We The Presidents 250th American Anniversary Edition

Book Review
250th American Anniversary Edition
We The Presidents
How a Century of Presidents from Harding to Trump Forged Today’s America
by Ronald Gruner
766 pp Libratum Press (2026)

We The Presidents by Ronald Gruner, first published by Libratum Press in 2022, portrayed one hundred years of U.S. presidential history, primarily though an economic lens. The newly published 250^th American Anniversary Edition of We The Presidents includes the Biden presidency and delves into Trump’s second term. This edition is also an expansive approach to presidential history that sets forth the unanticipated forces shaping every presidency from Warren Harding to Donald Trump.  

Ron Gruner offers a poignant introduction to this commemorative edition. On the 250^th Anniversary of America’s independence, let us not forget where we came from. On July 4, 1776, our founders declared their independence from Great Britain in the conviction that a free people could govern themselves. It was a bold experiment, and the outcome has yet to be realized.

The types of issues that divide Americans in the twenty-first century first took shape during colonial times. Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party advocated for a strong federal government. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson emphasized states rights. They were bitterly divided. The industrialized states (New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts) needed a strong federal government to manage trade. Agrarian states (Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas) were self-sufficient and wanted to be left alone.

Significant differences are still driving Americans apart today. It was George Washington who coined the expression “tearing our vitals.” Knowing that America has been sorely divided before, and, perhaps, always will be, is oddly comforting because it offers us hope and encouragement. From the beginning America has endured tension between capital and labor, progressives and conservatives, and urban and rural cultures. In addition, both racism and forward thinking race relations are an ongoing American reality. Yet, despite a myriad of differences and bitter rivalries, America has always managed to survive and flourish.

We The Presidents leaves partisan issues aside and instead focuses on how American presidents from Harding to Trump have dealt with healthcare, civil rights, taxation, income distribution, immigration, racism, global conflicts, the economy, and the essential role of a democratic government. More than any other factor, Gruner’s latest work clearly establishes the themes in common among all presidential administrations.

One common theme is most presidents shape their administration by choosing advisors and cabinet members who are competent, trustworthy and experienced. For example, Warren Harding surrounded himself with Herbert Hoover and Andrew Mellon. Picking the right cabinet members and advisors is a continuing trend throughout presidential administrations, e.g., Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, Lyndon Johnson and Dean Rusk, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

Calvin Coolidge inherited Herbert Hoover and Andrew Mellon from Warren Harding’s presidency. Coolidge cut government spending while Mellon cut taxes. Later, Hoover’s own presidency, also bolstered by Andrew Mellon, emphasized laissez-faire capitalism unhindered by an intrusive government. While lack of government intervention worked brilliantly under Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, it was exactly the wrong strategy during the onset of the Great Depression.

It took Franklin D. Roosevelt to lift Americans from the economic ravages of the Great Depression. FDR, unlike Herbert Hoover, ascribed to the economic thinking of  John Maynard Keynes—if private enterprise refuses to engage in the fight against economic depression, then the government must. FDR’s accomplishments during this era of hardship continue to benefit Americans today. Social Security passed into law on April 17, 1935.

Before FDR, especially during the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover years, government often acquiesced to business, but Roosevelt reversed that, making business subservient to Washington’s regulations and wage and tax policies. Conservative factions and corporate America fought against FDR. Consequently, there are many benefits FDR was not able to get implemented, including free college education, renewable energy, universal income and universal healthcare.

It wasn’t until the 1960s under Lyndon Johnson that Medicaid and Medicare amendments were made to Social Security, and it was George W. Bush who signed the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act in 2003. Universal Healthcare has still not come to pass, and its closest approximation is when Obamacare was signed into law March 23, 2010.

Harry S. Truman had served as FDR’s Vice President for only 82 days when Roosevelt died. Truman bragged that the postwar boom was spectacular. With the economy booming and high tax revenues, the national debt fell and the average American was also prospering. When the world lay witness to the lowering of the Iron Curtain, Harry Truman led the Cold War against Soviet aggression.

Truman declared American entry into the Korean conflict to be a police action, not a declaration of war, thereby bypassing congressional approval. Harry Truman thwarted communism in Western Europe through the Marshall plan, and sent troops to Korea. In a similar move, Ronald Reagan led the 1981 invasion of Grenada. George H.W. Bush presided over the first Gulf War and also ordered the invasion of Panama. Donald Trump’s war with Iran—without being sanctioned by Congress—is not an unprecedented presidential action.

