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William Howard Taft (1909-1912): Theodore Roosevelt stepped down in 1909 with the inauguration of his hand picked successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt then went on safari. He wanted to give Taft the stage to himself. Shortly thereafter, Roosevelt received disturbing news. Taft was betraying Rooseveltism.

The difference between the two administrations was both negligible and huge. Taft continued his predecessor’s trust busting policies. However, Taft busted all monopolies as opposed to continuing Roosevelt’s policy of attacking those trusts that hurt consumers. Roosevelt only busted "bad" monopolies. Taft continued Roosevelt’s Conservation policies, yet sided with big timber interests in the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair. Roosevelt felt betrayed.

While Roosevelt had a strong foreign policy, Taft’s made America look weak. Taft attempted to help Latin America with Dollar Diplomacy. Unfortunately, the dollars went to dictators and not the people. When Taft attempted to secure arbitration treaties to avoid war between the major powers, the U.S. refused to ratify after Britain and France had done so. Taft even caused the Canadian government to fall. He negotiated a Free Trade agreement with Canada. The U.S. ratified it, but the Canadian flat earth society rejected it and turned their prime minister out of office. Roosevelt was embarrassed by this “Era of Bungled Diplomacy.” As a result, he split with the president and later formed his own party.

The split between Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican Party. The conservative wing adopted Taft, so the president made a hard right turn. In order to disguise himself from Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, TR went leftward. Whether President Roosevelt would have governed moderately as before or as a hard left prog is unknown. Either way, the GOP split elected Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921): Wilson was never a popular president. His administration is still controversial to this day. His idealism and his policies at home never met. He re-segregated federal facilities. Wilson’s Administration witnessed The Palmer Raids which trampled American liberties in a way never seen before or since. The president even invaded Mexico hunting Pancho Villa. The mission failed and the U.S. Army came home empty handed.

On the other hand, Wilson was an idealist. He felt government could help the people. His administration was the first to back labor over management. Wilson regulated the banks, lowered tariffs, and expanded on his two predecessor’s trust busting. When war broke out, Wilson supported national determination and declared war “to make the world safe for democracy.” After the war, Wilson stood up for ethnic minorities and the Germans. He was rebuffed by the Allies. However, his grand vision for a League of Nations came into being--without the United States which refused to sign on.

In many respects, Woodrow Wilson represented a dry run for George W. Bush. Both men had foreign misadventures. Both men could not corral a wanted terrorist. Both men ushered in controversial reforms. Both men advocated spreading Democracy by the sword. Both men waged wars that would become unpopular. Both men were originally elected with less than 50% of the vote. Both men narrowly won re-election as the vote came down to one state. Both men helped drag their party to defeat after their two terms ended. The one major difference between the men was on race. While Bush openly welcomed African-Americans into his administration, Wilson helped further the Jim Crow System.

After twenty years, and a costly world war, the Progressive Era ended. People were sick and tired of the Progressives. Although open to them at first, the Progs overstepped their bounds. The European War, Mexican excursion, Palmer Raids, and “big government” pushed people to their limits. On top of this, there was a Red Scare, race riots, and a flu pandemic that killed 20 million. The government fanned the flames of the Red Scare, the riots were a product of black soldiers returning home in uniform, and the flu occurred as a result of a confluence of events including the unsanitary conditions from the war. In response, the country made a right turn.

Following the Persian War, Athenian power rose unchallenged. They formed the Delian League which was meant to defend Greece against Persia. However, as the Persian threat never returned, the Athenians turned the League into their Empire. They went as far as using Delian League revenue for the beautification of Athens. When we think of the Greek Golden Age of art and architecture, this is it.

Delian League members resented Athenian power and dominance. Eventually, Sparta felt threatened and war broke out. Athens held the advantage at sea while Sparta held the advantage on land. As a result, Athenian leader Pericles’ strategy was to avoid combat on land. He pulled the population inside the Walls of Athens. Sparta devastated the land, but a stalemate developed. Neither side could win. On top of this, the boneheaded Athenian strategy led to an outbreak of plague which killed Pericles and many Athenians. The war’s first stage ended in 421 BC with the Peace of Nicias.

