industries including personal computing, video games and biotechnology. then on booktv's "after words" at 10, second circuit court of appeals judge jon newman details his career in the judicial system in an interview by connecticut senator richard blumenthal. and we wrap up at 11 with daniel ellsberg talking about his experiences as a nuclear war planner in the early 1960s. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. 72 hours of nonfiction authors and books this weekend. television for serious readers. first up, robert merry on president mckinley. ♪ ♪

[applause] >> so good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the kansas city public library. robert merry is -- this is his second presentation in the somewhat hallowed halls of the kansas city public library, five-star library this week from library journal. thank you. [applause] he's a graduate of the university of washington. he has a master's degree from columbia university school of journalism. he's been a reporter for the observer, "the wall street journal," managing editor, executive editor and editor-in-chief of congressional quarterly, and more recently the editor of the national interest and the american conservative.

the american conservative has, he says it's collaborative, but it sounds a lot like robert merry. this is a description of their philosophy. we believe in constitutional government, fiscal prudence, sound monetary policy to, clearly delineated borders, protection of civil liberties, authentically free markets and restraint in foreign policy mixed with diplomatic acuity. we adhere closely to our institutional maxim, ideas are radiology, principles over party. one could wish there were more of that kind of true conservativism wandering around the beltway than some who profess to be conservatives. he's also the author of books on those ultimate journalistic insiders, stuart and josephal sup. he's written the sands of empire and analysis and also something of a lament for american foreign policy. and latterly, a country of vast designs, a rehabilitation of james polk, president james polk, and now president

mckinley, architect of the american century. with both polk and mckinley, he makes their case for the importance of their expansion of america, polk in the geographical sense of extending our boundaries further than anyone than thomas jefferson in the louisiana purchase, and mckinley in the non-colonial imperialism -- i quote him -- that did bring us geographical expansion with the annexation of hawaii, with the acquisition of puerto rico. but more importantly, the expansion of american power, concern and engagement as a world power manifested in the spanish-american war, the battles in cuba and the battles in the philippines and the control over cuba and the philippines for an extended period of time. the open door in china and the vast expansion of the american economy. polk has been called the most successful president in that what he proposed to do as

president -- incorporate california, oregon, texas, reduce the tariff and reinstate the independent treasury, you can see me after class to explain that one -- [laughter] were all accomplished. he is the only president who saw his entire program written into law. he's also called one of our most morally degraded because of the shenanigans associated with the mexican war which made part of that program possible. robert merry sides with the diagnosis of him as a successful politician. with mckinley, he gives us a more subtle case that there was a less overt but perhaps just as important program of the president to give the united states a new place in the international stage. the only stated program of the mckinley campaign for president was on the tariff with which he was, more than anyone else, identified, the high tariff. historians have had a hard time discerning foreign policy in his plans, but merry makes a strong case that he was the guide who gave us empire, and it wasn't

lodge or roosevelt or admiral he hand or john hay, but the deliberate, very subtle mastery of william mckinley. this book is a continuation of an ongoing effort of robert merry to reverse the trend of contemporary academics to, i quote him, devour our heritage through an act pronistic moralizing from the safe distance of the ivory tower. he's created a sympathetic character study of one of the architects of the american century. ladies and gentlemen, robert merry. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, crosby. thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be here, and it's a great pleasure to see all of you here. this is actually my third time at this library, and i've spoken at a number of libraries. not a lot of five star libraries, so congratulations on

that. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> yes, thank you. he didn't mean to. so i entitled my introduction to this volume on mckinley "the mystery of william mckinley." and i was pleased to see that "the wall street journal" sort of picked up on that in writing a headline over its review of my book. which, by the way, was very favorable. that's my effort to emulate donald trump -- [laughter] and i have to say that i didn't set out to solve the mystery of william mckinley for the simple reason that i didn't really know there was a mystery. unit understand mckinley -- i didn't understand mckinley well enough to understand there's something strange, there's something mysterious about him. and it can be explained in perhaps two sentences which is given all the consequential things that happened on his

presidential watch, why does he not rise higher in america's historical consciousness of today? or put another way, given the fact that he was such a sort of non-flamboyant, undramatic personage, how did all those consequential things happen on his presidency? so as i got into the project, i have to say that the guy started driving me crazy, because i had a hard time getting a handle on him. he was not a forceful man, and yet all these things happened on his presidency. and i was having a hard time sort of bringing this to life. the historical consensus on him was that, yeah, yeah, okay, big things happened on his watch, yeah, fine. but he didn't have anything to do wit. he was just president. and that didn't really strike me as being totally credible. that's what i call the leaf in the wind theory of william mckinley. an example is a book by alan

lichtman and ken desell, 13 keys of the presidency. it's not just about mckinley, it's about how the presidency works. but they have a chapter on mckinley, and they write that he enjoyed, quote: one of the more successful incumbencies in american history. but then they add that he found himself, quote: benefiting in part from circumstances beyond his control. and there's the rub. beyond his control. he was seen as less than the sum of his deeds. and what struck me also was in the academic polk which i've written and talked about here in this hall some years ago that in those polls he comes in not exactly sort of middle-average, maybe upper average. he comes in at, like, 60-- 16th,

