>> you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span 3. follow us on twitter for information on her schedule, and to keep up with the latest history news. toanaheim is home disneyland. the park opened in 1955, and welcomed its one millionth visitor after only seven weeks. our time warner partners worked with the c-span city towards staff when we visit anaheim to explore the city's rich history. >> one of the reasons why some way people are interested in this collection is because it is something that many americans can relate to. when someone hears about this

collection, they immediately inc., my grandfather fought in world war ii, maybe we have some letters. it is something that is a shared experience for so many american families. it immediately captures the interest, and makes people feel like it is something they can relate to and participate in. wered about 2012, we approached by a guy called eddie carol, a journalist who would started a project where he someted the loss of personal family letters. he felt that was important that materials are preserved. he wrote a letter, and the response was be start receiving all this material. he was able to edit down the letters, he produced a couple of

books, and he has continued over the years to receive letters from people. at a point, the material reached a critical mass, and he was .ooking for a home for it the center for american war letters is essentially an archive. there is the center itself, and the archives. the center is really they're just to build archives. archives consist of about 90,000 veterans' letters from the american wars. ,he women and men who fought anywhere from the american revolution through afghanistan. artifacts, uniform pieces, metals, service documents, things like that. the bulk of the collection is the second world war, no doubt about that. we are also represented in the

first world war, something we don't talk a lot about in the united states. the next war that is best represented is the civil war. >> when we receive a lot of the letters, they come to us in the mail. they are in mailers, boxes, envelopes. hopefully they come with some kind of cover letter with the contentsescribes the of the war letters, if it is a family member, what conflict they were from, how they received them. we processed them. we take them out of the package that they came in, we organize them chronologically, and we the them into folders about -- folders and boxes, so that

they are all organized according to the conflict, and according to the author, or the recipient of the letter. sometimes we receive letters that are written to a specific verses, not necessarily from a person. we sort them all and label them into folders so that it is very easy for a researcher to find specific collections they are looking for, if they are focused on a certain time period, then we can point them easily into that direction. . selected just a few examples this first letter that i selected is the civil war letter that was written on march 9, 1862. bergen from the kathy collection. she was the recipient. she was corresponding with several different people who were fighting in the civil war,

and these wrong the letters she received. i will read a short selection of this letter. it is written by her friend samuel windsor in nashville, tennessee in 1862. he has just set up cap from the night, and is kind of relaxing. he has some free time and is taking a few minutes to write to her. i was just listening to the sweet sounds of a regimental band, how delightful it sounded, i could have sat all night in the silvery rays of the beautiful moon." you can tell how letter writing paint a really nice image. even though that was written in wartime, he is having this night.of peace at

a lot of them are talking about how homesick they are. and example of that is this letter that i really like. we don't action know who the author is. he signed the author, "lonesome hubby." the entire letter is him going on about how much he misses his he is.nd how lonely he says, "dear darling baby, i feel awful and lonesome tonight." the spiritsbout how are. later on, he says, "i'm going to bed real soon, to dream about my baby, for it seems to be the , by a time ican do get back, it will be over seven weeks since i left you, and i

have only received two letters from you." he is very, very homesick, and time is passing very slow for him. another example that i like from another homesick husband is an illustration -- the story of .0 toads he is missing his wife. this is from 1962, during the korean war. it is an illustration of what happens in the bedroom at home, and how he is longing for his wife. this is a letter written by someone in the iraq war. it was written in january 2006. he is writing home to some friends of family. i believe there are several names he is addressing two, i believe a lot of them are children. he is replying answering questions.

one of the questions was to i write around in a plane? he says, no, i usually write mobilein a highly ,ultipurpose wheeled vehicle also known as hummer, but they don't hum, they make a lot of noise. what is so great about these letters. they illustrate the experience of the everyday soldier, whether they were a combat soldier, or mailman in the service. they all have their own personal experience. maybe they were not part of the most heroic battle, but they all can treated in their way, and are all individual people. reading these letters brings that to life. anything that talks to our

history in the station is important. what is important about letters is they are individuals. we can talk about the constitution and the records of the government, presidents, and things like that, but these are things being produced by individuals, by you and i, who either voluntarily, or workhorse were coerced into serving. they have concerns about getting their bills paid, missing their loved ones, and whether the dog was fed, and how the family is doing, things like that. it is at that level that is amazingly important, what people 1864, and 1933, or what was important to them. was religion important to them? was the government important? was the nation important?

what did they think of the nation? what was the consumption of being american? as a country gets older, that is war important, what does it really mean to be american. cities tour staff recently traveled to anaheim, california. you are watching american history tv all week and every week and on c-span 3. >> this weekend, the c-span cities tour hosted by our time warner cable partners takes you to anaheim, california. on book tv. >> the idea from ask a mexican came from my editor at the time. i was not offended by the idea. i didn't want to do at first because i didn't think anyone

would care. in journalism, you want the stories that people will care about. you don't care if they love you or hate you, just as long as they will read it. they kept insisting, and they .eeded to pull in a space i said, ok, i will go back, it will be one time. forle went absolutely nuts it. some people loved it, some people hated it. more importantly, people were caring. it was supposed to be a joke column, at the bottom, it said, "do you have a question for my me."xican, asked >> john and his partner go up to san francisco, where a lot of immigrants are located, and they are able to

convince people people -- 50 people, of which none was a farmer, and had no background in winemaking, give up their businesses, and come to anaheim. first action, they hire george hansen to be the superintendent. his job is to bring irrigation here and plant hundreds of thousands of grapevines before the families would come down here. c-span cities tour, working with our cable affiliates, and visiting cities across the country. >> this weekend, persian gulf war veteran stephen wiehe recounts his experience and

storm andert desert shield. >> if you can picture all these helicopters coming up in the air, at one time, and turning to intoorth, and racing operating base cobra, it sends chills up your spine to be a part of that list. to have been a part of the first lips of operating base cobra was exhilarating. i was thinking, this is probably going to be the last time i live, this will be my last day. what an exhilarating moment to go in and set up this operating base cobra in iraq. operating base viper -- the war started

accelerating. we were taking advantage. we were not engaging so much the national guard, we were engaging the republican guard. we were keeping them off from coming back into baghdad. they were having a bad day. program one entire sunday at 5:00 eastern. this is american history tv, only on c-span 3. ♪ c-span's student thecompetition was one of biggest yet. to thes used the road white house theme, answering the questions, what questions they most wanted the candidate to discuss. they told us economy, education,

equality, and immigration where the top issues. "washingtonng journal" when we announce the winners and the fan favorite from the public. professor university maria cristina garcia teaches a class about the united states refugee policy since world war ii. she discusses who qualifies as a refugee and how that has changed over the years, as well as legislation governing quota and procedures. her class is about one hour. ms. garcia: hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing to europe at this very moment. can anyone tell me from what countries they are fleeing? leighton. ok, syria. any other countries? sarah. russia. any other countries? thank you.