LONDON // Franklin D Roosevelt has emerged as the best, and George W Bush as one of the very worst, in the first "league table" of US presidents produced by British scholars.
The survey, conducted by the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) at London University's Institute for the Study of the Americas, involved 47 UK specialists on American history and politics rating the performance of presidents from 1789 to 2009.
Two, William Henry Harrison (1841) and James Garfield (1881), were ignored because they died shortly after taking office, while there was only an interim assessment of Barack Obama, though he did rather well in the Britons' eyes.
The survey, funded by the US Embassy in London, ranked 40 presidents on their vision and agenda-setting, their domestic leadership, foreign policy initiatives, moral authority and positive historical significance of their legacy.
It was FDR who first, in marked contrast to similar exercises in the US where, invariably, Abraham Lincoln occupies the top spot.
Prof Iwan Morgan, the USPC director, said after the results were published on Monday night: "The results show some interesting differences between UK and US presidential rankings.
"US polls habitually place Abraham Lincoln first because of his achievements as Civil War leader in restoring the Union and ending slavery. In addition, they often put George Washington second ahead of FDR because of his significance in establishing the authority of the presidency.
"UK scholars, by contrast, have elevated Franklin D Roosevelt to first place in recognition of the breadth of the challenges he faced as president during the Great Depression and World War Two, his confident and inspirational leadership in both of these crises, and the enduring significance of his New Deal legacy."
Prof Morgan also accepted that it was probable that FDR's stock rose because the survey was conducted against the current backdrop of the worst economic troubles since the 1930s.
The survey also produced significant differences between US and UK rankings of individual presidents outside the top three.
John F Kennedy, for instance, was ranked sixth in a poll of American historians conducted by C-Span 18 months ago but only made it to 15th in the UK survey.
"UK academics seemingly faulted JFK for the gap between his rhetoric and his substantive achievements as president," Prof Morgan said. "Bill Clinton, who has fared well in recent US polls, coming 15th in the C-Span survey, slipped somewhat in the UK survey, mainly because of a very low rating for moral authority, but also because his legacy, particularly his economic achievement, looks less robust 10 years on from the time he left office."
Prof Morgan said that a criticism of similar surveys in the US tended to be that they were driven by a liberal bias. Although the British survey has a preponderance of what are regarded as liberals in top positions, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan and Andrew Jackson all make it into the top 10.
But George W Bush fared the worst of any post-war president, only making it to 31st on the list. By contrast, Mr Obama's assessment would have put him in eighth place had he been included in the poll, Prof Morgan said.
Bottom place on the list was reserved for James Buchanan, the only US president never to marry and who, during his presidency, from 1857 to 1861, succeeded in angering both the North and South in the years leading up to the Civil War.
dsapsted@thenational.ae
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
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More coverage from the Future Forum
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
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The specs
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