15th, maybe 14th, often he's below chester arthur who was a caretaker president, pretty good one given his background with the machine of new york. but nevertheless, a caretaker or president. martin van buren who was a failed president who presided over a terrible recession, depression that he couldn't control. rutherford hayes who became president on the basis of one of the great stolen election scandals of our history. grover cleveland, who as we all know was the only president who served two nonconsecutive terms. he was rejected by either his party or the voters by each, thus making him the only two-time one-term president in our history. [laughter] and john quincy adams who was swept away in a populist wave at the behest of andrew jackson.

so the mystery deepens when we think about what happened on his watch. and i'm going to urge you to not think of what i'm about to sort of tick off as just, just bullet points on a piece of paper, but think about the political drama likely to attend many of these things. well, he led us into a war with spain in 1898. it ended up being a huge success. it was a three month war. we destroyed the spanish empire, essentially. in the process, we destroyed two spanish fleets, their atlantic and pacific fleets. we became an empire by acquiring from spain puerto rico, guam and the philippines. we liberated cuba in the caribbean. we could have kept it also, but we'd already made a commitment that we wouldn't. he kicked spain out of the caribbean and turned the caribbean into an american lake. for good measure, he acquired hawaii through negotiation and

acquisition -- annexation. he set in motion the events that led eventually -- i saw the display outside -- to the panama canal, and t.r. gets an awful lot of credit for that. and he deserves it, but it was really mckinley who reversed a policy of his predecessor, cleveland, who was an anti-exspanksist and said, no, no, we're going to move on this canal and set in motion the studies and the actions and the planning that led to the canal. he brought about the open door to china which basically saved china from being carved up by the industrial powers, european and japanese powers. he created the concept of trade reciprocity which when i was covering trade policy in the 1980s when it was a hot issue for "the wall street journal," reciprocity was really what was then called sort of fair trade it's make it even so that we can

have these exchange of goods back and forth across borders. he crafted the concept of noncolonial imperialism which i believe ultimately was picked up by franklin roosevelt when he was transforming the world through world war ii and putting america at the center of it. it was on his watch that we established the special relationship with britain just the previous couple of years earlier under the cleveland administration, we almost went to war with britain over a silly border dispute in south america. but after that, we never, ever had anything like that in terms of tensions with great britain because of this special relationship. and he created the gold standard, strict gold standard we tend to look down on these days. but in those days, it was a very, very big deal, and he ran when the currency issue was probably the hottest in our history. and he essentially solved that in his first term.

so this is a big collection of accomplishments or developments that occurred on his watch. and the question is to what extent does he deserve the credit. i myself came to conclude that the idea, the leaf in the win theory was a myth. and i set out to explode that myth in this book. i'll let you decide whether i succeed in that, and i'm happy to do that because you can't decide unless you buy the book. [laughter] so who was this man? born in 1843, he was the seventh of nine children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. he grew up in ohio, small town ohio, imbued with what you might call the ohio culture of the time which was a reflection of what people of those times, in those times considered christian

values of thrift, optimism, mod deathsty -- modesty, hard toil. his father ran and own toed blast furnaces around ohio, worked very, very hard. his mother had a strong sense of civic and religious duty. she was a very civic-minded person, she worked very hard for her church and her communities wherever they happened to be. they were in poland for most of the growing-up years of william. the mother was also imbued with those so-called christian values, and one of my favorite stories about her was she was taking a train to columbus later in her life to visit her son, the governor of ohio. the lady next to her struck up a conversation, are you going to columbus? yes, i am, she said. oh, do you have family there? i have a son there. that's all she said. she didn't feel any need to explain that her son was governor of the state. [laughter] so at 17 young william mckinley

goes off to college in pennsylvania. the first year he developed some kind of an illness, an ailment, and it never was quite explained or understood what it was, but he had to return to poland where he recuperated. but by the time he recuperated, he couldn't go back to college because economic difficulties had rendered a need for all of the family members to go to work. so he got two jobs. he was a schoolteacher, he was like 17 at that time, 18, and he was a postal clerk. and then comes the civil war. i can't say that he enlisted immediately. he gave himself two days to think it over and sort of try to figure out with his cousin whether this was the right thing to do. his family was very, very strong abolitionists, his mother particularly. she subscribe ised to loris greeley's -- horace greeley's weekly tribune which you could get in the mail, and it reinforced that sentiment.