In 415 BC, the war began anew. Athenian aristocrat Alcibiades persuaded his fellow citizens to renew the war. Athenian general Nicias tried to dissuade the voters from going back to war with Sparta. He put forth a well thought out logical argument for keeping the peace. On the other hand, Alcibiades made an Obama-esque appeal to the population. Fluff trumped logic. Athens invaded Sicily and got creamed.

After the destruction of the Athenian Expeditionary Force, Alcibiades switched sides lest he face the death penalty for the Athenian military disaster. Meanwhile, Sparta launched a new offensive. In 413 BC, Sparta supported rebellions against Athens throughout the Greek world. In particular, Athens lost key ports to these rebellions. This nullified their naval superiority. Sparta, with Persian financial assistance, was able to finally defeat Athens. The Athenians sued for Peace.

After the surrender, Athenian democracy was suspended. They were ruled by the “Thirty Tyrants” for a short period. Athenian power was broken. Sparta continued to be a power until they were defeated in 371 BC by Thebes. Eventually, the Macedonians conquered both. As a side note, the defeat of Athens led to the rise of Greek Philosophers such as Socrates and Plato that held democracy in contempt.

The Gilded Age Presidencies are generally defined by their laissez faire administrations. This reputation is only partially deserved. America changed at such a pace, it was difficult for government to change with the times. The presidents did push for change. However, the party bosses still had a lot of power. That power would not be completely crushed until the advent of the primary system. Even then, it took almost the entire century to rid the system of the party bosses. The first two presidents of this era battled the party bosses and scored some victories. However, one was assassinated by an insane office seeker while the other was shoved aside by the bosses for being too reformist.

James Garfield (1881): Garfield spent his transition period working on a cabinet designed to pacify all his party’s factions. His last appointment angered New York Party Boss and U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling. The feud peaked when Garfield nominated Conkling’s enemy to be Collector of the Port in New York. This was a highly coveted and highly lucrative post. Garfield outmaneuvered Conkling and the boss decided to resign from the Senate in order to vindicate himself. His home state refused to send him back to the Senate. Garfield won a complete victory. By September of 1881, Garfield would be dead.

Chester Arthur (1881-1885): Garfield’s assassination led to Chester Arthur’s ascension. In the aftermath of the assassination, Arthur pushed a reform agenda. The Pendleton Act created the Civil Service Commission and ended the old spoils system. Garfield was murdered by a disgruntled office seeker. Pendleton took federal job appointments away from the politicians and led to less cronyism and more professionalism in government. Like Garfield, Arthur refused to play ball with the party bosses. It cost him the Republican Nomination for President in 1884.

Grover Cleveland (1881-1885, 1893-1897): Cleveland was the first Democrat since James Buchanan in 1857 to be elected president. He would be the last until Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Cleveland’s first term was rather successful. He pushed for several reforms and was a solid economic manager. When he ran for re-election, he won the popular vote. However, his opponent, Benjamin Harrison, won the electoral college. Cleveland swore he’d return. In 1888, he defeated Harrison and then experienced one of the worst economic downturns in history. Cleveland is the only man to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893): Harrison’s economic policies helped bring about the Panic of 1893. Harrison supported the McKinley Tariff which dramatically raised tariffs. He supported the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act which led to inflation. Harrison also passed a Civil War Pension which dramatically depleted federal funds. The combination of inflationary government policy, higher taxes in the form of tariffs, and the pension payments combined with railroad failures to send America into it’s worst economic downturn of the 19th Century. Ironically, the current administration is attempting to replicate the economic policies of the Harrison Administration with high spending, high taxes, and inflationary monetary policy.

William McKinley (1897-1901): America’s economy rebounded under McKinley. However, his legacy is entwined with the Spanish American War. McKinley did not want war. He fought in the Civil War and did not want to put people through that again. However, he had no choice once the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Americans blamed Spain. The war was on. America clubbed Spain and conquered Guam, The Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Cuba was later granted their independence, but America negotiated the right to lease Guantanamo Bay in perpetuity. Interestingly, historians rank James K. Polk higher than McKinley despite the fact the two men had similar accomplishments.

