No other president in this century, not even Richard M. Nixon, has had his reputation sink so low. In the contemptuous judgment of historians, Warren G. Harding--his name indelibly associated with the Teapot Dome scandal, the "Ohio Gang," the "smoke-filled room," and his avowed quest for national "normalc)y"--was an unintelligent man who was too trusting of his cronies, too tolerant of corruption, and too passive a chief executive. He was, they say, quite possibly the worst president the United States has ever had.

But that's just the way the reputational cookie happened to crumble, argues Fine, a sociologist at the University of Georgia. Other, more favorable interpretations are quite possible. Harding could be seen, for instance, as a principled conservative president, a martyred president betrayed, or even (because he was long rumored to have had black ancestors) as the first African American president.

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