Eland - Recarving Rushmore: ranking the presidents on peace, prosperity, and liberty

Praise for Recarving Rushmore

Judging presidents by a deceptively simple metrictheir impact on peace, prosperity, and libertyleads Ivan Eland to reach radical conclusions about the rankings of presidents. Whether you agree that Coolidge was a good president and FDR a bad one, youll never again glibly think to yourself that its obvious which presidents are good and bad. It isntand Eland shows us why.

Richard Shenkman, Editor, History News Network; author, Presidential Ambition and Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History

Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland has his criteria ready. In Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, he uses them to rank 40 previous presidents, yielding results that, he says, surprised him. Elands assessment of each of the 40 is thoughtful and judicious. He neither obscures nor trumpets where hes coming from ideologically. Hes for prudential foreign policy, free-market economics, and personal freedom. Hes against entangling alliances, government aid programs, and second-class citizenship. Despite occasional dull wording, his writing provokes sober reflection about what a president ought to be. Reading him may be quite an adventure for an awful lot of citizens, including, perhaps, the first citizen.

Booklist

In the intriguing book, Recarving Rushmore, Ivan Eland reassesses the record of all U.S. Presidents based on the constitutional principles that each swore to uphold. While conventional accounts glorify the flagrant misdeeds of the Imperial Presidency, this insightful and crucial book provides an inspiring vision for both conservatives and liberals on the crucial need to rein in White House power and restore peace, prosperity and liberty.

Ron Paul, former U.S. Congressman

The majority view, that Lincoln was the best and Buchanan was the worst, results from shortcomings in the way US historians rate presidents, says Ivan Eland, author of Recarving Rushmore. Eland thinks presidential ratings are too easily swayed by charisma, activism and service during a crisis. In his book, he ranks the White House occupants according to how much they fulfilled the aims of the Founding Fathers to bring peace, prosperity and liberty to the country.

BBC News Magazine

Recarving Rushmore is colorful, entertaining, and profound. Ivan Eland shatters the grand illusion that great presidents are those who wage war or deprive people of their liberty, either here or abroad. The new gold standard for measuring presidential performance, this book upends what we know about Great presidents and will challenge your view of political history, one president at a time.

Jonathan Bean, Professor of History, Southern Illinois University

Eland engagingly shows why the conventional wisdom on the American presidency is all wrong and why presidents like Van Buren, Arthur, and Harding in fact ably advanced the nations interest, while iconic names like Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Wilson caused serious harm. Recarving Rushmore is must reading.

Richard K. Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Faculty Associate, Contemporary History Institute, Ohio University

Eland calls into question our whole conception of presidential greatness. In this well-written book, Eland offers readers insightful surveys of every president from Washington to Obama. Along the way, he makes a compelling case that many of the so-called greats were not so great after all when it came to preserving liberty, peace, and prosperity. Readers will never see the presidency the same way again.

David T. Beito, Professor of History, University of Alabama

According to American historians, the best presidents are the ones who get us into the biggest wars, impose the most interventionist economic policies, and trample civil liberties by expanding executive power beyond what the Constitution permits. The more European-style fascism the better seems to be their criterion. Thats why Lincoln and FDR are always at the top of their lists. In Recarving Rushmore Ivan Eland makes a novel proposal: Why not rank presidents according to the traditional American values of peace, prosperity and liberty? Read this important new book and find out why John Tyler may be Americas greatest president!

Thomas DiLorenzo, Professor of Economics, Loyola College in Maryland; author of The Real Lincoln and Hamiltons Curse

No matter what party partisans say, no American president is perfectto say the least. But when historians get around to ranking our greatest presidents, the top spots invariably go to the usual titansWashington, Jefferson, Lincoln and the Roosevelts, Teddy and Franklin. Ivan Eland, a senior fellow at The Independent Institute and an expert on defense issues, begs to differ with the standard consensusby about 180 degrees. In his book Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, Eland doesnt rank our commanders in chief according to how many wars they won or how many new federal government social or regulatory agencies they fathered. He ranks them on how well they adhered to the principles of limited government as put down in the Constitution by our Founding Framers.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Recarving Rushmore stands as a much-needed corrective to the history of America we are all taught in our schools. We are propagandized to adulate all American presidents simply by virtue of the office they held, regardless of what their record might have been. Indeed, it appears that the worse they trampled on civil liberties the higher the regard in which they are held. Dr. Eland has provided a far more accurate account of the actions of these men (and they are indeed men, not gods), pointing out the manner in which most abused their power and oppressed the nation. Historians who are dedicated to the truth are indebted to him for his efforts.

Ronald Hamowy, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Alberta, Canada

By focusing on peace, prosperity, and liberty, Recarving Rushmore moves us miles closer to a proper evaluation of Americas presidentsespecially those of the 20th centurythan the hallowed (but misleading) Schlesinger poll of prominent historians. Eland makes an eloquent and persuasive case, for example, that Harding and Coolidge were better presidents than were FDR and LBJ.

Burton W. Folsom, Charles F. Kline Chair in History, Hillsdale College; author, New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDRs Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Of the four presidents exalted in glory on Mount Rushmore, only George Washington deserves the honor, writes Ivan Eland, whose intriguing new book is appropriately titled Recarving Rushmore. The author argues that Theodore Teddy Roosevelt was overrated by historians and scholars; Thomas Jefferson hypocritically violated his lofty rhetoric of liberty; and Abraham Lincoln provoked a civil war that achieved far less than believed. Mr. Elands book profiles and ranks every U.S. president on the merits, including his oath to uphold the Constitution. Surprisingly, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter are anointed the two best modern presidents, and Bill Clinton is declared in some respects more conservative than George W. Bush.

Washington Times

Recarving Rushmore is a very good book of concise historical assessments of each U.S. presidential administrations domestic, defense and foreign policies regarding peace, national prosperity, and individual liberty. This book is better in terms of the depth of the analysis of each administrations role in an evolving process of shaping the legacy of prior administrations for their successors. And the book is best in the ways it provides insights into how a libertarian perspective on these issues is meaningful for the broader policy debates within U.S. society.