they? Throughout Merry also takes into account that people have to understand the time in which a president served, what the voters were hungry for, and more importantly did that president fulfill their needs and desires? How well did the work the levers of power? Reading over "Where They Stand" I found myself repeatedly thinking that not all men truly are created equal. It's how leaders respond to crises and challenges that often make them great. Without something to test their mettle the qualities of a person may not be fully grasped.

So who does Merry pick as the greats? I'm tempted to say you'll have to read to find out as his prose is an absolute delight and his hypothesis is pretty smart. Suffice to say the usual suspects turn up and Merry classified and categorizes them in a fairly appropriate manner. At the pinnacle are the "The Men of Destiny" (Washington, Lincoln, and FDR among them) who completed two successful terms and profoundly shaped the nation's direction. The next group are the Split Decision" presidents (Wilson and Nixon among them), whose first terms were certainly successful and who were reelected only to run into profound problems in their second terms and were replaced by the opposition party in subsequent elections. The "Near Greats" (Jefferson, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Truman)are an interesting lot, presidents who were reelected but whose ratings and assessments have fluctuated over time as lay people and historians project onto them what they wish to see, and find attributes that take on different meanings at different times. One of the odder categories are the "War Presidents" which clearly doesn't include all presidents who served while wars were on, but for whom the wars they commanded didn't go particularly well or pointed out shortcomings and flaws that otherwise might not have diminished our perspectives of (Madison, McKinley, and LBJ). The failures are a bit predictable (Buchanan, Pierce, and others), but another interesting group are those whose standing has fluctuated (Grant, Cleveland, and Eisenhower). It's this last group that really had me thinking as Cleveland was certainly popular/controversial in his time and remained so for many years. It was only decades later that his star dimmed. Ditto with Eisenhower, who initially was viewed as the calm steady hand on the tiller, only later to be viewed as a somewhat vacuous hands-off leader. The "Near Greats" also point out some difficulty with Merry's hypothesis as Teddy Roosevelt is frequently held up in great esteem by environmentalists and those seeking government to take a more proactive role in the regulation of business. It seems odd to see him in the same category with Harry Truman, a president who was reviled when he left office, but whose stature rose with time only to become somewhat more volatile again. It seems to me he could also fall into the fluctuating category as well as Jackson. Polk is a bit problematic as well. A one term president he's a tough one to pigeonhole and certainly a bit problematic in our revisionist era.

Ultimately it's taking into account that very revisionism and that the way we view presidents isn't static but constantly changing that makes "Where They Stand" such a fascinating read. The stock of former presidents is constantly subject to change, but clearly there are those who consistently rated as greats. It's making sense of the rest that spurs debate and contention. A thoroughly interesting read and one that is likely to spur some debate.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes To Rating the Presidents July 11, 2012

By T. Malone

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

A presidential year is a good time to write a book about rating presidents. You won't find a better book on the subject than Robert Merry's Where They Stand. Merry writes like a journalist and thinks like a historian. Consider this brief description of Lyndon Johnson:

"Johnson was a big man whose mountainous style was waved around as a display of potency and vigor designed to subdue lesser men. His repertoire of manipulation included deft displays of cajolery, bluster, menace, flattery, thoughtful gift-giving, and subtle political threats wrapped in lighthearted smiles. His instinct was toward big thoughts and big ambitions, all aimed at bringing attention and glory to himself. Many Americans concluded by the end of 1965 that the presidential office had met its match in this unstoppable politician."

It has taken Robert Caro thousands of pages to make the same point.

Merry's thrust is that the academic studies and and other professional ratings of the presidents are valuable, but equally valuable are the judgments of the electorate who voted for or against sitting presidents. Neither judgment is complete without the other. For example, Grover Cleveland's rating by the academics has gone up and down over time, but in Merry's view he is the only two-time loser since he lost a reelection and the voters rejected his party after his second term. It is an interesting observation because Grover Cleveland and Franklin Roosevelt are the only two presidents to win the popular vote more than twice (Cleveland lost the electoral college vote in his reelection campaign).

This thrust is not one that everyone shares. Merry observes that Germond & Witcover wrote a popular and influential book on the 1988 campaign suggesting that voters made their judgment "based on those flickering images on their television screens." Using intriguing historical information and analysis from two political scientists, Lichtman and DeCell, Mary makes a compelling argument that voter opinions are collectively intelligent and merit worthy. According to Merry the presidents deserving the highest ratings needed to be reelected and have their anointed successor be elected, and be "a leader of destiny" who visualized a new national direction and significantly changed the country. Washington and Franklin Roosevelt are perhaps the best exemplars of leaders of destiny.

But the best part of the book is the writing. In a couple of hundred pages there is a concise and lucid history of the American presidency from its beginnings to the present. In a few short paragraphs he manages to abstract the issues and personalities of each presidential era, which serves as a very nice brief history of the United States. As with all interesting historical questions, there is never an answer, only a movable target that gets more entertaining the more you know. Was Andrew Jackson a leader of destiny? His stock has gone up and down in academic studies based upon changing political views, but he certainly was popular and changed the national direction. Was Ronald Reagan a leader of destiny? Too soon to tell says Merry.

Merry introduces the book by saying "the Great White House Reaching Game is ongoing and endless -- and open to everyone. Wanna Play?"

The answer is yes.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Standing Up For Where They Stand July 9, 2012

By Urban C. Lehner

Format:Hardcover

If you have the slightest interest in American history you should read this book. You won't agree with all of it. No one will, and indeed, the author encourages you to disagree with him. But you will enjoy engaging with him and emerge from the experience wiser. Where They Stand is erudite, thought-provoking and a joy to read. It will reinforce what you already know, remind you of things you've forgotten, enlighten you with things you never knew and help you keep the threads of the great debates about our history untangled. I couldn't put it down.