Semester II Final

Alexander Grelier
5/23/19

Semester II Final

PART A

1. Before doing any research, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents in US history will be Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Teddy Roosevelt, and the worst might be Herbert Hoover or Richard Nixon.

2. According to the C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey, four presidents that have consistently been in the top four are Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. There have been no presidents that have fluctuated between the 4th and 5th ranking, because Theodore Roosevelt has been placed 4th all three times the survey has been conducted.

3.

One observation that I have about the list is that some presidents such as Woodrow Wilson and John Adams have had their rankings go down each time the survey took place, while presidents such as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan have had their rankings go up each time the survey took place. This shows how important it is to have multiple surveys take place, because the opinion of groups of people can fluctuate drastically over a period of time.

Another observation I have about the survey is that the bottom ten ranked presidents have a trend for the most part of being slightly higher ranked each time the survey took place. This could be due to the fact that there are new presidents introduced to the list, or that people have changed their minds slightly about the presidents.

The third observation I have about the list is that there are only four presidents that keep the exact same rankings throughout each time the survey took place, being Abraham Lincoln at #1, Theodore Roosevelt at #4, Thomas Jefferson at #7, and William Howard Taft at #24. This is interesting to see because of the fact that new presidents have taken office throughout the times the survey took place, and those four still don't change in ranking.

4. The participants of the survey seem to be historians, journalists, authors, and professors from many different universities across the nation. C-SPAN needed to include this information otherwise the credibility of the rankings would be unknown, because their could be a biased among the participants. For example, if all of the participants were from Alabama, there would be a heavy biased because Alabama has elected a Republican president for many decades. Also, if C-SPAN had not included this information, there would be no way to tell if the participants had any knowledge about US presidents, and that would raise questions about the credibility of the results. An observation about the survey participants is that all of them most likely have a college education which definitely makes an impact in the validity of the results.

5. The qualities that the presidents were ranked for are listed under Methodology in the website:

• "Public Persuasion"
• "Crisis Leadership"
• "Economic Management"
• "Moral Authority"
• "International Relations"
• "Administrative Skills"
• "Relations with Congress"
• "Vision/Setting An Agenda"
• "Pursued Equal Justice for All"
• "Performance Within the Context of His Times"

6. All of the qualities were weighted equally to find the president's total score.

7. If I were conducting the survey, I would decide to weight "Performance Within the Context of His Times," "Economic Management," and "Crisis Leadership" the most. I feel like the first quality I listed has importance because a president could go into office during a time where the US is struggling with a domestic crisis or war which could take his priority off many other categories. I think that "Economic Management" should be weighted higher because it is difficult to know how to correctly fund all needs of the country without overspending, which is one of the biggest dilemmas in any country. I finally think that "Crisis Leadership" is a quality that I would weight heavily because it has to do with not only domestic crisis but also conflict with other nations that could lead to war and endanger the citizens of the US. For example, President Kennedy had great crisis leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which could have lead to a nuclear war that had the potential to kill millions of people.

8. I initially predicted that Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Teddy Roosevelt would be at the top three of the list. On the survey, Lincoln was placed #1, Kennedy was placed #8, and Teddy Roosevelt was placed #4. I think that if I knew the qualities that the presidents were being judged on prior to making my predictions, I could have been more accurate, but in making a prediction like this, you have little to no reference on how they are being judged. I predicted Herbert Hoover or Richard Nixon to be at the bottom of the list, while Hoover was actually placed at #36 and Nixon was placed at #28. I really don't know much about either of their presidencies, I only predicted that Nixon would be lower because he was apart of the Watergate scandal and resigned, and I thought Hoover would be lower because of his struggle during the Depression. Again, I think they were ranked higher than I expected because of their success in some of the other qualities listed, since all categories are weighted equally.

PART B

"On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."1

(Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty."

Excerpt from the US Department of Justice, "Celebrating James Madison and the Freedom of Information Act"

9. In the excerpt above, James Madison is saying that a government that is strong and well-liked by its citizens will still be lead to failure and downfall if it has no way to acquire knowledge or information. He says that people with knowledge will always have power over people who don't, and citizens that would like to have the power to self-govern, need to have knowledge to do so. He finishes by saying that this knowledge and information is the only way to sustain freedom.