he and his cousin, william osborn, decided within a day and a half or so that they simply couldn't stay out of that war, and they enlisted. he had what i think i can accurately describe as a pretty amazing war record. he entered as a 18-year-old private. immediately, his commanding officer -- rutherford b. hayes, later president and great mentor of him, but rutherford hayes was an officer, became a general, was wounded five times in the war, became congressman, became governor and then became president. and hayes saw that this young man had a remarkable organizational ability. so he made him a sergeant and made him quartermaster sergeant. so he was sort of taking care of supplies. at the battle of antitam, the single most bloody battle in our history, he was two miles behind the lines because his job was to provide provisions, and he heard

about a unit that had gotten caught, trapped essentially in the area of the battle that they couldn't, they couldn't move, they couldn't get out, they couldn't -- nobody could get in to help them. and they were starving. and is they had -- and they had run out of water. the battle began very early in the morning, so they hadn't had breakfast. now it's late afternoon, they hadn't had lunch, and they'd run out of water well before noon. so these troops were in extreme mis. and young mckiply concocted -- mckinley concocted the idea of loading up a wagon with coffee and water and a few other things and getting that wagon to these troops. well, he'd have to go right through the battle to do it. he gets a friend or some other young soldier to help him load up the wagon and get in the wagon, and they head out through the surrounding forest. they encounter two officers who

say this is ridiculous, you can't do this, go back. but after they left, mckinley and his associate ignored it and went on. they got to the clearing, and then they made a run for it. bullets were whizzing by, cannonballs overhead and the back of the wagon was shot away, but they managed to get the provisions to these troops. god bless the lads, said one of the old veterans. he immediately, as a result of that, was promoted to commission, became lieutenant, and then he had -- i won't go into all of them, but he had other experiences somewhat like that in which he put himself very directly in harm's way, almost always voluntarily. and each time he got another promotion. so he ended the war as a, as a major, 22-year-old major. so he goes back to poland, he decides he wants to become a

lawyer, and he wants to run for congress like his mentor, rutherford hayes. and he sends a letter, kind of starry-eyed letter to hayes telling him that this is what he wants to do. basically what you did, sir. i want to do what you did. hayes writes him back and letter and -- a letter and says, yeah, that's pretty good. but, you know, frankly, with all this industrialization going on, i think maybe you should go into business. you could get yourself -- you could become a wealthy man by the age of 40 and really take care of your life. well, mckinley carefully preserved the letter, but he discarded the advice. he knew what he wanted. so he moves to canton, ohio, where his sister had become a schoolteacher, and after he becomes a lawyer and hangs out a shingle and becomes a civic leader in canton. he joined everything. he joined veterans groups, he joined the church, he joined the

chamber of commerce. and immediately, he was pulled up into positions of leadership. so there was something special about this guy that led people to turn to him for readership even though he was not a flamboyant person. and i have a little passage in my book here describing him after his civil war experience. and i think we see here in the book the first hint of what becomes an element of the mystery of william mckinley. so i write: the civil war transformed young william mckinley much as his father's white hot forges transformed iron into pig iron ready for more sophisticated uses. he went to the war with only a vague sense of who he was or what he would do with his life. he left the army an adult who had been severely tested in questions of intellect,

administrative ability, leadership and courage. he had passed these tests and demonstrated that men gravitated naturally to his side and that many older women were drawn into roles of solicitous mentorship. yet this new confidence and sense of self settled upon him softly, without ostentation or bravado. it meshed with the simplicity of temperament to produce a demeanor of heavy quiet. he learned the power of mystique, of leaving unsaid that which didn't need explicit expression, of keeping people guessing as to his intentions or motive. if this led some to underestimate his intellect or resolve, he didn't seem bothered by it. thus emerged some of the enigmatic elements of his persona shrouding an increasingly restless ambition. so he does run for congress. he becomes a congressman. he serves 14 years. he becomes chairman of the ways and means committee where he's in position to perch his pet

issue, tariffs, protectionism, high trade tariffs to protect american manufacturing and agriculture eventually at a time when america was burgeoning as a productive machine. and he even, as chairman of the ways and means, crafts a very high tariff bill, the mckinley tariff, they called it, of 1890. it turned out to be a bad move. the tariff didn't go into effect for quite some time, and a lot of businesses took the opportunity to raise prices because they were going to raise anyway everyone figured. the american people didn't like that very much. and the result was a disaster for republicans in the 1890 elections. and poor mckinley is sitting in his office as the returns are

coming in, disheveled, the office is all messed up with posters everywhere and papers and buttons, and he's sitting there smoking a cigar. in walks his good friend the editor of the newspaper, and the editor says it's all over. mckinley says nothing. what am i going to say in the newspaper? and mckinley sort of looks up with a pensive look on his face, and he says, in the time of darkest travail, victory is nearest. what? [laughter] he just, he just -- he couldn't get pessimistic about anything. it was congenitally impossible for him. [laughter] so he lost his seat, but a year later he runs for governor. he serves two two-year terms, and now he's ready to run for president of the united states. he begins his campaign in 1895.

