Quick! Name the eighth president

A very fascinating, informative and in-depth series of TV specials is now underway on C-SPAN, and I hope you are making sure to tune in.

C-SPAN, which usually devotes its time to books, politics and social issues, has set aside 41 days during 1999 for programming about the 41 men who have been president of the United States.

The series, "American Presidents: Life Portraits," started last month with George Washington and will proceed chronologically until it reaches Bill Clinton in December. In between will come the famous (Abraham Lincoln) and the forgotten (Franklin Pierce), each set into the context of his historical period and each assessed by experts, including biographers and historians. The series is even finding schools named after each of the presidents and interviewing a student there, providing a touch of the future in shows about the past.

Through time

The installments are broadcast from sites connected to the presidents: Mount Vernon for Washington, for example, and Monticello for Jefferson. As a result, viewers not only hear about these men but also see where they lived or worked.

Hosting most of the shows is Brian Lamb, the brains behind C-SPAN, who employs his usual low-key interviewing style as he delves into the personal and political backgrounds of the chief executives. Viewers supplement his questions through live phone calls and internet chat rooms. The program on Washington, for instance, drew heated calls from Black Americans who did not want the first president's ownership of slaves to be overlooked or underestimated.

On-line version

What is most fascinating, however, are the talks with the historians and writers who have devoted years to studying an individual president. Mr. Lamb mines for their nuggets of knowledge, always setting the specific head of the country in the context of his times and his world, and then relating that information to us here and now.

So far, the programs have dealt with the Founding Fathers and early, famous presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Adams again. What will be interesting is how the series will deal with more obscure figures -- Fillmore, for example, or William Henry Harrison, who served for only a month. Making them as intriguing as Jackson or FDR will be a challenge, but I suspect that the network is up to it.

"American Presidents: Life Portraits" is a natural for students at any level of schooling, but it should also be something adults turn to in order to refresh their knowledge of their nation's history, especially as we approach another presidential election. Maybe our deepened knowledge will help us elect another Lincoln and not another you-know-who.

(The series is seen weekly, often on Monday mornings, with related material sprinkled throughout the week's schedule. On Friday evenings, C-SPAN gathers all the programming into one bundle in case you missed something or forgot to tape it. For a complete schedule of shows, visit the website mentioned above.)

(04-22-99) [[In-content Ad]]