C span recently asked to rate our 43 president s in ten areas of leadership. Top billing this year went to the president who preserved the union, abe lincoln. Hes held the top spot for all surveys. George washington, frankly roosevelt and theodore roosevelt. Dwight eisenhower who served in the oval office makes his first appearance in the consider span top five this year. Rounding out the historians top ten choices, harry truman, thomas jefferson, kennedy and ronald reagan. Lynn don johnson jumps up. Theres bad news for Andrew Jackson as well. Our 7th president found his overall rating dropping this year from number 13 to number 18. But the survey had good news for outgoing president barack obama. On his first time on the list historians placed him at number 12 overall. And George W Bush moved three spots up on the scale to 33 overall with big gains in public persuasion and relations with congress. How did our historians rate your favorite president . Who are the leaders and the losers
Awards and medals and honors hes received but all of you go home and google him for a mind blowing experience. I just want to mention a few ningz that he and i discussed. After receiving his sumacum degree he joined the air force. During the training he found out that his eyes werent good enough so he was sent off to japan to be a photo intelligence officer. When he arrived to his dismay he found out he was made a Personnel Officer because his boss was lazy and didnt want to get up in the morning. When lieutenant wood arrived in the orderly room at 7 30, he had nothing to do. So he spent his time reading history books. Thankfully for all of us, for his students and for america, he completed his rotc requirement, didnt think the military had treated him well and went off to study history. He earned his m. A. And ph. D. At harvard studying under bernard bailin. History may be kept alive and made vivid and urgent by the living memory of it. Which is exactly what were trying to do here. Ba
In palm beach, florida. Thank you, dr. Brenneman. And good morning, everyone. Im so excited youre here. And welcome to the First Founders and us, the relevance of our origins. For those of you who dont know me, i am gay gaines, and i am an addict of founding American History. In november of 2015, i was having breakfast with joelle liss and speaker Newt Gingrich at mt. Vernon, my very favorite place in america. We were lamenting the fact that most colleges and universities in the United States are no longer teaching founding American History. And in fact most high schools are no longer teaching our founding American History. In 1898, when seniors and colleges and high schools were asked who is the greatest hero, they unanimously said george washington. In 1988, when they were asked the same question, the answer was michael jordan. We were discussing my dream of building a future for the past right here in palm beach, florida. What some might think an unlikely location. But i told them a
Dr. Watson has published more than 40 books, hundreds of scholarly articles, and encyclopedia reference essays. He has coconvened National Conferences on the modern presidency, and moderated political debate and delivered more than 1,000 keynote addresses. He has founded three nonprofit think takes dedicated to civic education, political reform. He is a frequent media commentator on cnn, foxs special report with britt hume, msnbc, usa today, the new york times, and the bbc. Dr. Watson has lectured at the four arts numerous time, and he will do so again in the future. We again welcome him as he works his magic with our formidable historians. There you go. [ applause ] okay. Everybody hear me all right . Most importantly, i have a signed copy. Well, thank you again, molly, dr. Brennamen and the entire team at the society and congratulations on yet another important and successful and exciting program. Id also like to thank cspan as was mentioned earlier for covering our program and ackno
I think you all know that and get it because what undermines the whole progressive effort to reconstruction is the lack of Voting Rights for those freed men and women. We will expand this beyond voting. We just could not get there is a nation with the 13th amendment, with the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It did not give Voting Rights to the africanamericans. And neither did the 14th amendment with its equal protection and due process. It took the 15th amendment. And of course that is not work either because of every effort by some to deny africanamericans this great franchise of voting. Why do you think people come to this country . One of the things is the ability to choose their own representatives. We have a great panel. I dont say that every time we have a panel. [laughter] we have a great one today. Joan waugh, a professor of history at ucla. What is so important impressing me is the groundbreaking work you do with the u. S. Grant american hero, american myth. As i told her more than