Podcast: Presidential Legacies with Dr. Phillip Payne

Turns out that TAP into Greater Olean has a podcast and who doesn't love a good podcast.  Dr. Payne recently appeared on it to discuss Warren G. Harding, presidential politics, legacy, and papers.  Check it out at Podcast: Presidential Legacies with Dr. Phillip Payne

DNA Test for Harding

With a two-term sitting president leaving office and a large, large number scrambling to take his place, it is once again time to revisit presidential legacy and rankings.  Get ready for a lot of it.  This means Harding again reenters the historical consciousness as our worst president - maybe.  If you are going to discuss Harding in the news, you are probably going to be talking about his private life.

The New York Times reports that "DNA Is Said to Solve a Mystery of Warren Harding's Love Life."  Other outlets are widely reporting the result.  Fox News notes that first DNA testing confirmed the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings and now it has answered another presidential mystery.  Do the DNA test change Harding's place in history?  Probably not.  It is not shocking or even news that Harding slept around, he was after all called a He Harlot, something I couldn't resist as a chapter title in Dead Last.  Not that long ago the Library of Congress released the correspondence between Harding and his mistress Carrie-Fulton Phillips.  The story also mentions that "The testing also found that President Harding had no ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, answering another question that has intrigued historians. When Harding ran for president in 1920, segregationist opponents claimed he had `black blood.'"  Again, not a surprising finding  but an interesting testimony to changing times.  Some still hold it against Harding that he might have been of a mixed race ancestry.  Not that long ago the idea that Harding was of mixed race was the "shadow" in Francis Russell's Shadow of Blooming Grove, the best known and damning Harding biography.  Does all this mean Harding will now rise in the rankings?  No.  Teapot Dome and Veterans' Bureau Scandals (among others) still loom large in a short presidency.  It does show that Americans have long liked a little tabloid mixed in with presidential politics.

The 'strange' death of Warren G. Harding

Today PBS reminds us that this is the anniversary of The 'strange' death of Warren G. Harding.  If you want to find out more about this, and what happened after his death, you can always check out my book Dead Last:  The Public Memory of Warren G. Harding's Scandalous Legacy.  Harding's place in history, and in the presidential rankings, is fascinating.

More on Harding

Here is a story I found on Yahoo from CBS on Harding's letters to Carrie Phillips.
Lust for power: Trove of President Warren Harding’s love letters reveal steamy affair

Warren G. Harding, Private Letters, and Presidential Reputation

As my students will know from my (seemingly endless) supply of stories about Warren G. Harding, I've written Dead Last: The Public Memory of Warren G. Harding's Scandalous Legacy in which I examine his reputation as the worst president in U. S. History.  One of my arguments is that, in part, Harding's reputation was damaged by the lack of historical records.  Without records, historians had difficulty examining his life and presidency.  In the absence of papers, lots of speculation took place.  The story of Harding's papers is fascinating.  Long believed destroyed by Florence Harding, in the 1960s the Harding Memorial Association released his papers.  The available papers attracted historians leading to a wave of scholarship on Harding.  Francis Russell, one of the historians and journalist that descended on Marion and Columbus, Ohio, to do research came upon the letters that Harding wrote to Carrie Phillips, long rumored to have been his mistress.  A very public and ugly debate, including legal action, took place over the ownership and use of the letters.  Eventually, a judge sealed the letters.  However, tidbits from the letters have leaked over the years.  A couple years ago James Robenalt discovered a microfilm copy of the letters from which he wrote The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War.  Robenalt's most startling argument was that Phillips spied for Germany during World War I.

This month the Library of Congress releases Harding's letter to Phillips, creating renewed interest in Harding's personal life.  Jordan Michael Smith wrote "The Letters that Warren G. Harding's Family Didn't Want you to See" for the New York Times Magazine.  Gayle Collins brought up Harding and his letters in a recent piece in the Times on presidential reputation and rankings.  People Magazine got into the act, reporting that "President Warren Harding's Long-Lost Raunchy Letters Go Viral".

Once again Harding's private life is dominating his reputation, this time aided by social media and the internet.  Documents long-ago sealed up and tucked away can now be seen reproduced online.  What impact will this have on Harding's reputation?  Not much, other than to remind the public of its fascination with the private lives of presidents.