the latest history news. all weekend, american history tv is featuring scottsdale, arizona. city of scottsdale is surrounded by the sonoran desert and covers approximately 100,000 square miles. learn more about scottsdale all weekend here on american history tv. fred prozzillo: taliesin west is an example of how to live in the desert southwest. it was a building that frank lloyd wright used as a laboratory. wright was working to create a new kind of architecture for america. he was born in 1867 and died in 1959. he lived through an era of development and change. when he was born, america was very young. he wanted to design and create

an architecture specifically for america, something that was open and free, like democracy. so he comes here and he builds taliesin west, it is an open planned example of how we can create new architecture for america. so he uses it as an example of what american architecture can be and how it can relate to the landscape. in 1936, he came down with a bout of pneumonia. living in wisconsin, the cold winters were hard on him. he was 70 years old and the doctors say, if you can't escape -- if you can't escape the wisconsin winter you can , probably extend your life by 20 years. he remembers the wonderful climate and he will look for a property here where you can build his winter home, or he refers to it as his winter camp.

in 1938 he comes here and purchases the land at the foot of the mountain in scottsdale and commences to construct taliesin west, his winter camp. he roots the building into a landscape. it is an example of how to make architecture blend with this environment. taliesin west is actually a cluster or a grouping of different building units together to make one large home, studio and school for frank lloyd wright's and his apprentices. we are about 80,000 square feet on 494 acres here in the desert. and it is a complex of living quarters, working space where he has his drafting studio, the guggenheim museum in new york city was conceived and worked on .

it is a place where wright and his band of apprentices could live, work and play. this room is his garden room, or his living room. this is a space where he and his wife would retreat during the week, have some peace and quiet. a space that was very intimate, it was his private quarters. when wright first came and started constructing, he wanted to take advantage of the light in the desert. so the main buildings were constructed with these beams, and canvas panels were put into -- filter the harsh desert light and allowed for wonderful day lit spaces during the day. he did not need generators.

it was a way for him to connect to the environment and the landscape. connecting the buildings and create this wonderful day of its base. wright was inspired by japanese art and architecture. something he borrowed from japanese architecture was the idea of the borrowed landscape. where he worked to blend the interior of the building with the exterior. a you sit in the garden it is lovely window wallet opens up right to the garden. it almost invites and pulls the garden. so in 1932, he was affected by the depression. he did not do a lot of work on his drafting. and at the time, his wife said, if we cannot create architecture, why don't we create architects.

he was always against the traditional method of training and by going into a school being instructed in a classroom. he felt that they should be trained in way of learning by doing, getting out there and learning construction, so you can take that experience into the drafting studio and design properly with property details and having an understanding of construction. so they start a fellowship, his learn by doing school of architecture and working training the next generation of architects. this is a drafting studio. this is where he and his apprentices worked on projects. they worked on the guggenheim museum in new york city. this is where all the work was completed. during one of his most prolific periods, this is a place of work

. so wright is using this space and using your experience based on the work you are here. space youalk into the , see the drafting tables. you should is beautiful filtered light. the landscape is not really revealed until you actually sit down at your drafting table and then the whole landscape out the window comes into the space. he was using low roofs to frame and really give you the experience here at taliesin west. after his passing, the apprentices that were here continued his work and created the taliesin associated architects. that firm continued the work through the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's and continued to do the

learn by doing educational model here at taliesin west. when guests come and take a tour of the property, we really hope for them to understand this legacy of wright's tradition of thinking outside of the box, creating new ways to live that enhance your life. to understand that wright came here at 70 years old and he started something completely new. one thing we like to say is he persevered in everything that he did and he worked hard to move architecture and society forward. so we hope that when people visit taliesin west, they get an understanding of that and maybe

can use that in their life. >> this weekend, we're featuring the history of scottsdale, arizona, together with cox communication partners. learn more about scottsdale and other stops on the cities tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> this week monday states count their votes for president of united states. we have counting and michigan illinois and virginia starting at 11:00 eastern and will re-air our coverage. tuesday night, jerry greenfield cofounder of ben & jerry's ice cream talks about creative and responsible business practices. >> the idea that we could not sell enough ice cream in vermont in the summer forced us to look

for other markets. >> wednesday night cheney and -- dick cheney and leon panetta about defense under donald trump. challenges are very great and we have unfortunately over the course of the last many years done serious damage to our capabilities to meet those threats. >> we're living in that period where there are a lot of flashpoints. a new administration has to look at that kind of world and to to deal with that. but then, develop the defense policy to confront that kind of world. >> a look at the career of vice president mike pence. >> admits to the shifting sand we have stood without apology for the sanctity of life, the importance of marriage, and the freedom of religion. farewell speeches attributed

to several outgoing senators including harry reid, barbara boxer, kelly ayotte, and dan coats. this week in prime time on c-span. >> this weekend on american artifacts we tour an exhibit called amending america on the ratification of the bill of rights. here is a preview. >> my name is jennifer johnson and i am a curator with the national archives museum. >> i am christine black, a public outreach specialist. i am also co-curator of amending america. we are standing outside the lawrence gallery about to take you through amending america. next to me is a case showing more than 11,000 amendments that have been proposed to the constitution.

one of our challenges was that the bill of rights is in the rotunda, a different area of the museum. so we decided to have a banner lead visitors through to the o'brien gallery and on that banner of the more than 11,000 amendments proposed in congress. >> the bill of rights is the first 10 amendments to the constitution so we opened up the gallery with those first 10. at the constitutional convention in 1787 in philadelphia, when the delegates were talking about the bill of rights they took a vote on whether or not to include one in the constitution. this document here shows that when they took a vote, about 2/3 of the way down the page, the vote was 0-10. the delegates to the convention did not think it was needed.

but then, after the convention was over the constitution was sent to the states for ratification. the states did not agree with the delegates that it wasn't needed. over here is one of my favorite documents in the gallery. it is a draft version of what became the bill of rights. these were the senate markups. the senate took the 17 amendments that were passed by the house and change them into 12 amendments that after a conference committee was 12 amendments sent the states for ratification. ten of those twelve were ratified by the states most of this is the ratification from the state of virginia. which was the 11th out of the then 14 states to ratify. that brought the amendment up to the constitutionally required bar of three quarters of the states to ratify.

that meant that when this document was signed the bill of rights became part of our constitution. this document was signed on december 15, 1791, and that is the date we now celebrate as bill of rights day. it is the 225th anniversary of this we are celebrating at the national archives with the exhibit. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> watch the entire tour at 6:00 on american artifacts most of this is american history tv only on c-span3. >> in depth will feature a live discussion on the presidency of barack obama, we're taking a phone calls tweets and facebook questions during the program. our panel include april ryan, a white house correspondent and also author of "the presidency

in black-and-white." and the author of " democracy in black." and editor watch in-depth on sunday on book tv on c-span2. >> up next, a conversation about president franklin d. roosevelt and how he used his language to bolster his world war ii policies and strategies. georgia state university professor mary stuckey talks to paul sparrow, director of the fdr presidential library and museum in new york which hosted this event. we will hear fdr deliver six speeches, including "the day of infamy" speech following the pearl harbor attack of december 7, 1941. the 75th anniversary of that attack is it this week.