An Opportunity for Reflection 

This Presidents Day sees the United States marking a transition to a new presidential administration. It offers all Americans an opportunity to reflect on previous presidents—both on their contributions to the country and on the challenges and controversies faced by their administrations. We hope these lessons will prove useful in this endeavor.

Washington | Adams | Jefferson | Jackson | Polk | Lincoln | Johnson | Grant | TR | Wilson | FDR | Truman | LBJ

George Washington

What Made George Washington a Great Leader? (1,1:84) 
The Whiskey Rebellion and the New American Republic (23:3:07)

John Adams

The Alien and Sedition Acts: Defining American Freedom (19,4:03)

Thomas Jefferson

The United States and the Barbary Pirates (18,1:01) 
Conspiracy Theories: Attacks on Jefferson Set the Pattern (11,4:95)

Andrew Jackson

Jackson and Indian Removal Policy (21,1:04)

James K. Polk

President Polk and the Taking of the West (20,1:04)

Abraham Lincoln

Slavery, Civil War, & Democracy: What Did Lincoln Believe? (22:4:06) 
Lincoln and the "Writ of Liberty" (6,2: 89)

Andrew Johnson

King Andy vs. the Radicals (3,3: 87)

Ulysses S. Grant

A Hero Betrayed: The Presidency of U.S. Grant (9,2:93)

Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal (21:2:05) 
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (24:1:08)

Woodrow Wilson

The Palmer "Red Raids" (6,3:90)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

How Welfare Began in the United States (14,3:98) 
FDR Tries to "Pack" the Supreme Court (10,4:94)

Harry S. Truman

Choices: Truman, Hirohito, and the Atomic Bomb (15,3:99) 
The Marshall Plan for Rebuilding Western Europe (20,3:04)  
Seizure! Truman Takes the Steel Mills (4,4:88)  
Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War (17,3:01)

Lyndon B. Johnson

"Let Us Reason Together": Lyndon Johnson (9,3&4:93)