> >> h week, american history tv's america" brings you archival films that tell the story of the 20th century. predicting the post walter -- world war ii growth of severed, the next film argued that modern cities are not healthy and plan communities would see -- clean

air are a better option. about 56%ity was made of the u.s. population lived in urban areas. it was 80% as of the 2010 census. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ >> a century or two ago, we built our church. unmarked the common out and raise the town halls so we could have our say about the taxes. or whether we need another tutor for the school. when town meeting comes around we know our rights and duties , and no harm if we disagree. in we neighbors hold together in all that matters, all that matters. we work from sun to dark. if you can call work a job that helps make a body feel at peace 12 doing it. art is not something foreign that we look at in a case. -- showcase. it is in the blankets we have spun and woven at home. it's in the patchwork quilt sewn by eric daughters were someone's bridal chest. it is in the locks and hinges that the blacksmith shapes. it is in the woven baskets.

when waterwheels are better fitted to do the work than human hands, we rig up the machines. to solve the would or grind the corn for hominy grits and johnny cake. a while ago, that corn was on the stock above the pumpkins bright and yellow. -- write and yellow. ripe and yellow. neighbors did the job in no time so they could clear the barn floor and choose their favorite partners for the dances. there was lasting harmony between the soil and what we planted there. we used our hands and mastered what we laid our hands on. working and living we found a , balance. the town was us and we were part of it. we never let cities grow too big for us to manage. we never push the open land too far away. we youngsters took it in. the field, the middle, the daily chores were teachers. we old ones have good years of family life, our own, our

children, mellow years before the ripe fruit fell. as fruit will drop from windless autumn days. that was peace. the seed was ready for the earth again. ready to die, ready once more to grow. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> chains, inventions, power. forget the quiet, bring in the steam and steel. open throttle all aboard. , the promised land. pillars of smoke by day and pillars of fire by night. pillars of progress. machines to make machines. already made. in times and carload lots enough , for 10,000, millions, faster and faster, better and better. ♪ it does not make us any happier to know there are millions like us living here.

prisons for a guy who commits a crime can get a better place to live than we can give our children. smoke makes prosperity, they tell you. smoke makes prosperity, no matter if you choke on it. we got to face life in these shacks and alleys and let our children take their chances here with typhoid or worse. they draw a blank, the kids. they have no business here, this no man's land. this slag heap was not meant for them. poison in the air we breathe. poison in the river. the fog and smoke chokes us. [train whistle]

don't tell us this is the best you can do in building cities. who built this place? what put it here? -- what put us here? how do we get it out again? we are asking, just asking. might as well stay in the mills and call that home. it is just a fit to live in. coal, load the furnace, grow the steel, dry the rivets. we lock the bolt on the assembly line. lucky if we have a chance to keep a job from day to day, month to month. ♪

♪ ♪ the dirty work alone don't get us down. we're not ashamed to handle coal and iron all the way from mine shafts to skyscrapers. we turn out cars and tractors we are mighty proud of, same as you. how does that make sense? sense? ♪ we never get the gritty feel out of our nose, her eyes, our lungs. we never get a chance to see how blue the sky can be unless the

mills are all shut down. smoke makes prosperity, they say. this mean there is no way out for us? there must be something better. why can't we have it? a decent home? ♪ ♪ follow the crowd, it get the big money. follow the crowd, we have reached one million, 2 million, 5 million. it is new and automatic, sterilizes in one operation without human hands. what am i bid? what am i offered? who is next? follow the crowd to the fashion city, the windy city, the imperial city.

-- the empire city. the people, perhaps. ♪ >> very truly yours, most sincerely. >> we beg to remain yours most respectfully. >> dear sir -- [voices murmuring] ♪

>> who is on call? >> dr. nichols? >> another street case. compound fracture of the tibia. >> cannot locate dr. liebman. >> try the eighth floor. >> crushed leg. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> internal hemorrhage, ruptured spleen. >> yes, doctor. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ >> science takes flight at last as this new age builds a better kind of city close to the soil. planes are shaped for speed. new cities take form, green cities. they are built into the countryside.

they are ringed with trees and fields and gardens. new cities are not allowed to overcrowd. the new city is organized to make operations possible between the machines and nature. each has its place. safe streets are quiet neighborhoods are built into the pattern and built to stay there. power flashes from pinheads and streams across the region and it flows from powerhouses to factories and laboratories. science serves the worker and i worked together making machines more automatic and the men who govern them more human. factories are set apart from looking quarters. there close to rail and motor roads with space to spread about. like industries are near at hand in the heavy ones are set apart and people can even walk to work and have their lunch at home sometimes. this is no suburb where people play at living in the country. the city speaks to cooperation.