This next grouping is intimately tied to the Civil War and Reconstruction. The war began in 1861 and ended in 1865 consuming Lincoln’s Presidency. Lincoln toyed with Reconstruction in the occupied South. However, he died before being able to start Reconstruction in the South. The Reconstruction issue dominated Johnson’s Presidency and led to his impeachment. In the North, Reconstruction waned as an issue in the Grant Years before ending with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865): We know the story. The South left the Union and Lincoln brought them back. Lincoln knew he had the edge, but could not find a general to win the war. They all wanted to be Napoleon. Instead, he got guys like Ambrose Burnside. Eventually, he found Grant and the South was pounded into submission.

While on the way to reunification, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Technically, this freed no one, but Lincoln turned the war into a battle against slavery. This undercut the South. They were now the bad guys and the Civil War became a moral war. Lincoln worked on the 13th Amendment to end slavery. He died before it passed.

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869): At first, Johnson appeared to be the right man to punish the South. He talked tough and announced tough policies. Then, he worked to get the Southern states readmitted as quickly as possible with the pre-war status quo. This angered the Republicans. A war between the executive and legislative branches began.

During the 1866 Congressional Elections, Johnson went campaigned against the GOP. Presidential campaigning was unheard of. They were supposed to sit at home and rest on their records while others campaigned. People were suspicious. He compounded his miscalculation by giving the same speech from stop to stop. It was reprinted in the papers. The audience in Cleveland recited the speech as Johnson tried to give it. He melted down. The Republicans won a decisive victory and Johnson was irrelevant.

The Republicans worked to help blacks in the South while Johnson worked to undermine their rights. The two branches of government continued to collide and Johnson was finally impeached. He survived conviction in the Senate. Johnson’s interference in Reconstruction gave a defeated South new life. It helped lead to the Ku Klux Klan, Night Riders, and other paramilitary terror groups in the South. The country remained at war despite the peace at Appomattox. As a result of Johnson’s actions, the South continued to resist and eventually reclaimed the South and instituted Jim Crow. Perhaps if Lincoln had survived, a second Reconstruction in the 1960s would not have been needed.

U.S. Grant (1869-1877): Grant’s Administration avoided Reconstruction where possible to concentrate on economic development. As money flowed from the Feds, a series of scandals rocked the Grant Administration. Grant’s presidency suffered from the most presidential scandals until the Clintons came to town.

While the administration dealt with scandal, it dealt with a destabilizing force in the South. The Klan was running wild. Grant sent in the troops, declared martial law, and crushed the Klan. The KKK would not be a problem again until the 20th century. However, once the economy tanked, and Northerners decided it best to let the South decide their own fate, Grant was powerless to stop Klan-like groups from emerging in Mississippi and spreading throughout the South.

Rutherford B Hayes (1877-1881): Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote in 1876. However, three states had suspicious returns. Without Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, Samuel Tilden was one electoral vote short of the presidency. Hayes needed all three states to be president. Democrats worked hard in these states to suppress the vote and stuff the ballot box. Republicans cried foul. Eventually, the two parties cut a deal. Hayes would be president. In return, the military occupation of the South would end. This is a case where the president’s legacy is tied directly to something out of his control. Hayes was a good president and became a hero in Paraguay. However, he is best remembered as Rutherfraud B. Hayes and the Compromise of 1877.

After the Mexican War, slavery became the dominant issue in the United States. Democrats supported unrestricted slavery. The Whig Party crumbled over the issue with Northerners becoming Republicans and opposing the institution. Southern Whigs eventually became Confederates. As a result, each president from Taylor to Lincoln had their legacy intimately tied to the issue of slavery.

Zachary Taylor (1849-1850): When California wanted admission to the Union, Taylor supported it even when it was clear they would enter as a Free State. The South felt betrayed. Taylor was a Louisiana slave holder, but he opposed the spread of slavery. When a compromise was put forth that would allow California to enter Free while strengthening slavery elsewhere, Taylor opposed it and threatened to start hanging Democrats. Then, he died.

