announcer: next on "american history tv," presidential historian richard norton smith talks about measuring presidential failure. he looks at three former presidents often considered failures, james buchanan, ulysses s. grant, and warren harding. the free library of philadelphia hosted this one hour, 15 minute event. >> i am so pleased to introduce tonight partial speaker, distinguished presidential historian, richard norton smith. career, he was a white house intern and then a speech writer. he has a long record of acclaimed books on presidential this has brought him to the helm of five presidential libraries and centers across this country and throughout his career. he appears regularly, as many of you know, i'm sure, on "news is c-span's in-house historian. he will be on a presidents and patriots history tour. he focuses this year on truman, eisenhower, and churchill. in his his tours and writing, he is able to bring history to life. "the boston globe" praises his writing as compelling and provocative and "the new york times" says his writing has authority and is immensely readable. we a

richard norton smith: it depends on who is doing the voting. it is as simple as that. for a long time, i talked about the arthur slashing her -- arthur slashing their -- arthur schlesinger school of presidents. a small group of almost exclusively 1%er academics tended to comprise the polls. nger poll, thei first poll showed dwight eisenhower ranked behind chester a arthur. and in 1966, his papers were opened, and a great journalist wrote a seminal essay called "the underestimation of dwight d. eisenhower." and ever since, we have been discovering that a man who scrambled his syntax as you gave the impression of an amiable duffer playing golf was in fact -- playing golf while rome earned -- burned was in fact a much more skillful, behind the scenes, hands-on administrator and indeed political strategist. so it is bipartisan. harry truman's reputation rose dramatically over time, and so has dwight eisenhower's. and what you may be referring to, i am not familiar with the survey you are mentioning, it may be the reaction. remember, this is a cyclical process. so we have r

next on american history tv, richard norton smith talks about rankings of matters in chief and the challengespresidential failure. he looks at james buchanan, ulysses s. grant, and warren g. harding. he also discusses presidents usually regarded as successful. the free library of philadelphia posted this one hour and 15 minute event. host: i am so pleased to introduce tonight our speaker, distinguished presidential historian, richard norton smith. early in his career, he was a white house intern and then a political speech writer. he has a long record of acclaimed books on presidential

. ♪ [applause] announcer: next on "american history tv," presidential historian richard norton smithalks about measuring presidential failure. he looks at three former presidents often considered failures, james buchanan, ulysses s. grant, and warren harding. the free library of philadelphia hosted this one hour, 15 minute event. >> i am so pleased to introduce tonight partial speaker, distinguished presidential historian, richard norton smith. career, his

. ♪ [applause] announcer: next on "american history tv," presidential historian richard norton smithalks about measuring presidential failure. he looks at three former presidents often considered failures, james buchanan, ulysses s. grant, and warren harding. the free library of philadelphia hosted this one hour, 15 minute event. >> i am so pleased to introduce tonight partial speaker, distinguished presidential historian, richard norton smith. career, his