John Dean’s biography, Warren G. Harding, was clearly written to argue past criticism stating that Harding was the worst United States president. He argues that his amazing god given knowledge helped him become the 29th president of the United States of America, not just a befuddled placement to run as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in 1920. His second major argument is trying to give some of the blame to his cabinet members, because Harding was often chastised for valuing his cabinet members’ view too much.
Warren G. Harding starts off with the birth of Harding on November 2, 1865, son of George Tyron Harding and Phoebe Elizabeth Dickerson. Harding being the first son, and Harding’s father studying medicine, Harding started shadowing his father who developed his own practice, while steadily working on their family farm. In 1876 Tyron desired ownership of the local newspaper, Caledonia Argus. While working as an apprentice with his father, Harding quickly gained an affinity to the world of journalism.
When Harding was fourteen, he began studying at Ohio Central College in Iberia, Ohio in the fall semester of 1879. Harding was fond with the ladies all around Iberia with his stature “already six feet tall, with an olive complexion, blue eyes, and wavy black hair.” (Dean, Print). While at college, Harding roomed with Frank Harris who would gawk at how Warrant would rarely study and pass all of his classes with seemingly ease. Philosophy and Literature were Harding’s favorite subjects, and would constantly be seen reading “the masters of English prose.” With subjects he disliked, he would disregard until it was crunch time for an important test, and he would cram all night with his books until he got it. Whe...
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...0 million dollars from the federal government throughout the Veterans Bureau scandal. Another scandal due to Harding’s poor valued appointed officials working under him.
It was no one’s fault but his to engage in affairs while married to Florence. He has no one to blame, but solely himself for the affairs. Even though, Carrie Phillips was said to be the prettiest woman in Marion, it gives a man no reason to cheat on his wife. Foolishly Harding was seeing another woman while sneaking around with Carrie while Florence was ill with her floating kidney. Harding deserves his full despise on affair.
Affairs and trust issues do not fully qualify Harding as the worst president in history. He came in well liked and died loved. Harding did not receive his bad image until after his death when the affairs and scandals came up.
Works Cited
Warren G. Harding by John W. Dean
Beginning with a comparative analysis of the manner in which Neustadt and Skowronek conceptualize of the Presidency itself, the essay notes that Neustadt’s theory operates at the micro level while Skowronek’s operates at the macro level. Arguing that this difference is salient in creating a division of labor between the two, the essay moves forward to examine each theory’s ability to expatiate upon differences between Presidents by applying them to both the Johnson and Nixon Administrations. Noting Neustadt’s superiority vis-à-vis Johnson and Skowronek’s greater potency as it pertains to Nixon, and how Reagan best shows the strengths and weaknesses of both authors, this essay proposes that this discussion lends further support to the notion that each theory is best suited to examining different facets of the Presidency.
Amazingly, it is not until President Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal that the Teapot Dome scandal finally takes a backseat as being notoriously known for the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. This paper will illustrate how and why one man in the oil industry could so easily manipulate the presidential election of 1920 in order to set up important cabinet appointments that will enable him and a few others, to reap millions. In addition, there will be important points on a select few people and their contribution, not only to the Teapot Dome scandal, but also to the 1920 presidential nominee, Warren G. Harding. Not only did this scandal involve President Harding, but it also included Albert B. Fall, former Senator of New Mexico, Harry Daugherty, Jake Hamon of Oklahoma, along with Secretary of the Navy - Edwin Denby, the founder of Sinclair Oil – Harry Sinclair, and finally, oil tycoon Edward Doheny. This paper will also illustrate how President Harding was a “sitting duck” due to the greed and premeditated planning of just two men.
Because of the plague known as the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover is often seen as one of the worst presidents in American history. He enacted policies such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that flushed America deeper into the depression. Hoover didn't understand that to solve a crisis such as a depression, he needed to interact directly with the people by using programs such as social security and welfare. Instead, Hoover had the idea that if he were to let the depression run its course, it would eventually end. There are three things that can be used to define Hoover's presidency during the depression, his actions, his mentality toward fixing things, and the fact that he helped pave the way for the “New Deal”
Hoover is also vilified repeatedly for his inaction with the Depression. His personal policy and his party’s policy were designed to let the country find its own way, for if it became dependent on government aide, it would be a weaker nation that if it found it’s own way. This was a flawed assumption on their behalf though, because even in the 1920’s, there was a movement from many of the nation’s younger voters advocating change.
In spite of this, Harding was honored like all influential and grandiose people who died, even Abraham Lincoln. Before his death, Harding had a presidency laced with scandal, corruption and incompetency. Harding’s knowledge about the world and his job was severely lacking and was appalling for someone epitomizing an iconic figure in the American culture. According to Samuel Hopkins Adams, author of “The Timely Death of President Harding”, Harding often complained openly about his lack of knowledge. Adams noted, “To any interviewer he said with disarming humility, “I don’t know anything about this European stuff…”. As for finances: “I can’t make a damn thing out of this tax problem”” (Adams 474). Harding was not beneficial to the United States and his scandals branded him as a man who was “war-weary impatient of problems too weighty for the mind in the street, cynically intolerant of a half-wrecked world’s troubles” (Adams 473). Clearly, Harding served very little purpose to the improvement of the United States and one would think his eventual death would be treated with the same apathy. But like all famous people that pass away, Harding was bid a farewell with compliments and statements that would equate him to the American hero. Harding was recognized after his death as “the idol of the man in the street, the apotheosis of the Average American, the exemplar of the triumphant commonplace” (Adams 469). In reality, Harding had a mistress, was friends with America’s greatest crooks, most of which landed in prison, and didn’t have the slightest idea about how to do his job. This suggests that it is a taboo in society to speak ill of the dead and people are willing to say anything to glorify the former life of the deceased whether or not it is
The Great Depression tested America’s political organizations like no other event in the United States’ history except the Civil War. The most famous explanations of the period are friendly to Roosevelt and the New Deal and very critical of the Republican presidents of the 1920’s, bankers, and businessmen, whom they blame for the collapse. However, Amity Shlaes in her book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, contests the received wisdom that the Great Depression occurred because capitalism failed, and that it ended because of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Shlaes, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a syndicated financial columnist, argues that government action between 1929 and 1940 unnecessarily deepened and extended the Great Depression. Amity Shlaes tells the story of the Great Depression and the New Deal through the eyes of some of the more influential figures of the period—Roosevelt’s men like Rexford Tugwell, David Lilienthal, Felix Frankfurter, Harold Ickes, and Henry Morgenthau; businessmen and bankers like Wendell Willkie, Samuel Insull, Andrew Mellon, and the Schechter family.
Hoover’s nation was coming out of a war and was facing an economy plummeting into an unknown Great Depression. Hoover proclaimed a need for reform of the criminal justice system, the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, cooperation of government and businesses, the development of education, organization of the public health services, and maintaining the integrity of the He called for restoration with action, and promised solutions to the economic crisis, unemployment, world policy. He however, does remind the people, “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed.”
Historians claim that Hoovers term during the depression was filled with false promises and accuse the president of doing nothing while the depression worsened. Along with worsening the debt and a fairly aggressive use of government it is clear his approach towards the situation was not the best. FDR’s approach would prove during his administration to suffice in the augmentation of the crisis. Although it seemed like a completely opposite presidency, many ideas came from his predecessor. Roosevelt’s team of advisors understood that much of what they produced and fashioned into the New Deal owed its origins to Hoover’s policies.
This brief biography of Lyndon Johnson outlined his life beginning in rural Texas and followed the ups and downs of his political career. It discusses his liberal, "active government" mentality and its implications on both domestic and foreign issues. Johnson was obviously a man who knew how to get things done but his "under the table" methods are brought into question in this book, although, in my opinion, Schulman presents a fairly positive portrayal of LBJ.
At the start of the Depression, many letters (mostly discouraging) were sent to President Hoover. These letters came primarily from well-to-do citizens, however some leftist workers’ letters found their way in as well. The well-to-do citizens agreed that the ultimate cause of the lower classes’ depression was their laziness and incompetence. On top of that, these well-to-do citizens thanked Hoover, probably because their money had gone unscathed (McElvaine, 38). Some opinions weren’t as favorable for the Hoover administration, however. Some people believed that “engineers may be intelligent but poor presidents” (pp. 43). Finally, the leftist parties did not appreciate the endeavors of the Hoover presiden...
...ting to learn about, but no a great president. Cleveland faced a lot challenges in his last term, one in particular was the Panic of 1893 one that he had no success. Despite his poor decisions making he still tried to remain an honest man, and his whole ambition was to fight a corrupt government.
The "Roaring Twenties" were a turbulent time in American history. The United States had just returned from the carnage of World War I and was ready to revolutionize their ideas, morals, and most importantly, their presidents. The presidential election of 1920 was a particularly integral election due to the introduction of the right of women to vote and America's social & political unrest. Warren G. Harding, a Republican, defeated Democrat James M. Cox, on a platform that urged Americans to "return to normalcy". Normalcy was a play on words of normality by Harding, which meant to conform to the norm. But the question that stood on many historians was: Why did Americans actually vote to "return to normalcy"? The simple answer was that the nation was ready to recover from their wartime anxiety and wanted a country without financial or political stress and Harding was the president that promised that to them.
“[T]he man on the ten-dollar bill is the father of the American treasury system, a signer of the Constitution, one of the primary authors of the Federalist Papers, and the loser of the infamous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton's earlier career as a Continental Army officer is less well known. Yet Hamilton's first experience in public service is important, not only because it was the springboard to his later career, but because it also deeply influenced his values and thinking” (Hamilton).
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.