Margaret Coit Elwell

Biographer and retired professor of social science, Fairleigh Dickinson University; author of Massachusetts

Most overrated:

Bernard Baruch. His failure to commit himself to an issue or a program has left Baruch in obscurity and denied him a significant place in our history.

Most underrated:

The most underrated American was Herbert Hoover, who received no credit for drawing up many of the plans and programs for which the New Deal took credit. He lacked the charisma to dramatize them and get them into action.