Millard Fillmore (1850-1853): While Taylor opposed the Compromise of 1850, Fillmore supported it. California entered the US as a free state. Utah and New Mexico entered without restrictions of slavery. A tough fugitive slave law was enacted and the interstate slave trade was banned. The Fugitive Slave Law was a particularly heinous creation. Persons of color had no rights if they were accused of being a runaway. So, slave catchers could go North and haul free persons back to the South with impunity under Federal Law. The Compromise was meant to quell sectionalism. Instead, it helped inflame sectionalism especially after Harriet Beecher Stowe published "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857): Franklin Pierce had no backbone. When Stephen Douglas marched into the White House and demand he support the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Pierce folded like a card table. The act split Kansas and Nebraska up into two states. The people of each state could vote on whether they would be a slave state or a free state. It was assumed Nebraska would vote free and Kansas would go slave. Nebraska voted to ban slavery. Kansas was a mess. Several Chicago style elections and an in-state civil war left Pierce in ruins.

James Buchanan (1857-1861): Buchanan attempted to pacify the South. He tried to force a pro-slavery Constitution onto Kansas. He failed. He tried to start a war with the Mormons to bring about national unity. He failed. After Lincoln's election, the South seceded from the union. Buchanan did nothing. James Buchanan was the worst president in history.

As the Founders' generation died off, people were leery of the next generation. Could America stay America without the Founding Fathers around to guide them? Here's the next generation of presidents starting literally with the next generation asJohn Quincy Adams takes office.

John Quincy Adams (1825-1829): Adams came into office under a cloud. The 1824 election was thrown to the House of Representatives. Adams won with the help of Henry Clay. Although no candidate won a majority of votes, Adams won less than Andrew Jackson. As a result, Adams felt he could not initiate any major policies since he did not think he had a big enough mandate and faced a very hostile Jacksonian Congress. Adams had no real accomplishments as president. George W. Bush used Adams as the example of what not to do in 2001. Bush decided to go after tax cuts, education reform, and a prescription drug benefit as opposed to sitting around like Adams. President Adams real legacy came after leaving office. Although, he was an accomplished diplomat, negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, the purchase of Florida, and the Monroe Doctrine, Adams should be remembered for his war on slavery. John Quincy Adams was the best ex-president in U.S. history.

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837): Jackson created the modern presidency. His detractors called him "King Andrew." Jackson vetoed more bills than any president to that point. He launched a war on the Bank of the United States and killed it. When South Carolina threatened to leave the union, Jackson threatened to destroy them. He also removed Native Americans from Georgia in violation of a court order. Jackson dramatically expanded executive power like no one before.

Martin Van Buren (1837-1841): Van Buren considered the presidency his reward for years of hard work. He worked his way up and helped form the modern Democratic Party. He maneuvered himself into the Vice Presidency by ingratiating himself with Jackson. Once he moved into the White House, he was as paralyzed by events as Jimmy Carter 140 years later. A major depression, sectional strife, and an inept chief executive marked Van Buren's stewardship. As a result, people began calling him "Martin Van Ruin" with the same contempt people in the 1930s appropriated Herbert Hoover's name for all things poverty.

William Henry Harrison (1841): Harrison ran the first modern presidential campaign complete with songs, spin, modern packaging of candidates, and a catchy slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Once elected, Harrison gave a ridiculously long speech in bad weather, caught pneumonia, and died one month later.

John Tyler (1841-1845): Virginian John Tyler was added to the 1840 ticket for regional balance. Although Harrison was a Whig, Tyler was a Jacksonian Democrat. This was strange since Whigs and Democrats were opposites on important economic issues. However, no Vice President had ever become President and they were supposed to disappear into a black hole for four years. Harrison's death created a crisis. Who's president? Tyler assumed the office himself and asserted the right of all Vice Presidents to become President when the Chief Executive dies. Additionally, Tyler opposed his new party's programs and began vetoing their legislation. He was evicted from the Whigs and the Democrats refused to have him back. He became a man without a party. The Tyler Years demonstrate the importance of having a president and vice president on the same page ideologically. After leaving office, Tyler supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.

James K. Polk (1845-1849): Polk took the U.S. to War with Mexico. Polk attempted to bully the Mexicans into surrendering California and the American Southwest. They refused and attacked American troops at the Texas border. The United States won the war handily and conquered all or part of California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. This made up 42% of Mexico at the time.