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Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians. By Robert W. Merry. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012. 298 pp.
Robert W. Merry, editor of The National Interest and the author of well-received biographies of James K. Polk (? Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent [Simon and Schuster, 2012]) and Joseph Alsop Taking On the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop - Guardians of the American Century [Viking, 1996]), contends in his new book, Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians, that "many Americans have always been captivated by the White House Rating Game" (p. xxi). Perhaps. It seems to this reviewer that Americans do not really bother thinking about whether or not Chester Arthur was an average president, John F. Kennedy was "Great" or "Near Great," or whether Richard Nixon should be rated higher than Jimmy Carter - at least until it is an election year. Then a spate of articles and short books appear, all of which play the Ratings Parlor Game to a willing audience of political buffs. While it purports to be more, Where they Stand is little more than the latest entry in this generalist genre.
Merry begins his book with a survey of the...