his good friend and sort of the man who serve ises him so well, mark hanna -- a very successful industrialist of ohio, from cleveland -- he sends him to new york on a very important mission. he wants to find out from the big bosses, from tom plath of new york who basically owned the republican party in that state, matthew clay in pennsylvania who owned that state, had all the patronage, and he wanted to know them and their sort of lesser bosses who sort of worked under them if they would support mckinley. because if they did, he was a front-runner anyway, he probably would have the nomination sewed up. it wouldn't even be a battle. so hanna comes back to cleveland, and mckinley's there, and they have a nice dinner, and then they go into hanna's study lined with books, and they settle themselves into overstuffed leather chairs and light up their cigars. and hanna's pretty excited. he says, well, governor, it's all over but the shouting. these guys will all vote for

you. there are conditions. he didn't seem particularly disturbed by the conditions. mckinley says, well, what are they? he says, well, pat -- plath wants the patronage of new york, clay of pennsylvania, and natalie wants the whole of new england, and he ticks off a couple of others. yeah, and plath also wants to be treasury secretary. oh, and he wants it in writing. and it seems that eight years earlier at the beginning of the harrison administration he had gotten a similar commitment from harrison for his support, but the treasury secretaryship never materialized. so he wanted a promissory note. mckinley sort of looks ahead, puffs on his cigar. he stands up and walks a couple of steps back and forth, and he turns to mark and says, mark, there are some things in life that come at too high a price. if that's the price, it's worth nothing to me and less to the american people. if that's the case, i'm out of it. hold on, governor, hold on, says, hanna.

i'm just saying we could sew it up tomorrow, but we don't need to, we can beat these guys. and that's what they had to do because clay and platte and these guys were so upset that they went to other various politicians in various states and got them to try to become the favorite sons in those states so they could deny mckinley a first ballot nomination in which case they thought maybe they could pull up somebody else who would play their game and pay the price. but he beat them. he beat them and became nominee. and then he had to go up against william jennings bryan. well, you know this story. william jennings bryan, i didn't realize, was 63 years old -- 36 years old. he had two terms in the house. he lost that seat. he ran for the senate and lost. and he was one of the greatest orators of our history. and we all know that the, he got himself on this platform, the podium at the democratic convention, and he gave this

famous cross of gold speech. you shall not press that cross, the throne -- throne of thorns upon our head, and he filtered his fingers across his face like blood trickling down. you shall not crucify us with a cross of cold. and the convention went wild. and the reason was the country was in extremes. the rural areas were really suffering. there was not enough liquidity, in their view, and so what they needed was the free coinage of silver, and that was what their rallying cry was. and hanna became the man who was going to lead that charge, and he did. he got on trains and he crisscrossed the country, and he was all over the place. he was spending amazing amounts of time, he would have days in which he would get up, and his first speech would be at seven

in the morning, and his last at 10:00 at night. mckinley couldn't compete with that. for one thing, he had a wife who was infirm, and we can talk about that maybe in q&a, because it's pretty interesting, and and i'm going to try to keep this thing going. she was somewhat infirm, and he didn't want to take her on a whistlestop tour or leave her in canton or washington. so he concocted this famous front porch strategy. 750,000 americans came to canton, ohio, and lined up and came and spoke with the governor and his, at his -- as he's standing on his front porch. they destroyed his yard, by way, but who cares? laugh and it was amazing effort. you know what we say in politics, control the message? well, mckinley controlled the message because the various groups, it could be a church

group or a labor group or an african-american organization or various things wanted to come, and they'd send a letter saying we'd like to come, and this day works for us if it works for you. he had all these people, and then they'd send back a letter and say, well, what are you going to say? what's your point you want to make? so he knew exactly what they were going to say, and all the reporters from all over the country were there taking notes, and he basically -- it was all somewhat quasi-orchestrated. well, it worked. and he became president. so now i'm going to step back, and i'm going to try to describe what kind of a man he had, that had emerged through these experiences starting with the civil war and that sort of sense of self that he developed as a result of his success in the war. so he seemed on the outside to

be, well, a very pleasant person, congenial. he didn't seem to be a man of force. and a lot of people wondered whether he was really a leader. he was an incrementalist in terms of the way he managed things. he didn't, he didn't try to push too hard, and i will say that he was not a visionary.

>> and this gave him a great deal of sort of subterranean force is that heavy quiet that i was talking about. on top of that it had an iron will beneath surface and he always seemed to get his way somehow. and sometimes he did it by convincing people to do what he wanted them to do but thinking that it was their idea. a lot in his time and who was his work secretary later he said that he got his way in part because didn't care who got the credit it wasn't important to him at all unlike pr and he had a close friend he said i don't think he let anything stand in the way of his own advancement. and who was the wife of very

prom innocent hawaiian politician at this time and inti more often an adversary talk about the masks that he wore and he was pleasant fellow. he was jean generous spirited, but behind those mask was this iron will and desire to succeed. my example from ohio congressman by ben, i'm sorry -- ben butterworth, butterworth i came across him in the mark hannah papers because they were very, very close friends and a lot of letters you can see they were close and i initially concluded that butterworth must be part of that in ohio that

