November 6, 2000. Schlesinger followed his 1948 survey with another in 1962. Truman, now eligible for the ballot, ended up in ninth place as a near-great president in the company of John Adams and Theodore Roosevelt. He ranked 22nd, sandwiched between Chester A. Arthur and Andrew Johnson. Nor did the great presidents shy away from confrontations with the Supreme Court.
Historians still like to play the presidential greatness game.
Indeed, one of the most recent rankings of presidents was commissioned in 1996 by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the eminent professor's equally eminent son. Ambition for power and success in wielding it remain the attributes that stir the admiration of most president-ranking historians. Now come two historically savvy political scientists, Marc Landy of Boston College and Sidney M. Milkis of the University of Virginia, to argue in Presidential Greatness that although historians may have gotten the roster of great presidents right, they have gotten the essence of presidential greatness wrong. Washington established his greatness by working systematically to transfer his enormous personal authority to the new and still fragile Constitution. Jackson furthered the cause of democratization within the Constitution by building the first mass-based political party.