Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt: The names and legacies of our country’s greatest presidents are ingrained in the minds of every American. Even presidents whose administrations were marked by massive failures, like LBJ or Herbert Hoover, live on in infamy. But what of the forgotten presidents? The Van Burens, the Fillmores and the Coolidges of American history? What’s their legacy? According to Micheal J. Gerhardt, even our least-remembered presidents have left their own indelible mark on the country’s history.
Gerhardt is a professor of constitutional law of at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He reflects on the history of American presidents in his new book “The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy.”