" . . . [K]nowledge of our own history is essential in the making of Americans. The reasons for this belief may be summed up under four main heads. History makes loyal citizens because memories of common experiences and common aspirations are essential ingredients in patriotism. History makes intelligent voters because sound decisions about present problems must be based on knowledge of the past. History makes good neighbors because it teaches tolerance of individual differences and appreciation of varied abilities and interests. History makes stable, well-rounded individuals because it gives them a start toward understanding the pattern of society and toward enjoying the artistic and intellectual productions of the past. It gives long views, a perspective, a measure of what is permanent in a nation’s life. "

Excerpt from the American Historical Association, "Chapter 2: Why Should Americans Know Their Own History?"

10.

        The two excerpts above are similar in that they both speak on how important it is for citizens of a country to be knowledgeable and informed. In James Madison's excerpt, he speaks more on why knowledge is important for liberty for citizens, while the AHA talks more about how knowledge of history makes a good citizen. In Madison's excerpt he says that knowledge is power for a citizen, and that the power given by knowledge is necessary to be able to self-govern, because people with information will always have power over people who don't. In the excerpt from the AHA, the author talks about how knowledge of our history is important for citizens, because it makes a citizen loyal and patriotic due to common ambitions, it makes smart voters, good neighbors, and well-rounded individuals.

         I think that both excerpts are right, but I think I agree with Madison's more because of its relevance to people everywhere, not just the United States. While the AHA talks more about how knowledge about US history makes a good US citizen, Madison talks about how a person that is in pursuit of freedom or self-government can obtain it. While I do believe knowledge of US history makes a better citizen, I agree more with the fact that knowledge is freedom.

PART C

11.

        This year, I think I have grown a lot as a researcher. At the beginning of the year, I had little to no knowledge on how to paraphrase without plagiarizing, but I am now able to do so when I need to during research. One post that really helped me with this skill was the Lincoln Film Review Paraphrasing Practice, which taught me exactly how to summarize an author's main points and give credit without stealing any of their ideas. Another skill that I have learned this year is how to properly and easily cite sources with annotations, something that I had no clue about at the beginning of the year. Now, I think that my citations are pretty easy to follow and it is a skill that I will be able to use for the rest of my school career.

        Another skill that I learned over this year during US History is how to evaluate how credible a source is. Previous to the start of this year, I didn't have much knowledge on what made a credible source. Due to the extensive practice I have had, from the In-class writes to posts like "Newspaper Research," I have gotten first-hand experiences with what makes a good source. Also, this year has taught me that I can almost never use only one source when doing research, and that I must use information from many different sources so I can make my posts as credible as possible. Prior to learning this, I would always just use a couple of generic sources that have all of the same information, and in doing that, I would always end up with biased arguments and limited information in my research.

12. Five parts of my film-history project that I am most proud of:

• The invitation - I am very proud of my invitation because of the thought that I put into it. The "spooktacular" theme worked very well because of the scariness of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that it ended very close to October 31, or Halloween.
• My guest's list - I was pretty proud of my guest list in the project as well, because I put a lot of thought into what I would think would make the party most interesting. For example, I had a contrast of people from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and people that were apart of the making of the movie, which would stir up lots of controversy at the party.
• The menu - The menu in this project didn't seem like a super important aspect to me but I ended up making a pretty unique one. One of my favorite parts of my menu was the Russian counterpart to Coca-Cola, Baikal, which showed the rivalry between Soviet Russia and the US in the 1960's.
• My exhibit - I was proud of my exhibit because I had a good variety of sources. I had some newspaper articles, some really cool artifacts such as the wing of the US plane shot down over Cuba, and letters between major leaders during the time.
• My in-class write - I honestly struggled with my time management during the in-class write but I was proud of how it turned out.

13. One example of work I admire from a peer is John Calvin's Paraphrase Practice. In this post he does a really good job of breaking down a critic's standpoint of the Lincoln movie. Throughout his entire paraphrase, he does a extremely good job of not reusing any of the critic's main word choices, but he still gets the points across very well.

14. Quote from Michael Jordan: "Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often an illusion."

        This quote inspires me because I often think very pessimistically and don't think I can achieve lots of things, but I always realize that my mind is what is creating my own limits, and they are often never realistic.

15.

Cole Bennett recently had a Ted Talk about how he formed his career. He is a role model to me because he started his own brand in high school by himself and has become well-known and very influential in the music scene through his hard work and dedication.

NASA The man on the moon is one of the greatest achievements in US history. I wanted to conclude my blog with this picture because it shows that what many think is impossible can be done.

Jackie Robinson is one of my favorite baseball players of all time, and I decided to put him at the end of my blog because he was the first black man to play in the MLB after years of racial segregation.

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