History Buff Shares His Top Ten List of American Presidents

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 27, 2008 at 9:16 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

American history guru Thomas Flagel shares his Top Ten list of American presidents. He explains why he thinks the disputed 2000 election was a great moment in our country's history, why Abraham Lincol

Originally aired February 12.

Tom Fudge: The race for president of the United States is now at the top of the political part of our minds. The office of president is a place of tremendous power, both real and symbolic, and the history and evolution of the presidency tell us a lot about the history of our country. Thousands of books and biographies have been devoted to describing presidents.

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Now there's a new one called The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents. It's written by Thomas Flagel, who's a history professor at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The book takes a unique approach to describing and comparing presidents.

Guest

Thomas Flagel , professor of history at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and author of The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents.