Tracking history

Almost any kind of history.

Any decade, century, etc.

Before I moved into journalism at indiana State University, I was a history major. I was only two classes shy of receiving a history degree, something I wish I would have completed now that I think of it.

But history is one of the most fascinating subjects in school, in my humble opinion.

Recently, for some odd reason, I have started researching the Presidents of the United States of America.

Those presidents that the history books don't mention very often or at all.

For example, all students, whether history buffs or not, learn about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.

Hopefully, youngsters in school now are aware of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

But do these students know much about Martin Van Buren? William Henry Harrison? John Tyler? James Polk? Zachary Taylor? Millard Fillmore? Franklin Pierce?

What about Rutherford B. Hayes? James Garfield? Chester Arthur? Grover Cleveland? Benjamin Harrison? William McKinley?

Calvin Coolidge?

The list goes on as you all know.

There is a long history of presidents the history books don't shed a lot of light on.

Sure, those books talk about the assassination of McKinley. Sure they discuss how James Buchanan did little to nothing to stop the south from splitting away from the union. Sure those same books talk about Ulysses Grant as a General in the Union Army.

But they don't discuss their presidencies much at all.

And that's what I want to know more about.

So I've been searching on amazon.com for books that might help give a little more detail about these presidents, the ones that the history books gloss over.

If you have any suggestions, let me know.