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The debate about who our greatest presidents have been is an age-old parlor game that has been played since Americans elected a president not named Washington. Over time, as the number of presidents eligible for entry into the greatness debate grew, various sub-debates also became possible. Not only could disputants present arguments in favor of or against one president or another as the greatest in all history, they also could squabble about which was the greatest commander-in-chief; which had the highest integrity and greatest moral courage; and, of course, which most exhibited a serious lack of greatness. Related to these new arguments, the very definition of presidential greatness has been contestable and contested as American history--and American political values-- evolves.
The subject of presidential greatness, particularly from a modern political science perspective, is the focus of this article. The contested concept of presidential greatness and the various scholarly efforts to capture and analyze the phenomenon are discussed briefly. We then introduce results of a new study of presidential greatness based on a large sample of political scientists who are engaged in the ongoing study of the American presidency. Results of this study underscore some of the findings we have come to expect based on decades of analysis primarily from historians. The study also yielded intriguing results potentially related to the distinct disciplinary perspectives of political scientists about the presidency that separates them from scholars in other fields.
WHAT IS PRESIDENTIAL GREATNESS?
Arguably, there are as many--if not significantly more--perspectives on what it means to be a great president as there have been presidents. Indeed, a 2012 CNN story that attempted to ultimately understand the concept instead further indicated the variety of opinions, even as it queried well-known historians with largely similar methodological approaches to the study of the office and the individuals who have held it (CNN 2012). For example, Richard Reeves stated, "Presidential greatness is determined by being in the White House at the right time--or the wrong time. The presidency is a reactive job and we judge the presidents by their handling of one or two big crises, usually unforeseen." Similarly, Joseph Ellis noted that the nation's three greatest presidents--George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt--came to office in times...