>> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on lectures in history, appalachian state university professor browning discusses union general george mcclellan's failed attempt to take the confederate capital in richmond. >> mcclellan and his army have not done a lot of research about what the peninsula looks like and what marching along the peninsula would you like, but he heso bent on making sure does not concede anything to lincoln that he basically puts his army on the peninsula in the 1860 two, and it will turn out to be perhaps the worst possible place to launch his campaign. >> sunday at 6:30 p.m. on the 300 anniversary of the salem witch trials, historian margo burns talks about the primary sources for the trials compiled .n the book >> it has informed me so much about salem village, about the

sources because samuel parris took it all down. there's a reason that roger miller poached from him. it reads like a play. she says this, he says that. this town over here -- all those descriptions come from samuel parris and his shorthand. >> on the presidency, former boston globe journalist curtis wilkie on the book the road to camelot, inside jfk's five-year campaign. >> i was a junior in college in 1960, and it was the first time i had heard the word charisma, and it was because he had charisma. richard nixon did not have charisma. lbj did not have charisma, but jack kennedy had charisma, and i think that could have possibly tipped the balance in some people's minds.

>> for our complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org. onamerican history tv c-span3 every weekend featuring the american history tour, archival films, and programs on the presidency, the civil war, and more. here is a clip from a recent program. --i should go back and say give you some information about the guys that were there. just who were they? all came from special forces. they were special forces. there was no special test to say you are qualified to go to berlin. if you have become special forces, you have the qualifications, with one caveat -- you had to speak the eastern european language or german well enough to pass as a local or to

confuse east germans and russians for long enough that you could accomplish your mission, and you had to be able to accept the fact that you were going to wear a soviet cross, which was important because it meant that if you were captured by the east germans or russians, within probably five to 10 minutes shot as a spy. , the first 40eats people were sent in 1956. those 40 volunteers, no one had any problems with that. served there and never give a second thought of what were the odds they had. as i said, a lot of them were americans. probably at the beginning, 60% were first or second generation. they all spoke the language, hungarian or server product --

roat.r croaked -- serbo-c german, of course, was the prominent language. large act passed to get eastern europeans to join .he american military even up into the 1980's, a lot of people that came in were immigrants from eastern germany and came into the american army. something we should look at doing for iraq and afghanistan. quite an interesting group of people. >> you can watch this and other american history programs on our website where all our video is archived. that is c-span.org/history.

>> sunday on q&a -- >> thinking about the of corruption, can get you arrested, can get you in so much trouble. >> a saudi arabia and rights activist talks about her time in prison after challenging the saudi government ban on women drivers in her book. >> you never see women driving in the street in a huge country, .he size of three texas women cannot drive. we wanted to change this. the movement is going on. it never stops. we're still campaigning for the right to drive. disobediencecivil because women are not supposed to drive. we show that we are able, we are for our ownriving

life and being in the driver seat of our own destiny by this act of civil disobedience. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> just across the street from the minute men historic park is the robbins house. it tells the story of three generations of african-americans and their fight for civil rights. this started in the 18th century. every year,: millions of people visit northridge, and many often visit the robbins house. were unaware of slavery existed in the north. many people believe slavery was entirely a southern institution and that the racial problems that stem from an existed only in the american south. the robbins house reminds people that those problems and issues not only were endemic in the north but also that they continue all the