Warren G. Harding: Is One of Our Worst Presidents Really One of Our Best?

Warren G. Harding: Is One of Our Worst Presidents Really One of Our Best?
Warren G. Harding, a senator from Ohio, became president in 1921. Photo by FPG/Getty Images
Dustin Bass
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What does it take to be considered a successful president? According to the historians who vote in the most well-known presidential rankings list, C-SPAN’s Presidential Historians Survey, it seems to be a mixed bag. Indeed, the rankings seem to have less to do with what a president did or didn’t do during their time, and more to do with how society views them now. One former president on the list, Warren G. Harding, has perpetually been at the bottom of the rankings, and according to historian Ryan Walters, the opposite should be true.
Walters, a history professor at Collin College in North Texas and the author of “The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding,” is one of the few historians who have come out in defense of the president who was the executive face of the Roaring ‘20s. He suggests the reason why so few come to Harding’s defense is because of the baggage that has followed him―baggage that, he claims, is steeped in more falsehoods than the truth.
Dustin Bass
Dustin Bass
Author
Dustin Bass is the creator and host of the American Tales podcast, and co-founder of The Sons of History. He writes two weekly series for The Epoch Times: Profiles in History and This Week in History. He is also an author.
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