clustered around anna and mckinley but became clear because i got more into these letters that butterworth hannah was weary of mckinley, and then it came across a washington post article of which butterworth was talking about mckinley, and he uses a kind of illustration -- and an idea how to operate it. he said, why if virginia and i were walking through an orchard one beering tree and that tree had about two apples, he would walk around that tree and pick two apples put one in his pocket and turn to me and say ben do you like apples butterworth is trying to say was he was very congenial but seemed to get the

apples. [laughter] and he -- as he managed by the direction from the shadows. so i'm going to -- talk a little bit about some of the element examples of the mckinley that emerged in big ways during his presidency. and one would from war, now thek on mckinley and i'm going to talk briefly later about why i think he doesn't -- what has kept him from having a reputation that i believe he deserves. but the book on mckinley is what he didn't really want to go to war with spain and the american people in congress basically thrust him against his will towards war that he didn't want. my -- my view is that he study this carefully and you understand

mckinley you realize this isn't what happened at all. when mckinley was elected it was a terrible, very, very direction going on in cuba. indigenous folks wanted independence from the spanish. and this had been going on there had been a previous tenure direction that claim hundreds of thousands of lives i can't remember exactly maybe 200,000, and they had several finally but now it had sort of reemerged. and it was destabilizing the caribbean. it was putting americans who were trying to do business many cuba at risk. it was -- it was not -- it was also opening up the possibility that other european powers could see chaos and come in and tape over cuba which would be the last thing united states would want. one thing to have a fading power like spain in cuba, inned caribbean which we considered the influence there is a legacy

imperial power. but to have germany say or o some other european power come in would be that's unattainable and so -- there was a great deal of -- anguish in congress around the country most of it based on humanitarian ground not ye yo political factor but that was a factor as well. and -- mckinley comes in to the presidency and take over from it shall global cleveland, global cleveland had favored spanish over the kuhns not because he like the spanish because he he was a cool guy and he wanted sability so his u view was as soon as spain could sort of put down this direction he could go back to the status quo and everything would be stable and we'll be fine. not very realistic he rejected that out of hand from almost from day one, and from day one he concluded i think, the records very clear if you study

carefully, he want stay out of the caribbean he wanted spain out of cuba. but he didn't want to go to war and do it if he could avoid that war so what did he do? opened up -- a negotiation with a -- a sort of a program of the diplomacy with spain and spain realizes you know america is becoming a pretty powerful country and this is our neighborhood, and it would be very is difficult if they went to war with us and didn't want a war with us, and so they entered into diplomacy as well but pretty soon they could see that mckinley his diplomacy was behind this ability and glove with with an iron fist. and he was essentially saying to them, we want, we want this war to end. we don't care how you to it. you can -- win it. or you can negotiate an end to it and that means more economy

in the direction the kuhns would accept that but they seem to want that but that's a possibility. but you can bug out but you have to get this well over because it's destabilizing the region and it's unattainable and people won't put up with it for much long sore you can't talk to us like that. we're a sovereign country. belong to us. doesn't matter how close it is to your shores. no, no. butt out they essentially said, and -- mckinley never waiverred. he just kept pushing. they got more and more angry and who knows what would happen if that battleship had not blown up into that. what harbor but the fact that that battleship was there, also to mckinley's resolve that he was going to make sure that this

spanish out of the caribbean because he -- offense oively it was to protect american live it is that might be at risk as a result of his direction because spanish people in cuba were getting increasingly angry at america. but nevertheless, it did blow up and then war became inevitable. another example is hawaii. we have to understand amaze story, and it's not a particularly entirely -- story about americans. but hawaii a place for americans for decades and forever countries as well. but ultimately, people with america with from america settled there and they were there for generations mostly running sugar plantations, getting fabulously wealthy in the process. and pretty soon they have so

much financial power that they felt they should are political power to go with it, and they ended up ending -- the royalty that had been governing and presiding over the hawaiian islands for decades. centuries. and that happened on -- been to harrison watch cleveland was very upset about it and he contemplated going in there and rewarding people from the government but he didn't want to war and want americans fighting american or former americans and so that was a state of play. mckinley again -- rejected the policy of his predecessor, and made it very clear through some train i diplomacy he liked some diplomacy. that he was very interested in

acquiring through an accusation and americans in cuba wanted that also but there was generated a lot of anti-expansion in congress and in other places. intellectual and mark twain and others -- and but he never waiverred. he got the negotiation, he sent it to congress. he couldn't get it through the senate as a treaty so didn't give up. he senate went back to congress as a -- a -- as to be dealt with by both houses didn't acquire a two-thirds vote in the majority vote in both houseses and that's how we got hawaii. and then there was a philippines. he -- went when the spanish sued for peace after three months of that

