On the occasion of Presidents' Day, Ronald Brownstein writes on the popularity of presidential biography in recent years: "The biographers' hail to the chief." Brownstein's article is straightforward and thought-provoking, but he misses the accompanying popularity of Founders' biographies. The recent commercial success of the excellent biographies of Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, for example, provides additional evidence supporting the thesis that Sean Wilentz voices in the article:

Many historians say the dominant emotion generating interest in presidential biographies is a craving for heroes. Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University historian who recently wrote a panoramic history of politics in early 19th century America and a short biography of President Jackson in the Schlesinger series, has seen that hunger in those attending his book signings.

"A lot of people say to me that 'compared to then, we have such small fry today; nobody matches those great figures,'" Wilentz said. "I'm not sure people back then would have said the same thing. But even among those who admire various people in politics today, there's a feeling it's not what it was and there has been some sort of decline."

Brownstein immediately adds: "Even as presidential biography is booming in the bookstores, it is slumping in academia." Indeed.

However, Wilentz's characterization of the phenomenon as "hunger for heroes" is slightly off. In these biographies we seek examples of greatness in the face of the derogation of our country and our culture that otherwise prevails in academia. The recent "parallel lives" profile of Churchill and Reagan by my friend Steve Hayward -- Greatness -- cuts right to the heart of the matter.

In a sidebar to the article on presidential biographies, Brownstein features Bill Clinton's thoughts on the usefulness of presidential biographies to presidents: "Even Clinton went by the book." Clinton cites Geoffrey Ward's A First-Class Temperament as a book that was particularly useful to him both as a candidate and in office. Ward's book is a lengthy, more or less apolitical portrait of Franklin Roosevelt's pre-presidential years that follows his first, shorter look at Roosevelt's youth and early manhood in Before the Trumpet.

Clinton, by the way, wants to adjust the usual criteria applied by historians to determine presidential greatness. Brownstein quotes Clinton on the way historians rank presidents:

"I really think the circumstances determine where you are ranked — whether you have big wars, like the Civil War or World War II. But there are three or four tests you can apply to any president, which are much fairer than ranking them where the deal is rigged based on the time in which they served.

"First, did they understand their times and articulate a vision of a more perfect union? Did they refrain from abusing their power? Then you have to say, Did they execute [their agenda], and were people better off when they stopped than when they started?

"Those tests are fair to apply to every president."

I get it -- it's only fair -- Bill Clinton was a great president!

JOHN adds: For what it's worth, I think that President Bush is an excellent President, maybe a great one. Bill Clinton's complaint is that he presided over quiet times. That's true--but largely because he mostly ignored the biggest issue of his era, the growing threat of Islamic terrorism, precisely because he valued quiet times, and political popularity, above all else. We'll never know, of course, how George W. Bush would have performed had Sept. 11 not forced the issue.

For a wonderful book about an indisputably great President, George Washington, you can't do better than David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, about the Continental Army's crossing of the Delaware River and the campaigns that preceded and followed that event. We reviewed Washington's Crossing here. Clicking on the cover illustration below will take you straight to Amazon: