The Ultimate Guide to the Presidents Episode Rating Graph

America after the Civil War was a traumatized country in desperate need of leadership. The President who'd seen the nation through its most divisive conflict was dead, leaving no road map for peace. Over the next three decades, a series of weak Presidents lacked any vision for the future and showed little interest in real leadership. Each successive man took a back seat to Congress and to captains of industry--and the Presidency hit rock bottom.

America at the beginning of the 20th century found a growing chasm between the rich and poor. The country's priorities were changing, as was the Presidency. Since the end of the Civil War, Congress and the deep pockets of Big Industry had dictated the course for the nation. But one President took back the reigns, fighting for the common man, just as a grisly international fight began to emerge that would test America's strength and its leader's resolve.

America in the 1920s was a country poised for a fresh start. The horrific brutality of the first global war was over. The economy was beginning to "roar," and the Presidents at the helm were happy to take a backseat to Congress. But as America crashed into Depression--and then another World War--the times called for a stronger leader, one who set the table for presidential power in the 20th century.

In 1945, at the end of a devastating global war, America emerged as a superpower. The Cold War presented the nation with a new and unprecedented crisis: the threat of nuclear annihilation. The country looked to the President to keep them safe during these dangerous times. The struggle against the spread of communism abroad, and the corrosive effects of inequality at home, demanded a new resolve and a steadfast international leader.

Since the mid 1960s, the power of the presidency has risen and fallen. It's been burdened by the personal failings of the men who occupied the office; by a Congress determined to reassert its power; by a skeptical and fragmented media; and by a public that had grown indifferent. The Cold War ended, but global terror networks rose to present a more complicated threat. Despite these new challenges, the power of the office has grown substantially--remaining the shining symbol of America s noble experiment in democracy.