Dwight D. Eisenhower inherited the Korean Conflict and although he ended the fighting in Korea, permanent peace was not secured. Eisenhower’s most notable accomplishment might be building the Interstate Highway System. McCarthyism, the rampage of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Committee on Un/American activities (HUAC), cast a stain on the Eisenhower administration, yet it serves as a reminder that America can survive extremism in any form, even the immigration policies of Donald Trump.

John F Kennedy’s presidency was as short-lived as Warren Harding’s. Both presidents died tragically while in office. Kennedy might be best remembered for the Cuban Missile Crisis, his push for tax cuts and his low-key approach to civil rights.

Gruner does not mention the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is an essential part of Kennedy’s history and responsible for many of America’s technological advances made during the latter part of the twentieth century. NASA was established in 1958 under Eisenhower, but it was Project Mercury (1961 to 1963) that put the first U.S. astronauts into orbit, while Kennedy was president. The Apollo Program was also launched while Kennedy was president, and that later landed American astronauts on the moon.

The presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were both marred by the Vietnam War. Yet Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Immigration Act of 1965, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nixon finally ended the Vietnam War, but his ultimate achievement might be opening up diplomatic relations with China, not to downplay his achievements on the domestic front. 

In 1970 Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy act, established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He also signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Noise Pollution Act. For a conservative Republican, Nixon led the greatest expansion of government since the New Deal. Unfortunately, the Watergate scandal put an end to his presidency and shattered our faith in American government.

Mr. Gruner sometimes cites literature to make a point, e.g., John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” or “The End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama, but no literary reference is more apropos than C.K. Chesterton’s reminder to understand why something is the way it is before meddling in change. “Chesterton’s Fence.” Do not remove a fence until you understand why it was put up in the first place.

The presidential practice of removing fences appears to be endemic. Each new president coming into office has often signed a plethora of Executive Orders to reverse or erase the work of his predecessor.  

President Jimmy Carter’s energy policies have been the most sweeping legislation in history. Subsequent presidents attempted to reverse Carter’s initiatives, especially when renewable energy threatened fossil-fuel-based corporations. Ronald Reagan abandoned solar energy and slashed spending on renewable energy research. After a brief surge of renewable energy from 1977 to 1983, progress was stalled until Barack Obama. A decade later during his second term in office, Donald Trump slashed spending and regulations promoting renewable energy.

One example of a fence that is in dire need of mending is the Fairness Doctrine that has roots tracing to 1941. After the war in 1949, Congress formalized the FCC policy as the Fairness Doctrine, which meant broadcast Journalists were prohibited from stating falsehoods over the airwaves.

Under Ronald Reagan in 1987, the FCC abolished the law, claiming the fairness doctrine limited free speech. Congress disagreed, but Reagan vetoed the repeal. As a result, many of America’s media outlets are partisan and fact challenged. Inflammatory language, hate speech and outright lies are given full rein to wreak havoc with the American people.

After twelve years under Presidents Reagan and Bush, the lower and middle income classes were worse off; their real after-tax income had declined. Only the wealthy had thrived with large financial gains. President Bill Clinton made repairing the economy his top priority and signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which raised the maximum individual income tax and corporate taxes. The economy bloomed and the American middle class thrived. The poor did better as well. In the final analysis, Clinton achieved a $559 billion budget surplus.

Ronald Gruner shows us that there are many forces that shape a presidency. Some have less to do with the president and more to do with larger-than-life-size events taking place in real time. FDR was handed the Great Depression. Lyndon Johnson inherited the Vietnam War. Gerald Ford was given a broken political system and the worst economy in over forty years. George W. Bush inherited the strongest economy in decades, then 9/11 happened, and soon after the Second Iraq War was waged. Barack Obama inherited the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. Joseph Biden inherited a deeply divided nation, the Covid Pandemic, and turmoil in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Gaza.

We The Presidents connects the dots and offers us inspiration. This is an important book and should be lauded for its ability to have captured the challenges faced by every American president. How each president responds to crisis is the litmus test that defines his character and his presidency. The ping pong dynamic between political parties and special interest groups is deeply embedded in the American culture because it is essential to our democratic process. Gruner’s book gives us hope that America will continue to be a grand and noble experiment.

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NOTE: The first edition of We The Presidents was reviewed on January 7, 2022. Here is the link to the first review. This book is exceptionally well researched and for those who want to do a deep dive, voluminous endnotes can be accessed by QR code.

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