William Henry Harrison died just 31 days after taking the oath of office in 1841. Today he is a curiosity in American history, but as Collins shows in this entertaining and revelatory biography, he and his career are worth a closer look.

The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the tenth president, Edward P. Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief that boundless territorial expansion would preserve the Union as a slaveholding republic. When Tyler sided with the Confederacy in 1861, he was branded as America's "traitor" president for having betrayed the republic he once led.

Although William Henry Harrison died a month after becoming President, he lived a full and accomplished life before assuming the presidency. As a member of Congress, he sponsored legislation dividing the Northwest Territory. As governor of the Indiana Territory, he led a movement to suspend the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance and earned a reputation for acquiring large land cessions from the Indian tribes, winning the affection of white settlers and the animosity of Native Americans. Serving as brigadier general during the War of 1812, he then served in the Ohio legislature and the U.S. Senate, and was named minister to Colombia. This bibliography provides a guide to the literature on his extensive career.

In The Constitutional Legacy of Forgotten Presidents, eminent constitutional scholar Michael Gerhardt tells the stories of thirteen presidents whom most Americans do not remember and scholars think had no constitutional impact, among them Chester Arthur, Martin Van Buren, and William Howard Taft. As Gerhardt shows, our forgotten presidents played crucial roles in laying some of the groundwork followed by Lincoln and other modern presidents, as well as providing examples for future lawmakers of constitutional choices to avoid.