The Master speaks: Who was the Stupidest U.S. President?.
Cite? Because Grant’s appointee Phil “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead” Sheridan was not exactly noted for his conciliatory policies toward the Western tribes.
Grant appointed Sheridan to that position before he was President, btw. He’s talking about Grant’s “peace policy”, which completely reformed the Bureau of Indian Affairs, institutionalized etucational and medical programs for Indians, put in more concilliatory generals, and turned a lot of responsibilities for the running of the reservations over to the churches.
It’s hardly unknown that Bush reads a fair amount of books (more non-fiction than fiction), even if it doesn’t fit with people’s image of him.
You can take your pick of cites:
A CNN article about Bush’s interest in Natan Sharansky’s The Case for Democracy.
A New York Times article from '05 that notes Bush is a fan of Tom Wolfe, having read all of his novels. (registration may be required)
And there are tons of others out there. In fact, I’d say not knowing such a widely reported fact speaks to a lack of intellectual curiosity in the person who expresses it. 
Paul Johnsonk, in A History of the American People, described Andrew Jackson as the most “intellectually incompetent” president ever.
Nope. I remember a press conference at the end of one of his summer vacations where he did this.
His vacation reading list is not super extensive, but I assume he has piles of other stuff to work his way through, things that certainly make my eyes glaze over.
The Barry book is ironic, because Bush in 2005 just before Katrina should have been reading Barry’s classic Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. If he had, well, history and America might have been changed indeed.
Clarence Thomas
Truman’s the last US President not to have gone to college.
Custer’s last campaign occured during the Grant administration, following an order by Grant for the Lakota and Cheyenne to report to reservations or be considered “hostile.”
Still doesn’t sound “conciliatory” to me.
Opinions on Theodore Roosevelt?
I’d rank him in the more mentally active set.
Remember: merely because he was interested in athletics, doesn’t mean he was dull-witted.
The fact that he read all those books doesn’t necessarily imply his comprehension of them.
He wrote 18 books, FWIW.
This is a complicated subject, but that was definitely not Grant’s policy or desire. Neither was Sheridan’s actions in general, as noted above.
Grant’s initiated a massive reform of the Indian Affairs system, which beggared the indians and was slowly killing them off through booze and no medical care. The change was huge, but it was also uneven and imperfect. Some Indians refused to see reason (they were pretty bloody-minded as a group) and kept doing things like raids or the odd massacre. This undercut Grant’s policy, although he was able to improve a lot of things. In the long run, of course, no good deed goes unpunished and the reforms themselves were turned into more corruption. But that was after Grant.
I’d have to look up the exact circumstance, but Sheridan came to Washington one time and basically said, we’ve got no choice, and it’s either protect American citizens on American land (this was near the big mines discovered in the post-Civil War) or protect Indian rebels. Grant was initially in favor of a conciliatory position, but he really, really trusted Sheridan, who was a jerk but had performed well in every post given to him. Plus, Sheridan had been on the ground in that area for years. Grant oprdered the area be pacified with as little bloodshed as possible.
As it turned out, Sheridan was extremely anti-Indian, and he started the semi-genocidal campaign afterward. Grant could hardly do anything about it until it was far too late, and could hardly repudiate his own general he’d specifically sent on the mission. He was steamed about the mess, though, and never really trusted Sheridan again.
according to another of Cecil’s column What if the U.S. President and Vice-president-elect die before being sworn in?, Truman did take some night classes at the Kansas City Law School, but didn’t graduate.
:dubious:
No, really: :dubious:
What, they were illegal enemy combatants?
How would YOU respond to genocide being committed against your people? :dubious:
George Bush.
TR was the first president I thought of when I saw this thread. He may have written more books that the other 41 presidents put together.
Carter has written 23 books.
Wilson and Jefferson were the first ones I thought of on seeing the title. But TR is a strong contender, as is Jimmy Carter.
Remember, too, that intellectual is not a synonym for ‘effective in the role of President’. Hoover is supposed to have been one hell of a smart guy and a good engineer. That doesn’t mean things didn’t go south on his watch and remain that way.