Professor emeritus, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Most overrated:

Harry S. Truman. He needlessly stimulated the Red Scare with his “loyalty” program, intensified the Cold War with his apocalyptic presentation of the Truman Doctrine, and promoted the Imperial Presidency with his assertions of unlimited presidential power.

Most underrated:

Ulysses S. Grant—not as a general but as a President. By backing Radical Reconstruction as best he could, he made a greater effort to secure the constitutional rights of blacks than did any other President between Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson.