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>> he calls the followers of islam through prayer. city folk gathered to pray in groups. wondering tribesmen -- wandering tribesmen spread their prayer rugs on the desert. farmers and villagers pause in their days work. all turned towards mecca, the holy city, to give faith in their god. here once flourished the great cities of the ancient world. for the middle east is the birthplace of our civilization. here, the ancient egyptians built structures never equaled by modern man. here is holy jerusalem, center of three of the world grapes -- world's great religions. the dome of the rock is revered by all three faiths, for here

king solomon built his temple. here, jesus told his parables. and here, mohammed is said to have ascended into heaven. great architects of the middle east, poets, and scholars have added roots threads to the fabric -- rich threads to the fabric of our culture. but today, the middle east is a barren land. there is great heat and bitter cold. little water. where food must be coaxed from the earth by man's ingenuity. east, or the near used as it is also called, is centered on the arabian peninsula, which contains a large desert country of saudi arabia. to the north, bordering the soviet union, afghanistan, iran, which was formerly persia, and

turkey, most european of these countries. between them lies the smaller lands of iraq, syria, and jordan. tiny lebanon, with a christian majority, and jewish israel, are the only non-muslims great in the middle east. on the other side of the red sea is egypt, which contains the suez canal, of utmost importance in world shipping. indeed, the middle east lies at a world crossroads. route through the suez canal, and a terminal for airlines bound east and west. the people of the middle east may be divided into three important groups: city men, nomads, and peasant farmers. while the members of each group go their own ways, occasionally they may meet, perhaps in a city

bazaar. far the largest of the three groups are the peasants, who 3/4 of thee than population. mustafa is fairly well-off. mustafa lives in a nearby village. in the compound of his house, he has a camel to help him in the fields and a donkey to make his load of work lighter. he has a milk goat for his children, and a few chickens to add variety to the family diet. but most peasants rarely have meat of any kind. the main staple of the diet is a bread, baked by mustafa's wife. mustafa's village is in the dry hills, where he must depend on occasional winter rains to grow his crops. it has one street, lined by the

homes of the peasant farmers, who work in the surrounding fields. the houses are usually made of stone or other readily available materials with flat roofs covered with straw. near the village are the common grazing grounds for the sheep. mustafa owns three of the sheep. the others belong to different people in the village. one of the older boys guards them. the will from this sheep -- wool from these sheep is one of the few sources of cash income of the villagers. mustapha owns his own piece of land, and plans a wheat crop -- plants a wheat crop. without animals to help them, entire families have to work in the field. like the vast majority of peasants in the middle east, they do not own the fields in must they work, but

share a large part of their crops with the owner. much of the funding in the middle east depends on irrigation, and there are rich lands in sharp contrast to most of the -- to mustafa's baron land -- barren land. ejection cotton is known the world over. -- egyptian cotton is known the world over. most of the farmland is along the coastal areas and along the three major rivers of the area, the tigris and the euphrates river, and the nile river, along whose banks nearly all the people of egypt to live. the rest of the land, if it can be used at all, is suitable only for grazing. it is the home of nomads herdsman, like ali. ali bargains at great length before by four he has little -- buying for you has little money. tomorrow, he will take the bus back to the village.

♪ then will come and long journey over the desert. ♪ son will bes waiting to greet him and tell him what has happened during the few days he has been away. will wonder about his herds, for his very home is made from hide and cloth woven from wool. ♪ his clothing and most of the furnishings depend on his animals, for they provide the foundation of the nomads'

economic existence. animals not only provide the nomad with clothing, cloth, melt, and occasionally meat, but also give him a few products to sell for barter or for cash. ♪ the camels provide personal transportation as well. they may be hired to carry goods in caravans across the desert, although this is fast being replaced by modern vehicles. ali's tried is only waiting -- tribe is only waiting for his return to be off to another waterhole in the territory. for water is pressures in the desert -- precious in the desert. ownership of land is meaningless without ownership of wealth or springs -- wells or springs. they are constantly driven place to place by the constant need of

their herd. he is strictly bound by tribal customs, as well as the strict realities -- harsh realities of getting enough food and water. ♪ occasionally, ali gets money as a guide for caravans or tourists, for he is an expert tracker and can read the face of the desert as easily as we can read a roadmap. merchant usuf represents another important group in the middle east, the city dwellers. these people are members of a growing middle class. until recent times, the people of the middle east were either extremely wealthy or were so poor that getting enough to eat was the major problem of the day's work. importance,g in

