Rating: 
Summary: Read the book
Review: Do the reviewers who write for Publishers Weekly actually read the books they review? Or is it just that their liberal bias won't allow them to give serious consideration to any book by or about a "conservative" Republican. Certainly the Author's arguments and the facts he presents made no impression on them. They simply brushed it all aside in order to reassert the tired old myths about W. G. Harding propagated by liberal Democratic historians like Arthur Schlesinger, jr.
A little objectivity would make for greater credibility.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book
Review: Do the reviewers who write for Publishers Weekly actually read the books they review? Or is it just that their liberal bias won't allow them to give serious consideration to any book by or about a "conservative" Republican. Certainly the Author's arguments and the facts he presents made no impression on them. They simply brushed it all aside in order to reassert the tired old myths about W. G. Harding propagated by liberal Democratic historians like Arthur Schlesinger, jr.
A little objectivity would make for greater credibility.
Rating: 
Summary: Warren beats W
Review: I grew up studying all about the Presidents, and President Harding was usually at the bottom of the list. This book brings out the good in Harding, and explains why a very popular president in 1923, would in a few years (due to two money making tabloid books) be considered such a bad President. Unlike Nixon, the scandals were not caused by Harding. He used bad judgement in picking friends. After reading this book I can honestly say out of all the presidents BUSH is by far our worst president
Rating: 
Summary: Consider Who Wrote This Book
Review: I guess John Dean felt compelled to write this book as he looked for something to do after the "professional victim" phase of his life finally came to an end.
I saw him plugging this book on a weekend cable show and he was a wonderful salesman, the book was a disappointment.
Maybe Harding did accomplish some things that historians have neglected. Part of that was due to fate, part due to his untimely passing.
But he was as vanilla and middle-of-the-road as you can get. His desire to return to "normalcy" after WW I ignored the changes that were going on in the country at the time.
Dean chooses not to talk very much of the marriage between Harding and his wife, despite the fact that Harding was considered a womanizer, something Dean admits to in passing. Perhaps if we knew more about his marriage, we would be able to understand that better.
In a nutshell, Dean defends Harding the same way he defended Richard Nixon.
I took off a star on my rating for the terrible presentation of the book. The typeface was not very legible, there were typos throughout and there was not one solitary picture throughout the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Harding was a Good but Scandalous President
Review: I think this book is a valuable narrative of the political inside-the-beltway goings on that occurred during the 1920 presidential campaign and as President Harding formed his cabinet and dealt with the press. However, it does not deal properly with how President Harding dealt with the problems facing the country while he was president. President Harding reacted correctly to every major issue he faced and deserves a better place in American history than has been the alleged consensus view of his presidency. The author of this book, John Dean, has written a scholarly book that often misses the forest because he is focused too much on the trees. However, John Dean's central premise that President Harding deserves to be remembered as a good (but scandalous) president is correct.President Harding dealt correctly with every major issue his administration faced. Recession. The United States was mired in a deep recession in the years immediately following World War I. The war-time top income tax rate of 70% was still in effect when President Harding was inaugurated and this was greatly depressing our nation's economy. President Harding responded correctly to these economic conditions by pushing for significant tax reductions and reduced government spending. He also instituted structural budget reforms that made remaining government spending more accountable to elected policy-makers. These tax cuts and government spending reforms began an economic boom that was expanded by additional tax cuts that were enacted as the 1920's continued under President Coolidge. The size of the American economy more than doubled during Presidents Harding's and Coolidge's administrations and this greatly increased the living standards for average Americans. Foreign Policy. President Harding responded correctly to the foreign policy issues his administration faced. His administration negotiated the 1921-1922 naval treaty with Great Britain and Japan. Prior to this treaty, these three countries were embarked on a naval arms race that used funds that could be better spent on domestic priorities. The treaty locked in naval superiority for the United States and Great Britain and Japan would have been less likely to attack the U.S. in the early 1940's if President Harding's successors had built the United States' full allotment of naval ships that was provided under the treaty. President Harding responded correctly to the world economic problems faced by