war, he basically said okay, fine. i'm more than happy to negotiate a peace treaty. but here, here's the deal. spain has to leaf cuba not going to take. take it temporarily but it will be independent spain has to leave puerto rico came out of nowhere but he had concurred puerto rico. and spain had to give us in the pacific turn out to be guam. and that has to happen before we lose the negotiations. and that's really tough diplomacy. and then he basically said after the philippineses which he had essentially acquired we took over after admiral dewey he destroyed the spanish in the the bay. he said, disposition of the philippines is u up to

negotiation. well, thank you mr. mckinley spanish was say -- they asked the -- back to the united states to operate in their and a half in imoasht for them gentleman by name of ken he said to mckinley can't really get anymore imloir than you've already gained in this war of yours. so i'm assuming jowl be very generous we found out he wasn't generous at all but then question was what was he going to do about the philippines? and while negotiations in paris were going on, peace tree hi negotiation he pondered it and concluded ultimately that he had to have a station because building this big global need, and couldn't have a global native without calling station or calling station without controlling territory around the globe and so -- he had to have a calling station and best place would be the bay.

but he couldn't really control the bay unless he had all of he was on, the island. and we had as rest of the philippines spain was not going to be able to keep phil pence and they hated the spanish. so now that they've been defeated, they weren't going to be able to go back in there so the question was who was going to be to have the philippines it wasn't the people unfortunately but it was going to have to be either us or going to be germany or some other european power but he was on the prowl for -- for colonies. and if germany had islands then it would not secure so they decided i'm taking the whole thing. i have him into the war as you know, very much like the vietnam war. and his direction, and it was a global war tear and it was very,

very difficult and figure for my view who ran in that direction by name of aur ultimately he was captured that kind of broke the back of the uncertainty but it went on for years into teddy roosevelt administration. so as i say -- that seems to be consequential presidency. so why down the he get more credit and get no respect? and might have been the greatest dean who ever came president whoever that guy did with his brain of his is pretty amazing. but -- he never shared credit with anybody. and he was self-absorbed even

his kids said that he longed to be the bride of every wedding. and the corpse at every funeral. [laughter] and -- in buffalo six months into the second term, teddy roosevelt immediately became president he said to the fact of i'm attend to govern just as my bred predecessor did and to that effect and two days he gets in the white house from buffalo and he's with reporters, and markets swoon until he didn't feel he had to say those things anymore and he said change govern and electors elected me as president and not mckinley. this was remarkable thing to be said. while mckinley was lying had in capital but roosevelt was

conscience of the narrative and puts himself at the center of the that aretive and over the succeeding deck kids his admiring geographic adoring biographers basically bought the narrative. and in their work as they sort of said wow, pr marvelous, incredible things but the foundation was laid by his predecessor. so -- in my view mckinley gets kind of the short end of the stick in terms of that interpretation. in describing this turn of events in this historical narrative building, i described tr and i'll quote a little bit from here. perpetwows valuable, amusing, prone to marking his territory with political defiance, roosevelt imagination of american people as mckinley

never so major solidify faced caution with a mind that moved and sudden impulses as they describe it. he took american people in a political roller coaster ride to many it was thrilling. there was thrilling and significant and it help defined america in the 20th century. but behind him was -- one mckinley who may be mysterious, but is a consequential president and i think perhaps he was even worth the three years of toil that i put in on his behalf. [laughter] thank you very much. i think we can have some questions. >> please come up to the microphone if you have a question so people at home watch ing our tv can hear you.

>> have you changed your with ranking of mckinley since your book where they stand? >> well to expand is not actually offer i don't offer my own ranking. i talk about what presidents have done and what constitutes that greatness and your greatness or immediate you you t answer of my own o estimation mckinley is yes it is highser and when i know both presidents who i consider to be failures or not particularly consequential i would put him above those people so you know i think he would preside in my -- in, you know, 11, 1 something like that maybe. i haven't really focused on where i put him directly. but somewhere around there. >> no more questions here we go.

can you talk about the inhaveanw that shaped mckinley american public compassion for him and the death of the children. >> to some point of the story, when mckinley moved to as a new lawyer he encountered after he had been there for a while and been to war and law school et cetera, he encountered young -- she was a daughter of -- a imrf by a precincting press by the pennsylvania. started the canton depository and her father went into mining and banking and other things and she -- u grew up she was quite lovely. she was a sparkling personality. she was in many ways -- and she had many, many but she

fixated on finally on mckinley and they were married over 1,000 people at the her wedding. at their wedding. according to the repository owned by her father exaggeration i don't know. but nevertheless it was a big wedding and bug a koition at the time he was just about, you know, leaving up in the politics. sort of a storybook thing so daughter arrived katy, and ab year later -- after that succeed daughter arrived she becomes pregnant with for the second time. during that pregnancy she learns that her mother is dying probably of cancer you know very, very close and it affected her greatly. but efnghted her pregnancy is not absolutely clear but she had a troubled pregnancy and her daughter lived only five monthses that sent her into a

