President Nixon's former counsel illuminates another presidency marked by scandal Warren G. Harding may be best known as America's worst president. Scandals plagued him: the Teapot Dome affair, corruption in the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Department, and the posthumous revelation of an extramarital affair. Raised in Marion, Ohio, Harding took hold of the small town's newspaper and turned it into a success. Showing a talent for local politics, he rose quickly to the U.S. Senate. His presidential campaign slogan, "America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy," gave voice to a public exhausted by the intense politics following World War I. Once elected, he pushed for legislation limiting the number of immigrants; set high tariffs to relieve the farm crisis after the war; persuaded Congress to adopt unified federal budget creation; and reduced income taxes and the national debt, before dying unexpectedly in 1923. In this wise and compelling biography, John W. Dean—no stranger to controversy himself—recovers the truths and explodes the myths surrounding our twenty-ninth president's tarnished legacy.
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Presidents like Warren G. Harding are mostly remembered for the Teapot Dome scandal, as well as having extramarital affairs. With the latest biography for the American Presidency Series, John W. Dean offers the story of a president who worked on restoring the nation to peacetime workmanship, stopping various strikes and unfair practices by both unions and factory workers alike. He also worked to stop needless spending of former wartime expenditures. Dean does this all while arguing against the most well-known Harding biographies that tend to unfairly critique the man and the President. This makes for a fascinating exploration of a President who, if remembered at all, is largely known more for scandals, as opposed to the good work he did.
One of the biggest strengths of this book is Dean's writing. Being a former aid in the Nixon Administration, Dean can write about the most mundane elements of politics with a flourish that makes them both concise and, dare I say, even humorous at times. This can help for this book to clearly be one of the best of the American Presidency series that I have read so far.
I also loved how Dean works to highlight the major positives of Harding. When one thinks of President Harding, one truly remembers the Teapot Dome scandal, his affairs, and little else. Dean shows us that this President managed to do some good with his administration, all while training future Presidents, such as Herbert Hoover, and campaigning against FDR. This shows that not all Presidents are just what the public remembers, and that, in Harding's case, had he lived, he would have perhaps been remembered as an excellent president, considering all he did during his short term in office to transfer the nation domestically from wartime to peacetime production.
Yet, there is an inherent flaw to this book, and it is one that pertains to all American Presidency books: the short length means that we do not learn about Harding the man as much as some would like.
Then there are the constant references to other Harding biographies. Dean makes a point to refute arguments found in other Harding biographies from the 1960s and earlier. These ‘facts' vary from ones that are incorrectly sourced for the time to those that are downright lies. For me, I did not mind them, as I loved seeing how the measure of a President can change over time, and why. However, since many of these biographies have been out of print for about 20 years or more, some may find these sections tedious and unnecessary.
Still, this was an excellent book that I greatly enjoyed reading, as it gave me a new appreciation for a largely forgotten President. I would say that if you have not read this book on Harding, then you should pick it up, as it is a worthy read in its own right, let alone as part of a Presidential Biography reading challenge. I give it a four out of five.