our trading partners in Europe by opposing the imposition of counter-productive tariff policy. President Harding responded correctly to the stupid mistakes President Wilson made regarding the Treaty of Versailles by simply pushing for a joint resolution of Congress that the state of war between the United States and Germany and Austria-Hungary was over. Miscellaneous Issues. Further, President Harding dealt humanely with other important issues. He reversed President Wilson's racist policies regarding federal employment and is the first president to publicly denounce the segregationist Jim Crow laws. He also took some of the nativist edge of immigration laws that were enacted in the early 1920's that were designed to reduce domestic unemployment. Lastly, he recognized that the war-time laws that stifled domestic dissent were too heavy-handed and pardoned Eugene Debs and many other peaceful political dissidents that opposed the country's entry into World War I. Masterful Politician. Additionally, President Harding was a shrewd politician who crafted together a stable Republican majority coalition. He won the presidency by a landslide in 1920 and lead the Republicans to victory during the off-year elections of 1922. These are all significant achievements for a presidency that lasted slightly more than two and one-half years. I analogize President Harding to President Kennedy but think Harding was the better president. Both Presidents Harding and Kennedy responded to poor economic conditions by successfully pushing for tax cuts that ultimately caused economic booms, both presidents rhetorically denounced Jim Crow (but Harding did it when it took a lot more guts), both had numerous extra-marital affairs while in office and they both died in office after serving approximately two and one-half years. However, President Harding had no foreign policy debacles similar to the Bay of Pigs, supporting the assassination of the president of South Vietnam and perceived personal weakness that caused Soviet adventurism in the form of building the Berlin Wall and sending missiles to Cuba. I think his reputation has been unduly diminished by his extra-marital affairs and the Tea Pot Dome Scandal. The alleged consensus view that President Harding is the worst 20th Century president is ridiculous. His scandalous behavior is no worse than similar behavior by Presidents Cleveland, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton. Substantively, President Harding clearly did a better job than Presidents Taft, Hoover, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and George H. Bush. In considering his legacy, we should remember that the United States was in much better shape when President Harding died in 1923 than when he was inaugurated in 1921. Many U.S. president cannot make similar claims.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware of the Revisionists!
Review: If there was someone that had first hand knowledge of presidential corruption, it would be Mr. Dean. In fact, Dean worked for one of the three Presidents known strongly for having a corrupt administration, Nixon (Harding & Grant being the other two). Warren Harding was a failure in every definition of the word. He was chosen by bosses to be a puppet that would return America to its Laissez-Faire past. While President, Harding broke moral laws, by having numerous affairs. He broke legal laws, by violating prohibition. His corrupt bunch of Ohio Gang stole millions from the government and sold pardons for cash. Meanwhile, Harding scoured the White House, looking for a book that would tell him how to be President. HOWEVER, Mr. Dean wants Harding to avoid blame for the events that took place under his watch, because he was not directly tied to the biggest scandals. Wow, if only it were that easy. No, Mr. Dean, you are responsible for the people that you put in power. Their actions reflect on you. If you put corrupt people in positions of power, you are responsible for whatever they might do. If we are going to crucify a great man like Grant for scandal, we can sure find fault with a failure like Harding. This book outraged me. It attempts to distort the facts. Whether this was another example of a biographer falling in love with his subject, I don't know. But Mr. Dean should be forced to answer for this. And just because time has elapsed, doesn't mean some of us have forgotten the reality of Harding and Teapot Dome.
Rating:
Summary: Black is White and Up is Down
Review: Information can be so easily manipulated and positioned, so that anything can be arrainged to mean something else. I am a historian and US History teacher. The Presidents have always been my favorite topics. I have never cared about what party they belonged to, I just like to evaluate them by what they did and who they were. Of course, we all know that Harding has been rated the "worst President ever." I guess an author that knows a little something about working for poorly rated Presidents wanted to see if he could craft a book which could debunk what so many other historians believe. Well, he didn't. Harding was a stooge, handpicked because of his incompetence. While in office, he appointed corrupt poker playing buddies to run our country. He drank alcohol and had numerous affairs. Meanwhile, his Ohio Gang buddies stole the country blind. Oh, but..uhhhhh.. that is OK, right? No, it is not. This book is a bunch of manipulated bunk.