tremendous -- depression. wasn't clear she could come out of it but coaxed her out of it and refuses to let go. and -- some time after that, her second daughter, first daughter katy died and then she went back into a terrible depression and during this time something else happened some described as a carriage accident but nobody knows exactly what happened. i suspect that she -- fell backwards and hurt her spine in some way because she became rather immobile sort of often confined to a wheelchair even when she wasn't she walked with a cane and in the white house walk down the stairs with a cane and had had a new elevator in the white house that didn't work much at time and so if it didn't work she would walk around stair but he would have to carry her up the stairs which he did. and then on top o of all of this, she developedded epilepsy

most days or considered kind of mental illness he didn't want anyone to know you were members of the jurily ill but seizures would come, and so it affected the marriage, it affected their lives. it affected iva tremendously. her father let her runt bank when he was traveling around on other business dutieses and as a young woman in her 20s she was running this bank. very unusual in this day and crochets and does other little things like that and she becomes rather sort of narrow if her outlook very devoted to her husband thinks her husband is greatest politician in history of america, and but she becomes somewhat peevish and somewhat had difficult and never waiverred in his devotion to her and he just basically accepted that. as -- just sorts of part of life.

so became kind of known is emerging as a national figure politically it became a -- it became an element of identity from mckinley the man who -- who took such good care of his troubled wife. and there are some people i don't i don't gain from this who suspect manipulated to some extent as a sort of political advantage. that's the story. >> the vice president what happened to him that tr was able to get on the ticket? in the third year of first term so result he didn't have a vice president for significant part of his first term. and tr meanwhile tr had been

his -- the secretary and wasn't sure he wanted to give tr that job he didn't know tr all that well but he knew that he tended to be sorts of impetuous as he said with to one good friends, and who is pushing for him to have that job. and they promised him that no, no tr will not do that but he's going to be controllable well he wasn't. but he did amazing thing when the war came, he, you know -- resign in office. he put together the rough riders and he did a courageous to the point of maybe insanity. when he ran up with called san juan hill but on the san juan ridge, and becomes along with george dewey one of the two great etion heros from that war

american people loved them and he knew exactly how to lay it. so when the second convention comes new 1900s convention just goes crazy for teddy. and it was juror couldn't be resisted, mark hannah didn't like tr or o trust him, and tried to resist and mckinley had to saned mote to him sayings it exist because -- you can't put me against the position of being in the convention so he becomes vice president. mark hannah sent a note after convention saying came out fine. he had to -- dplosh me but i'm happy with it. your job now is to live next four years and when he died, mark quoted as saying now that cowboy is going to be president of the united states. yes, sir. >> yes, sir i'm curious how

mckinley handled the confederacy at that time o.c. the south was still -- you know sort of in and out for the union. of course that brings up civil rightses something like that but hope policy towards far more confederate states. did he want them back? was he forgiving person? did it he want to reconcile at the south? and indirectly how did that approach the civil right positions? >> it is a very good question, and it can't be -- ignored. here's what i say about that doesn't have to go back to great mentor heys became president by making my call you know, a deal to end reconstruction and a lot of recent historians who are sort of and a terrible thing

because it kept after the american miss south down for the next 100 years. but the the deal was essentially look, and back together, and it's not going to be easy. and so we're going to just probably going to have to sacrifice for a period of time. now heys mckinley they were abolitionists they were -- they were liberal on civil rights but they cut that had deal. and so by mckinley was president he was concerned about bringing sections back together and to walk off a great deal. now, drawing a blank now but he got one of the great southern generals -- yeah, thank you. and and when he was in cuba, and

they got spanish on the run, he gets kind of loses -- he kind of lost sight of where he was and said, we've got the -- we got the yankees on the run. with they weren't yankees, they were spanish. but his -- he -- his position towards african-americans ended up being what i would call patronizing, and you can -- you can worse words you can use and i wouldn't gain for those words but the basic but he had a good relationship with african-american organizations and he praised hem for working so hard under difficult circumstances. you people are doing wonderful things you know keep at it. but he wasn't lifting hiss finger for them and ultimately -- towards the end of this presidency some of these groups were becoming quite agitated against him. one quick follow-up was one of

the -- was in his cab met former southern -- >> no. he -- he wanted to get to somebody who was a southerner ended up getting into one person that was sort of assumed to be sympathetic to the south was from maryland that was as far south as he got into turning cabinet. >> yes, sir. >> who would be the politicianid said was most similar to mckinley? >> i would say eisenhower, in fact, i see -- very significant parallel between eisenhower and mckinley and greene seen wrote the book called hidden hand presidency about how eisenhower managed from the shadows and who managed by indirection and people thought that he was bubbling and he didn't want to explain something he would become inarticulate and everyone said, especially stevenson backers

would say this guy -- can't even express himself. but it was all -- with a purpose. and i think that that is somewhat the way mckinley operated so i think those two people are quite similar. >> sir. >> for the questions first is -- you mentioned mckinley -- real relationship to imperialism or empire in 1898 there was an anti-imperialist league william james harvard professor was strongly gifted imperialism many thinking you say something about mckinley and how he reacted to that criticism. on imperialism, and then the other question was about his assassination buzz he started to learn about that. >> well, yes indeed there was a very strong anti-imperialist way of sentiment merge in america mark twain involved in it.

