THE END OF GREATNESS

The vice president for new initiatives of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars examines Americans’ obsessive hope for the next great president.

We live in a “post-heroic leadership era,” writes Miller (The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace, 2008, etc.), who claims that the last great American president was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yet Americans persist in their overblown expectations of bold leadership in the White House: “We continue to expect more, demand more than any of them could possibly deliver.” Defining greatness in the presidency as “the mastery of a nation-encumbering crisis and using the results to produce a transformative change that leaves Americans fundamentally better forever,” the author argues that we have had three great presidents (Washington, Lincoln and FDR), three near greats (Jefferson, Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt) and three with traces of greatness (John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Reagan). He examines each president in detail, noting the factors that must be present for presidential greatness, most notably a wrenching national crisis (war, economic crisis, etc.) that creates an opportunity for heroic action. The president himself must have character and the capacity to do the right thing. However, writes the author, the world has changed drastically since the glory days of the heroic American presidency. Our globalized society is far more complex, and most crises—e.g., terrorism—are more diffuse in nature. American politics are marked by polarization and partisanship, and the 24/7 media cycle has stripped away the aura of the leader. Besides, great leadership is rare under any circumstances. It’s time to abandon our illusions and take a more realistic view of the presidency, writes the author; there are limits on a president’s capacity to fix things. We should seek good—not great—leaders who can transact the business of governing.

A provocative and highly readable analysis.