Rating:
Summary: Saves Harding from the Ash Heap of American Presidents
Review: John Dean has achieved the considerable feat of rescuing the reputation of a man who is generally considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. He does this by drawing the reader's attention to what made Harding one of the most popular American presidents during his lifetime: a speedy and significant economic recovery, a major international arms reduction agreement, and, perhaps most importantly, a reduction in divisiveness from his predecessor's final two years in office. Not long after Warren Harding's death in August, 1923, public and critical opinion toward his presidency began a precipitous decline. Several scandals - some of which had already emerged during his presidency and some of which would only come out after his death - began to symbolize his regime. Harding's presidential papers, which could have helped remove some of the black marks towards his administration, were withheld from public view, allowing fictionalized and grossly unhistorical accounts of his presidency to stand as the only available record. Harding's fundamental decency, his good political instincts, and his high regard for public service were lost in the one-sided reckoning of his presidency. Even in the selection of his cabinet and other personnel, Harding was far better than is now widely assumed. While several scandals arose among his cabinet and staff (none of which implicated the president himself), Harding made several outstanding and notable selections to his cabinet and to the Supreme Court: Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary, Herbert Hoover as head of the Department of Commerce, William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are some examples. Harding was not a five-star president, and this biography does not make the case he was. This is a five-star book about the man and his presidency that makes the case they deserve far better recognition than they have received. John Dean shows there was far more to Harding and his presidency than smoke-filled poker rooms, womanizing, and political scandals and corruption that have come to symbolize his administration.
Rating:
Summary: Warren is redeemed!
Review: John Dean has done the impossible: he has made Harding not only sympathetic, but competent! Dean has done his homework and as such presents facts, not speculation and rumor. He correctly points out that no biography of Harding has taken his Presidential papers into account and have instead relied almost exclusively on gossip rags written when the scandals of the era were still fresh. Dean's writing is so fluid and effortless that outisde of the fresh perspective, the book is highly readable and engaging. I only wish that it could have been longer. Although I loved the entire book, it was worthwhile for two big reasons. One, the myth of the "smoke-filled room" has finally been put to rest. Harding was, in fact, actively seeking the nomination and played a key role in positioning himself at the convention. Second, Harding's administration had several key achievements, all of which have been ignored because of scandals that did not involve Harding personally. While the disarmament conference and establishment of a Bureau of the Budget were key, I have new affection for Harding because of two highly unpopular decisions that were, in retrospect, the right things to do. He vetoed the Veteran's Bonus Bill that would have broken the budget, and he pardoned Eugene V. Debs. Those two acts alone make him a "profile in courage." And there's also the Birmingham speech on race that shocked whites throughout the South, and his hard-working nature that in all likelihood helped bring about his premature death. Harding is no Lincoln (of course), but he is a figure that deserves our respect and sympathy because he has been so horribly misjudged for so long. Thanks, Mr. Dean for one of the best books of the series. Keep writing!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Look and new Appraisial of Harding
Review: John Dean, no stranger to White House scandals, author's this book of our 29th President for whom the White House's own internet site degrades. What is most impressive about this book is that Dean uses verifiable facts about what was accomplished during Harding's tenure (fourth shortest of all presidents), and what more he intended to do. This in sharp contrast to another short biography in this American President's series, William Mckinley, by Kevin Phillips who used more conjecture of "what might have happened if Mckinley had lived" to give greater importance to Mckinley. The story of Harding is particularly of interest since it is a story of basically a self made man (his family neither impoverished, nor rich). He was a decent and hard working man who seemed to see his role as president as one to allow America to prosper, ease international worries, and bring normalcy after the controversial policies of the Wilson administration. Harding spoke in the deep south about racial equality, he allowed Blacks into the federal government (reversing the Wilsonian racism that his apologists so often downplay), organized a major peace conference among world powers, sought U.S. participation in a world court, established what is now the government accounting office and established economic policies that directly led to the "roaring twenties." Additionally, he defied public opinion by releasing Eugene Debs, and others (so long as they were not involved with violence) jailed by Wilson under the now discredited anti-sedition act, and he looked for a resolution to the labor-business problems. He also won the presidency by a then record majority. Harding provided a cabinet that included a future president and one of the more esteemed chief justices in the Supreme Court history. Furthermore, his worse appointment, Albert Falls for the Interior, was widely supported for the post by the public, press, and Congress and he was easily confirmed. Dean takes to task the more sensational accounts of Harding (e.g., having sex in a W.H. closet, fathering a (...) child [he was sterile], that he was a drunkard, a gambler, a pawn of congress, that he was killed by his wife, etc.). What basically happened was that Harding died before the nature of the Tea Pot Dome scandals became known to anyone but the criminals (Falls had already resigned), so he could not work to correct negative impressions of his administration, and other authors were not aware that the Harding papers survived to refute many of the negative claims. Also, I believe that Harding was a target for pompous, class-minded writers and socialites who disliked his not coming from a more proper stock and education. I didn't mean to be so extensive, but I believe that this is a valuable book and perhaps more needed to correct history than most of the other books in this series.
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