One Summer: America, 1927

by Bill Bryson

For Warren G. Harding, the summer of 1927 was not a good one, which was perhaps a little surprising since he had been dead for nearly four years by then. Few people have undergone a more rapid and comprehensively negative reappraisal than America’s twenty-ninth president. When he died suddenly in San Francisco on August 2, 1923, of an apparent cerebral hemorrhage (though some said it was heart failure and others ptomaine poisoning), he was widely liked and admired. He had been elected in 1920 with the largest plurality in modern times. An estimated three million people turned out to watch the funeral train that carried him back to Washington. The New York Times called it “the most remarkable demonstration in American history of affection, respect, and reverence.” In fact, at the time of his death President Harding was on the brink of being exposed as a scoundrel and a fool.

Warren G. Harding, Lack of Popularity after death