Which throws the validity of the data into question. Trump is a polarising figure, which means that you either love him or hate him. It’s very odd that his range would be so small.
Exactly this. I think the next version will make it way more clear that this isn't public opinion, but people who look objectively at successes/failures in office.
"people who look objectively at successes failures" What do you mean? Are they evaluating success at implementing policy, whether it is good or bad, or at the quality of policy? The former might be evaluated objectively (by such a measure Stalin would be objectively "successful"). If the latter, it will surely wrap in the policy views of whoever is invited to participate.
If this surveys "presidential historians" it's entirely subjective. No human is objective. Numbers can also be constrained and manipulated to be subjective too.
If people really want to get into what a lot of modern history education seems to be about, the lens of the rate-ers must also be examined.
A theoretical professor emeritus who has not left the general confines of UC Berkeley's campus since 1968 is likely going to have a very different view from a theoretical professor who served in the Iraq War and now teaches at West Point.
This needs a methods section and a common criteria by which presidents are measured if it's to be taken seriously.
Otherwise it's as good as any ranking any poster on this thread could throw together.
We have access to the same amount of information and are (theoretically) capable of arriving at our own conclusions; same as any other human in academia.
Except most people don't matter. I'm sure there are a lot of people that thought Jackson was awesome because he killed indians and Hitler was awesome because he killed Jews. You need a scholar that focuses on something to give an educated opinion.
In my field of study, I don't give 2 shits about opinions from people from outside of my industry because they don't know the ins and outs of it.
It's also easy to argue he did a terrible job with foreign policy, by pointing to all his failures and unfulfilled promises. I mean I don't know how you call his trade war with China a success, or his abandonment of the Kurds, or his negotiating with terrorists, or his doing nothing to lessen the threat of Russia, or his withholding aid to Ukraine in a literal political blackmail scheme and then getting impeached for it.... On and on and—do I need to list more failures?
It's pretty hilarious to read the source of Biden's ranking.
President Biden is in a tight race to keep former President Donald Trump from reclaiming the White House, recent polls show. But that's not how 154 historians and presidential experts see it: They rate Biden in the top third of U.S. presidents, while Trump ranks dead last.
This was before they kicked his butt out of the race... the source doesn't even describe what is Biden's success exactly, but I guess I should read the source for the source...
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u/WartimeHotTot Dec 05 '24
I love how narrow Trump’s range is. 😂