we're doing things together means cheapness or efficiency are better living each house is , grouped with other houses. close to the school, the public meeting hall, the movies. around these green communities, a belt of public land preserves their shape forever the children , need the earth for playing and growing. bringing the city into the country, ringing the parks and gardens back into the city, never letting cities grow too big to manage. this works as well for modern living as it did in old new england towns. ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ >> we live a decent kind of life. we fathers have little time to watch our kids and play with them. they see us in the daytime. the people who laid out this place did not forget that air and sunshine are what we need for growing, whether it is flowers or babies, just watch us grow. scales won't hold us soon. we learn by living.

you cannot tell where the playing ends and the working begins. we mix them here. playground, schools, libraries are meant for everyone. given the washing need an brick woman's back. machines can take it. the wife need not feel cooped up and lonely on washing day. a little gossip or a friendly hand is good for the complexion. the daily marketing is part of the fun. the market is in annex to the kitchen. another chance to chat about the children or the weather or some new wrinkle in the diet the grandma never knew. one thing is sure most of the - green is brought in by truck by nearby farms. they are fresh and crisp and have not lost their flavor. in this new scheme of things the , school becomes the focus of the community. here boys and girls live the , life around them, giving the measure of our bigger world. and shipping it a new. city and schools an active partnership.

provide the raw materials for life and growth. here boys and girls achieve a , balanced personality ready to build and meet the world, facing a good and bad, choosing the best. ♪ ♪

you take your choice. each one is real each one is , possible. shall we think deeper? think in old grooves paying for , blight with human misery. or have we vision and courage? shall we build and rebuild our cities clean again close to the earth, open to the sky? can we afford a house, a neighborhood as good as this for everyone? the important question is, can we afford all of this disorder? the hospitals, the jails come reformatory's these are future , citizens. you take your choice. each one is real, each one is possible. order and life together. we've got the skill and we found a way.

we built the cities. all that we know about machines and soil and raw materials and human ways of living is waiting. we can reproduce the pattern and better it a thousand times. it is here, the new city, ready to serve a better age. you and your children, the choice is yours. ♪ ♪

weekend, tonight at 9:00 eastern, the founder and former chair of microsoft, the ill gates. onthe ebola virus outbret 8:00, sunday evening at the director of the smithsonian's national museum of african art. afterwards,0:00, on heather cox richardson on the history of the republican party and live sunday at noon, joan bisupic. at 5 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, former fbi agents on catching

the unabomber suspect. sunday afternoon american artifacts, the 100th anniversary of the panic mocon out -- of the panama canal. find our schedule on www.c-span.org and let us know about the programs you're watching by calling or e-mailing or you can send us a tweet. join the c-span conversation and like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. the c-span cities tour takes book tv and american history tv on the road traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history and literary life. this weekend, we partnered with comcast for a visit to boulder, colorado. >> my book is called "the beast in the garden." it's a book about a large animal that in ancient times or in american history we would've called the beast, a mountain lion in what is really a garden and that is boulder, colorado.

it is a beautiful, seemingly natural place but in many ways, it has been altered by human kind. when you get this wild animal coming into this artificial you actually can cause changes in the behavior of that animal. -- a mountains lion's favorite food is venison. they eat one deer per week and the deer living on the outskirts of the city where we have irrigated gardens and lawns, the city attracts the deer so we had a deer herd living in downtown boulder. when the lines move back into the areas, they were in open space where there was lots of deer and they discovered there were deer in town so the deer lured the lines into town. in the lines discovered that they could eat dogs and cats. that is food for them. the lions were learning and i have learned, that this is where they will find food. there is certainly food up there, too, but there's lots to eat in town.

chautauqua is a retreat in a beautiful place for enrichment, and like men, entertainment, and coming together. who were intended to be the audience of the chautauqua were what we would call the middle class. the programs at most of the chautauquas were similar -- a combination of speakers of the both whatvariety of we might consider highbrow and lowbrow entertainment like opera and classical music and probably what would be considered the vaudeville of that day. >> watch all of our events from older today at noon eastern on afternoon and sunday at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span three. next, author in history professor patra dewitt talks about