these new middle-class people make up only a tie been -- tiny portion of the middle east. many are influenced by european ideas and have partially adopted european clothing, housing, furnishings, and other western ways. education has been more readily available to them and they have become conscience of the importance of the middle east and the world and are aware that attention must be given to world affairs. many people in the middle east have developed a nationalistic experience -- spirit. their children go to school, went to read and write. they have their local newspapers, listen to the radio, and the cities have telephone service. a recent development of major importance has been the discovery of vast oil deposits in many parts of the middle east. these oil fields have been

developed largely through foreign capital. a payment of royalties has benefited the financial position of some countries. much of the oil is exported in its crude state by huge tankers. oil is found mostly in iran, saudi arabia, and iraq, with several pipelines for the transportation of oil. some is refined in the middle east before shipment, and a growing number of modern refineries throughout the area. oil is the middle east's major export. in addition, there is small trade in items like fruit, tobacco, and long staple cotton. imports are chiefly meant to -- machinery and manufactured products like cloth. two of the most important cities are istanbul, at the crossroads where turkey meets europe, and

cairo on the nile delta. it is the middle oil, however, which has made this area east's oil, middle however, which has made this area important. changes are coming to the middle east. there is a new spirit among university students, where women work and study on an equal basis with men. government health centers have been set up in some of the cities. here and there, the schools have appeared for their children, perhaps by oil royalties. is ase of farm machinery sign of the changing times. old irrigation projects, thousands of years the same, are being supplemented by new and more efficient ones. ♪ andated machinery

antiquated factories are solely being replaced by more modern by -- slowly being replaced more modern and efficient equipment. ♪ modern communication is quickening the spread of new ideas. old means of transportation are giving way to newer and better ones. the caravan is dying out in favor of the bus. the truck. and the airplane. some of the world's most modern airports are located in the middle east. but while its face is changing, at heart the middle east remains the same. for this is a land of strong tradition. where the bustle of the modern world is lingered with the age old chant. >> [call to prayer]

announcer: you are watching "american history tv," all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. i just want to start by talking briefly about -- >> i just want to start by talking briefly which this is the original. it is $5.95. [laughter] update. was the 1972 we start with the progress under the law. and then this is the one that just came out on the 25th anniversary. a lot of times, this book is described as a book that exposed -- the entire book was not on

the corvair. it was just on the first chapter. but listen to a private letter that was sent to gm executive delorean, by -- by long before he had his problems, i might add. [laughter] was on the waye to becoming, in most people's eyes, vice president of general motors. and he wrote a letter to tom murphy, a very private letter, which was in about 1971 or so. and in the letter, he said, corvairthe swing axle was put into production -- for those of you who don't know, he was head of chevrolet and a really fast upcoming executive,

he had the sales touch and engineering touch that marked him as a real comer in the hierarchy -- quote, "the swing axle corvair was put into production despite the most strongest pleading against it by staff experts on vehicle handling and suspension. they both protested the proposed swing axle was unsafe, and they made elaborate functional models to demonstrate how the rear suspension would jack and the car flip over. he told me his chevrolet general manager he had to threaten to quit before the corporation would approve replacing the dangerous swing axle with a slightly more expensive safer design in 1965. all of this data was removed from the files prior to corvair litigation.

if you have to destroy the files, you are not acting responsibly as a public organization. true of the corvair heater. many people, chuck hughes for one, objected violently without an intermediate safety shield. because it is well known that all engine's gas systems and caskets will deteriorate and leak in time so that the car will inevitably become a carbon monoxide deathtrap. there is no telling how many people have been injured or killed by these deadly fumes. or actually causing a monoxide inhalation death. this would have been avoided with a sense of responsibility and concern for our public. certainly, we were forewarned by many of our engineers. once again, we can expect much more expensive litigation so that youcents the shield -- so

that the few cents the shield would have cost will become irrelevant. delorean's name was crossed out for any potential promotion, but look at the point he made. it could have -- been quite a breakthrough and would not have had the problems that it later was -- was seen to have on the highway. so as someone said in "car and driver," the corvair presents a real challenge to driving expertise. so i am convinced that in this room are some of the best drivers in america. [laughter] [applause] announcer: up next on "american history tv," author and historian shauna devine discusses her book, (202)

748-8000 for -- "learning from the wounded.". she argues that medicine in the united states was antiquated and unprepared for the civil war. but during the conflict, union army physicians adopted new practices for the study and treatment of wounds and diseases. it is about 35 minutes. >> on behalf of the 2015 tom watson brown award committee, on which i serve, jim houston at oklahoma state, and the man himself, fat brown -- thad brown, we are pleased to report that we selected this year's winner, no surprise to anyone here at this point, shauna devine,