President Biden hasn't been enjoying the polls much lately. His approval ratings are lower than any president dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower at this stage of his term, and he trails former President Donald J. Trump in a rematch in the fall. But Mr. Biden may take solace from one poll that shows him significantly ahead of Mr. Trump.
A new poll by historians to be released over President's Day weekend puts Biden just ahead of Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant as the 14th best president in U.S. history. Ranked. This may not put Biden on Mount Rushmore, but it certainly puts him well ahead of Trump, who ranks him at the bottom of the list as the worst president in history.
In fact, Biden may be in the top third thanks in part to Trump. Although he claims he has acquired a historical legacy by managing the end of the coronavirus pandemic, he will rebuild the country's roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Historians say Mr. Biden's signature accomplishment in leading the international coalition against Russian aggression was ousting Mr. Trump from the Oval Office.
“Biden's most important accomplishment is rescuing the presidency from Trump, resuming a more traditional style of presidential leadership, and preparing to keep the presidency out of the hands of his predecessor this fall.” “Maybe,” write university professors Justin Vaughn and Brandon Rottinghaus. The person who conducted the study and published the results in the Los Angeles Times.
Trump may not care much what many academics think, but he understandably has a bad reputation even among historians who identify as Republicans. Trump, who finished 45th overall, ranks behind mid-19th century failures such as James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson, who plunged countries into civil wars and mismanaged their aftermath. I'm taking the lead.
Of course, judging modern presidents is a dangerous exercise, shaped by the politics of the moment and not necessarily reflective of what history will be a century from now. Even ancient presidents can move up or down in these polls depending on the changing cultural mores of the era in which the polls are conducted.
For example, Barack Obama, who finished seventh this year, has moved up nine places from 2015, as has Grant, who currently ranks 17th. Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson fell 12 spots to 21st, while Wilson (15th) and Regan (16th) each dropped five spots.
At least some of that may be due to the contemporary surge of interest in racial justice. Of course, Mr. Obama was the first black president of the United States, and Mr. Grant's fight against the Ku Klux Klan was meant to counterbalance the corruption in his administration. But today, attention is focused on Mr. Jackson's brutal campaign against Native Americans and the forced removal of Native American communities on the Trail of Tears, as well as Mr. Wilson's racist views and the resegregation of parts of the federal government.
As usual, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson are at the top of the list, and historians are not concerned with personal ideology or party affiliation. and generally share similar views about many presidents. But some modern presidents have caused further divisions among historians along party lines.
For example, Republican scholars rank Mr. Reagan in 5th place, George H.W. Bush in 19th place, Obama in 6th place, and Biden in 13th place. Outside of Mr. Grant and Mr. Biden, the biggest gap is with George W. Bush, who ranks 19th among Republicans and 33rd among Democrats.
Interestingly, one modern president who has created little partisan difference is Bill Clinton. In fact, Republicans rank him 10th, slightly higher than Democrats at 12th, perhaps reflecting #MeToo-era reconsideration and liberal anxiety about centrist politics. .
The survey was conducted by Vaughn, associate professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University, and Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston, and was based on 154 responses from scholars across the country.