various other o people prominence karl and mckinley was somewhat some of the people were friends of his, but he never -- he never took personally any of the turmoil politics. and so -- he you also -- had sort of upped disants of the president talking to american people he traveled a lot and made a lot of speeches some of them designed to be major policy traceses. and he would explain what the policy was and why he had done it. so he had decision and particularly bad when had foreign affairs got bad with the philippine intersection, and heaved on his defensive. but he --

he had part of the great american defeat. that nation he went to he was supposed to be -- at the great pan american exposition in buffalo in the spring. of 1901 but with he was traveling in california part of the -- part of that policy he had or that practice of traveling around giving speeches, explaining himself to the american people he that was very important. one of the things that led one of his -- academic biographers to suggest that he was the first modern president among other o things. but nevertheless, i think that, twod a infection that got into her blood and she almost died and they went immediately right back to washington as soon as they were in san francisco. on their way to washington state, but they never ahead it. so his appearance was to

postpone to fall of september so that's what leon -- got the idea of assassinating him but mckinley was very realistic about maybe part of the optimism of his about the prospect that anybody could basically harm the president so he would talk openly with people secret service people went crazy. but he didn't worry about it very much. and so had his hand many kind of a ban dodge in the slain like he'd been injured. left him and put a pistol in his chest and fired point-blank. did not penetrate are very much but mckinley went back on his heel and fire the a second time and went into his abdomen. lied there -- they couldn't find the bullet. they operated. but rather quickly they couldn't find the bullet but concluded

that looking for it was probably more dangerous than leaving it. and so they did. and it was recuperating nicely but i didn't know if they didn't understand infection and those things, and that emerged and then that took him down and i think he laughed in less than two weeks of a assassination before he died. yeah. i believe that's it. >> thank you very, very much. [applause] will be signing the book in the hall, thank you.

book tv has coveredded many biographies most recently wife hoover american about president graduate by ronald white. and herbert hoover in the white house by charles, if presidential history is a topic that interest you, visit booktv.org, and search presidential biography book. several programs will appear and you can watch them all online. booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you tweet us, twitter.com/booktv or post a comment on our facebook page facebook.com/booktv. >> often in our lives the

illusion of information is actually far more dangerous than ignorance. so -- the way they'll put this this is he'll say that trust has two memes, not one. the first is bad character. and the second is poor information. so the question that i decided to ask myself in my research was how can a technology address these problems? is technology making us smarter about who we trust or is it encouraging us to place our trust in the wrong people on the wrong places? so are we, in fact, giving our trust away to the wrong thing and is technology playing role in that? why don't i think this is such an important question? all right so let's -- did a very quick exercise you can kind of see where this is going, so i'm going to give you a boo -- it is going to sound loud many this church right, and you can use what boo for the person you think is the least trustworthy.

okay so when i say their name you boo if you think you get one boo right so it if you think harvey weinstein is the least trustworthy person on this life say boo now. one boo. [laughter] okay if you think president trump is the least trustworthy person on this slide say now. >> boo -- okay. now i don't know if you know who had is sofia the robot and she is the first robot that has citizenship she's made a citizen of saudi arabia. and now if you think sofia is the least trustworthy person on this slide say boo now. okay so the robot is more trustworthy than the president of the united states. we don't need to worry about that right now. so let's do this in reverse. you're now you can clap. so i would like you to clap for company that you think is most trustworthy so if google is most trustworthy company on this slide clap now.

i describe that concern but facebook who thinks facebook is the most trustworthy company on had slide no one. okay amazon? [applause] so i think amazon and google were -- i don't know maybe amazon was slightly ahead. but a rubbish exercise but i made you do it because i thought maybe rachel el trust them to do what? and this is a really important point and it is something is that i find very hard when i open up the miewps or miewp or listen to media is way we're talking about the trust is in general, general terms it is very is dangerous. which is -- you know, we can trust that trump wheat something ridiculous at 9 a.m. but not negotiate with north korea but we can trust that harvey weinstein can make great movie but don't trust his behavior necessarily around

women. and amazon is really interesting right so when people i think when they say that they trust amazon they say -- they say that they have confidence that when they make an order online those will show up. they don't necessarily trust them to pay taxes -- or to treat their employees well. so this is the first thing that i would like you to think about is when we're talking about trust is to keep in mind that in our own lives but also when we're talking about institutions and leaders and individuals, that trust is highly con tech chul. you can trust me hopefully to write an article or to teach students do not get in the car with me because i'm a terrible driving. you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. [inaudible conversations]