The American President: Family Ties

The last thing that the Founding Fathers envisioned was a hereditary chief executive. Afterall, they had fought a war in part to rid themselves of a king. Yet, power inevitably passes from generation to generation, and several families have returned to the White House as though born to it. The stories of the four men profiled in this episode (John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy) reveal both the blessings and the curses of inherited power.