Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were all sworn in as leaders of the federal government’s executive branch in March 1921.

Harding, a former senator from Ohio, was the new president of the United States; Coolidge, former Massachusetts governor, was vice-president; and Hoover, a successful mining engineer, became the administration’s Secretary of Commerce.

These three men – conservative Republicans – would each serve as president during the next 12 years. None of them, however, have been treated kindly by observers of United States history and politics.

Even many Republicans...