Decide a 100-year-old debate on November 8

Was Warren Harding one of our worst presidents?

Next week, you can decide. On November 8, historian Ryan Walters will give us a chance to reconsider the historically poor opinion of our 29th president when he presents his book, “The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren Harding,” at the Community Center auditorium at 4:30 p.m.

According to the University of Virginia’s Miller Center on presidential scholarship, “Neither a deep thinker, nor a decisive President, Harding failed, in most opinions, to impact the nation simply because he saw the role of President as largely ceremonial. He saw himself as neither a caretaker nor as a leader. He just avoided issues whenever possible.”

According to Walters, however, Harding was a humble man who has been consistently underrated for his successful economic policy that led to the “boom of the Roaring Twenties” and his decision to turn the country away from the policy of foreign engagement that marked Woodrow Wilson’s administration. 

Walters teaches history at Collin College in North Texas, and he is the author of several history books about subjects as diverse as Apollo 1 and Grover Cleveland. 

Copies of his book are available at The Tide bookstore, and will also be sold after his talk at the Community Center.