ca" brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. next, "the city" argues that modern cities are unhealthy and that planned communities with clean air and safe areas for children to play are a better option. 56% of was made, about 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. we raised the town hall next so we could have our say about the taxes. or whether we need another teacher for the school. when town meeting comes around we know our rights and duties , and no harm if we disagree. we neighbors hold together in all that matters. we work from sun to dark. if you can call just work a job

that makes the body feel it he's while doing it or a bit of pleasure when it's done. art is not something foreign that we look at in a case. it is in the blankets we have spun at home. it's in the patchwork quilts we have sung attic -- so not a quilting bee. 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 wood 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. 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.

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. we old ones have good years of family life, our own, our children, mellow years before the ripe fruit fell. the seed was ready for the earth again. ready to die, ready once more to grow. ♪

forget the quiet, bring in the steam and steel. all aboard. the promised land. pillars of smoke by day and pillars of fire by night. machines to make machines. already made. production to expand production. wood and wheat and kitchen sinks and calico already made. thousands,tens, 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.

poison in the air we breathe. poison in the river. the fog and smoke chokes us. don't tell us this is the best you can do in building cities. who built this place? what put it here? how do we get it out again? we are asking, just asking. might as well stay in the mills and call that home. 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. how does that make 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. make a pile, raise a pile, it makes another pile for you. 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 offer? sold. who is next? follow the crowd to the fashion city, the windy city, the imperial city. the people, yes. the people, perhaps. >> most sincerely. >> we beg to remain yours most respectfully. >> dear sir -- [voices murmuring] [indiscernible]

♪ >> who is on call? >> dr. nichols? >> another street case. >> try the eighth floor. >> crushed leg. ♪

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♪ >> 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 not allowed to grow and overcrowd the on the size that makes them fit for living in. beyond this size that makes them fit for living in. 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. 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.

space to spread about. 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. each house is grouped with other houses. around these green communities, the children need the earth for playing and growing. ring 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. playground, schools, libraries are meant for everyone. 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 for 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. boys and girls live the life around them, giving the measure of our bigger world. city and schools an active partnership. 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 possible. shall we think deeper? paying for blight with human misery. 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? these are future citizens. voters, lawmakers, mothers, fathers. 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. ♪ ♪ >> this weekend on the c-span

networks, tonight at 9:00 em eastern, former secretary of state colin powell talks about world affairs. sunday evening at 8:00 on "q&a,"

author robert enberg talks about how a marine in vietnam, a land mine explosion nearly killed him and changed his life -- author robert timberg. 7:00,, just after syndicated columnist naomi klein on free-market capitalism and its impact on market change. tonight on american history tv , the king george's war of the 1740's, how it helped american colonists establish regional identities and gain valuable fighting experience for their own revolution. sunday, president ford's congressional testimony on the nixon pardon. find our television schedule at www.c-span.org and let us know what using about the programs you are watching. call us, e-mail us, or send us a tweet.

join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> tonight at 8:50 pm eastern, author elizabeth cobbs hoffman explores the costs and consequences of the united states' role as a world leader, asking the question -- is america an empire or an empire or an empire? mpires cannotat u win. you are watching american history tv. >> next on the civil war, and author discusses the fall of the confederate navy in 1864. at the start of that year, the confederates were at the peak of as he explains, the loss of two important ships and the union victory in the battle of mobile bay crippled the rebel fleet.

this 50-minute talk was part of the symposium hosted by the emerging civil war blog. >> our next speaker is a good fellow polish boy. a lot of man love between the two of us, let me tell you. it's a good thing. a lot of people have been coming up and, i love your. phil book. -- your book. once upon a time chris worked here at the spotsylvania national military arc but has since gone on to do amazing things. some of his career highlights, he served as supervisor out of. fill battlefield, the state park in connecticut -- kentucky, excuse me. currently he is now with the general macarthur memorial in norfolk