>> each week, american history tv is real american -- reel america that help tell the story of the american experience. this is a 1978 film the traces the history of energy sources and the night is aids from human and animal power -- in the united states from human and animal power to gasoline and nuclear. >> using energy freely to live and move, make and produce. ♪ the hopes of the past are overflowing -- four overflowing abundance are seeming real. the very control over nature and our forefathers worked so hard to achieve has led to a crisis in our time, different than any they had encountered. the fuels they thought inexhaustible are being used up,

rapidly. america is running out of gas. and it is our turn to seek new ways to generate power. each time we have shifted to new sources of power history tells us, it has taken 60 years. america cannot afford to wait. ♪ to promote a national effort, a federal agency has been created to plan the best use of our present resources. to mobilize science, industry, and government, to develop new sources of energy. and to accomplish this without injuring the environment. it's an american tradition confidence in man's hours of invention.

every promising sources being explored, from machines that drop our out of the free-flowing tides of air and sunlight, confusion, our massive effort in the complex field of nuclear reactions. with the promise of power that is truly limitless. producing more energy would be meaningless without conservation. a major study focuses on america's favorite means of transportation. searching for engines that will go much farther, for much less fuel. battery-powered cars are being tested, and a variety of other power plants to save energy. the interest of future drivers show is more than curious, it's a look into the next 20 years. still another long-range effort -- studies how to extract oil

trapped in layers of rock, oil shale. what prospectors of the past thought worthless is crushed and processed in a pilot plants, a small-scale trial of full production that a 19th-century capitalist would have envied. what comes out is oil, along with the data on recovery that will guide further development. >> here are some of our featured programs for this begins on the c-span networks. on c-span2, tonight at 10:00 former governor mike huckabee on america's current political and cultural landscape. sunday night at 11:00, princeton university historians examine lyndon b. johnson, as part of his great society.

on american history tv on c-span3, tonight at 8:00 eastern, the university of california davis professor on the role of the british royal air force and allied strategy during world war ii. sunday evening at 6:00 on american artifacts, the archivist at the purdue university special collections to ours the amelia ehrhardt collection. find the complete television schedule at www.c-span.org and let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. call us, e-mail us, or send us a tweet. join the conversation, like us on facebook. follow us on twitter. >> author john mckee barr talks about "loathing lincoln: an american tradition from the

civil war to the present." he says in order to understand why lincoln is revered, it is important to understand the criticisms of his detractors. including the charge that he exceeded the powers of the presidency granted by constitution. the lincoln group of the district of columbia hosted this one hour 20 minute event. >> good evening. i am former vice president of the lincoln group and the district of columbia. it is my honor and privilege to invite tonight's speaker, john mckee barr, a professor of history at lone star college kingwood, for the past seven years, teaching among other things a class on darwin and lincoln, who were born on the same day. that is a pregnant historical coincidence. before that, he was a high school teacher in the houston public school system. that is good preparation for the kind of flack he has to put up