Presidential Greatness (review)

Presidential Greatness. By Marc Landy and Sidney M. Milkis (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2000) 278 pp. $34.95

Despite widespread complaints about the general decline of standards, Americans have been noticeably reluctant to call more than a handful of their presidents "great." In their timely and engaging study of this subject, Landy and Milkis offer their selection of great presidents, along with an analysis of what makes for presidential greatness.

First the results. Proceeding in chronological order, the authors award the palm to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As with nearly every poll, Lincoln tops the list. In a thoughtful concluding chapter, the authors sympathetically consider the presidencies of Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ronald Reagan, two "plausible," but ultimately failed, contenders for presidential greatness. As the inclusion of Reagan suggests, the special merit of this volume is the authors' effort to think outside the prevailing partisan orthodoxy, which equates presidential greatness with the expansion of the administrative state and the furtherance of liberal democratic goals.

Instead, the authors argue that the greatest presidents have been "conservative revolutionaries"; they have sought to restore or reinterpret the fundamental political principles as elaborated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, an approach that may not lead to the expansion of governmental powers. "Both Jefferson and Jackson launched revolutions that were aimed at undoing" the growth of the federal government in the name of equality and liberty (222). On the other hand, such is the dynamic of the administrative state created by Roosevelt, that a "negative" revolution is much more difficult to accomplish today; even "conservatives" are scrambling to gain control of government rather than dismantle it. In any case, Landy and Milkis persuasively argue that it would have taken a president far more willing to fight, and fight hard, to realign the two parties and reverse the growth of the federal government than the genial Reagan.

Only those presidents who rekindle dedication to America's founding principles, or reinterpret them in ways that resonate with the American people, can lay claim to greatness. To succeed, presidents must work within a party system that mobilizes citizens around a particular understanding of these principles, while restraining the pride and ambition of those who seek to rule. Without the discipline of parties, ambitious contenders will be tempted to resort to demagogic techniques to win and hold power. The authors also define presidential greatness as the ability and desire to instruct and educate citizens in the meaning of these principles; a great president must, they insist, "take the people to school."

Yet, it would seem to matter what "school" they attend. How can Roosevelt's interpretation of the founders' principles be right and also Jefferson's and Jackson's? Or Johnson's and Reagan's? What, precisely, is "conservative" about the New Deal? Did Roosevelt realign the Democratic party to fulfill the principles of the Declaration under radically changed circumstances? Or does his claim to greatness lie in successfully completing the work begun by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the progressive presidents, to build a new, more programmatic political party that would overthrow the founders' commitment to limited government in the service of natural rights? The thrust of the authors' argument suggests the former, but they might have spelled out their view in great detail.

By linking presidential greatness to the two-party system invented by Jefferson, perfected by Jackson, and then realigned by Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt to meet the moral and political crises of their day, Landy and Milkis reveal why only a few of our presidents have achieved lasting glory. Not least of the many important questions that this book raises is whether real greatness is still possible when leaders bypass their own parties and appeal directly to the people in pursuit of momentary popularity. For candidates and citizens alike, Presidental Greatness should be required reading in any election season.

Jean M. Yarbrough
Bowdoin College

...