Two Good Books About Presidents, Two Lousy Covers
The old saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I’m willing to go along, as assorted people have told me that they like my books, but are not crazy about the covers. And now it’s my turn.
Earlier this year, Regnery Publishing put out two volumes on the U.S. presidents – The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, Part 1: from Washington to Taft and The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, Part 2: from Wilson to Obama. While there’s clear value in the books, quite frankly, I’m not crazy about the covers.
Part 1 offers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln donning “Make America Great Again” hats, and Part 2 serves up John F. Kennedy, with a lipstick kiss on his cheek, embracing Marilyn Monroe. I suppose these covers are, on some level, amusing, but they don’t do justice to two books that amount to refreshing refreshers by two excellent historians, with Larry Schweikart penning Part 1 and Steven F. Hayward writing Part 2 (recently updated for its 2017 re-release).
Make no mistake, these are quick reads. If you’re looking for in-depth analysis on each U.S. president from Washington to Obama, then these books are not for you. However, if the reader is looking to be introduced to or reacquainted with assorted presidents, then these are two worthy volumes. Indeed, I would recommend these books for high school and college students, various adults, along with, well, assorted elected officials.
Most notably, these two volumes of essays on the presidents largely get the economic policymaking right, and that’s a significant achievement considering how misguided so many historians tend to be when it comes to economics. And that’s why elected officials would do well to read these books, taking note of what policies worked and didn’t from Washington to Obama.
For example, Schweikart highlighted that Washington (1798-1797) was not a knee-jerk isolationist, as many claim, and that the first president favored “liberal trade with all nations.”
Facing tough economic times, President James Monroe (1817-1825) wisely rejected all kinds of calls for government intervention, from bailing out debtors to infrastructure spending, to aid the economy. Instead, he favored tax relief, saying, “I recommended the repeal of internal taxes, knowing that such relief was then peculiarly necessary.”
Presidents Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) and Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) both stood firm in favor of hard money, and against those seeking to cheapen the currency and drive up inflation.
As for Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), Schweikart pointed out that he “has to be held accountable for signing the Sherman Antitrust Act – allowing unprecedented federal government interference in the economy – which had even longer term consequences.”
And at the dawn of the twentieth century, two Republicans aggressively pushed ahead with government activism, intrusiveness and costs. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) was manically anti-free enterprise, and William Howard Taft (1909-1913) gave us the death tax and, oddly not focused on in the book, the corporate income tax and the Sixteenth Amendment allowing for a personal income tax. Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) then imposed the income tax, jacked rates up, and the economy suffered.
It would be Presidents Warren G. Harding (1921-1923) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) who would push for major tax relief that helped generate tremendous economic growth during much of the 1920s. Hayward went on to show that the era of more limited government under Harding and Coolidge was replaced by an unprecedented expansion of government spending, regulation, and taxes, starting under Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), a Republican who also signed the destructive Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act, and vastly growing and spreading under Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945), a Democrat. The result was, quite simply, the Great Depression.
Hayward continues the journey, noting that Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) was lousy on taxes, with the 1950s suffering sluggish, uneven growth, while his successor, Democrat John. F. Kennedy (1961-1963), was a supply-side tax cutter, with his tax cuts passed just after his death. The next four presidents didn’t have a clue about sound economic policy.
As for Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), Hayward summed up, “After more than ten years of high inflation, slow economic growth, and rising pessimism, Reagan – the first two-term president since Eisenhower – successfully turned the nation around, broke the back of inflation, stimulated rapid economic growth that saw the creation of 20 million jobs, and restored the nation’s self-confidence and optimism about the future.” This was largely achieved via substantial tax and regulatory relief.
Hayward then went on to show the reader how the Reagan legacy was largely squandered by George H.W. Bush (1989-1993), and to argue that the nation subsequently suffered for the corruption of Bill Clinton (1993-2001), the mixed domestic record of George W. Bush (2001-2009), and the constitutional abuses of Barack Obama (2009-2017).
For some, these two books will jog the memory. For others, it will simply be old news. And there certainly are plenty of historical points to argue about, and others not covered that leads to a bit of head scratching. Nonetheless, the case can be made that these introductory books will offer new and important insights to a majority of readers. Depending on whether you’re a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person, that’s either welcome news (great – this is much needed!) or distressing news (why are so many people ignorant of so much of this?). The realist in me is simply glad that these two fine historians have written these informative refreshers.
