but i think she got because of the death of both daughters and certainly the assassination of william mckinley, it caused her to want the memorial for mckinley. and, the white house first lady's home is actually -- it was her home, did you know that? it absolutely is, the first lady's museum is her home and it's a beautiful, beautiful structure. i think hillary clinton inaugurated the home back in the day . >> so, if one were to look at that period of time, it was a time of great disruption and technological change and industrial change, a lot of parallels to today. so going through the digital revolution, challenges with immigration like there were at that time, the purpose of studying history is to help us understand our time today, what would you take away from the mckinley air that people can help to understand the time we are going through? >> i think i like you said, the technological advances and we were just expanding at rapid speeds and money was being poured into the country for industrial expansion. i think we can learn from that and that today we can take the strides to make sure t

and i think a lot of times, sadly enough, both grover cleveland and william mckinley are often forgotten. but through books that are written about both, and especially mckinley, and you remember karl rove's book about we mckinley, i think he is revered but in times past he has ften been forgotten. and my hope is that through the course of time and the great efforts of the white house historical society which jacqueline kennedy founded in 1961, through those efforts with education, preservation and legacy, learning about those presidents, they will certainly be remembered. and i'm trying very hard to do that. host: we visited the mckinley memorial in canton, ohio. what a structure. tell our audience how that came to be. massee: the william mckinley memorial back in the day, people revered him, and you know the significance about the roses they wore back in the day, when he was assassinated. but the citizens of ohio, especially since several were assassinated, thought it would be fitting to come together and ctually create a memorial to his legacy and his memory. and he is probably, in my

, i'm the great great-nephew of william mckinley in the great great grandson of grover cleveland

president. , to william's side mckinley. i am the great great-nephew of mckinley and great great grandson of grover cleveland. >> how do those families get together? >> happenstance. my parents married and the two became one. >> for your parents aware of their lineage? >> i have no clue. my father was a longtime history professor at you ga, during the course of time, we talked about presidential politics and descendents and i learned so many stories about those families from those conversations. >> the two are very different, aren't they? with the family menu bear, mckinley. what do you want people to know about him? what is the most important thing? >> everybody remembers he was assassinated in buffalo. the most important thing, i tonk, and a book has brought light, is how powerful of an impact his presidency gave the because we had an industrial revolution, expansion around the world, tremendous growth. sadly, grover, cleveland and mckinley are forgotten. through books that are written about both, especially mckinley, and

grover cleveland and william mckinley. so, which one do you like better? >> it depends on the day. and who is in the audience and who you're talking to. because both, i think, are two of the greatest. >> let's talk about grover cleveland. he married someone who was the youngest first lady ever, right? >> correct. 21 years old and beautiful. francis fulton cleveland. >> how old was he? >> probably about 30 to 40 years old or so, a lot older. i think he was 48 when they married. >> okay. and he served two terms, but not consecutively. >> correct. >> is their presidential memorabilia that you have in your family as a result? >> i do. i have a ton of letters. i was talking to george cleveland who is here today. he is the grandson of grover cleveland and we were talking about that today. there are a lot of letters that exist. a lot of letters he wrote. he is a voracious reader and writer. there are a ton of letters our family has accumulated over the years. he wrote a dozen a day. >> have you ever heard the story where president reagan, before he was inaugurated, but after he was electe

of the next day william mckinley in bold script wrote, approved a lot of his signature. the date was july 7, 1998-- 1898. [applause]. i would like to introduce the person who is here with me, he is the latest of several outstanding hawaii and the scholars including doctor john nazario to get phd's respectively in history and he is political. they have none did me in the previous subtitling of my book. the previous subtitle of my book was: the annexation of hawaii. because annexation legality and mutuality between nations i met moved to say the subtitle was inaccurate in terms of copies of english and semantics and the new subtitle is the american occupation of hawaii. last line, doctor wright's the challenge for the fields of political science, history and a law is to distinguish between the rule of law and politics of power. [applause]. >> i have a phd in political science and specialize in international relations and public law, in particular hawaiian kingdom, constitutional constitutional administrative also. i have a book coming out. my dissertation is being publishe

mainly because he wanted a big war against mention doe expand the country to the pacific, or william mckinley in the 1890s, the american ship "the maine" was sunk off havana. we went into a big war against spain. turns out it was a boiler accident, not thanish. >> woodruff: why is the decision to go to war so important to you i understanding these presidents? >> that's what the founders were worried about more than anything else when they wrote the consertution. theyworried the presidents would be like the kings of surope to contrive fake war when they were unpopular to unite the country and make them a lot more popular than ey ha been before. the idea of the constitution was that presidents would have almost nothing to do with the ddeclaring of war an you look at 200 years later, prenosidents days can get us into wars almost single-handedly.>> oodruff: and how were they able to do that? you're right, the founders tried to make it hard to do, but they found a way to get around tha >> presidents basically now will ask for wars and not even go to for instance, the constitution says you have to

this is william mckinley of monticello. he works in customer service and he has a western. -- a question. >> who is your role model in politics and white? >> for this one, we start with mrs. brenton again. >> thank you. roleften torn by who is my mali in politics because there are so many people you can my role model in politics because there are so many people you can admire. i admire president lincoln. why? him, mr.aid to president, you have to destroy our enemies. he said madam, i will destroy my enemies by making them my friends. is there anyone worth admiring? worthst politician admiring was john f. kennedy. he stood up and said come you know what, we are the greatest country in this world and we will put a man on the world in 10 years. we don't know how we are going to do it, but we know we will do it. the kind of -- that is of aspirational leadership that i aspire. me that, mr.tell braun, you should have gotten the first go on that. why don't you go ahead? >> role models, i am doing this for the outside. when you hav

primetime on c-span3, a conversation with descendants of president's gerald ford, hare radiotruman, william mckinleynson and theodore radios veltd. they share their family's stories at the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts in washington. you can see that tonight starting at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3. >>> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, indiana university bloomington professor steven andrews on conspiracy culture in american history and how conspiracy theories changed over time. >> now, is it a problem in america that people have a secret society at yale, and with yale's connection to the intelligence community is it a problem that they gather in places that are defined as secret, the bohemian grill, right? is it a problem they are there without press, meeting and chatting? maybe, maybe not? is it a problem that they put on robes on one of the first days and have a ceremony in front of a giant statue of an owl in which they burn a human effigy in a ceremony called the cremation of care? i mean, so it's weirder, righ

the white house historical association next we interview a descendent from over cleveland and william mckinley. this is just over 15 minutes. we are talking to you at the white house historical -- associations presidential summit in washington, d.c.. you work with the organization and are the descendents of two presidents. on my maternal side to grover cleveland, the 22nd and 24th u.s. president. on my fath'