"IF we succumb to a dream world, we will wake up to a nightmare." It's a brilliant oratorical line, worthy of a president, but who uttered it? Barack Obama? John McCain? Sarah Palin? Er, no. Definitely not.

It was Jimmy Carter, the most decent president Americans never knew they had and a central figure in the first part of The American Future: A History, four compelling, documentaries authored by historian Simon Schama that delve into the country's past for pointers to its future.

Carter was a man of the land, and he was aware of his great country's tendency to rape itself in the pursuit of happiness. He was preaching conservation long before it was popular.

But he was doing it near the unpopular end of his term, in the middle of a fuel shortage. Americans didn't heed Carter. They succumbed to the dream world by falling for the Hollywood-cowboy hucksterism of Ronald Reagan, and now they've woken up to the nightmare.

Water, not oil, is the great social lubricant and it's running out.

The under-level of the Colorado River, which provides water for seven western states, has dropped to less than half of what it used to be.

In 1869, soldier, geologist and explorer Major John Wesley Powell took four boats down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon to see if life was sustainable there. The river, and the Indians, almost defeated him. Three of his crew deserted and were later found dead and scalped.

Powell returned from the expedition with a changed view of the west. Over-population, he preached, would lead to catastrophe. By then, though, the government had thrown open the land on a first-come, first-served basis and settlers literally raced to grab their piece.

Schama stood before the Hoover Dam, built during the Great Depression in a demonstration of America's can-do spirit, which ushered in the era of industrial agriculture.

But then came a massive drought, followed by massive dust storms which ripped across Oklahoma, turning "America's bread basket" into "America's dustbowl", and creating a derogatory new term, "Okies", to describe the homeless people forced to wander the dry land scraping a dusty, itinerant living for a dollar a day.

This is a superb series, as sweepingly impressive as the Colorado landscapes, and required viewing. Those who require it most, however -- the ones who will be going to the polls to vote next month -- won't see it, while those they're voting for probably wouldn't heed it anyway.

Junk Mail Britain was also an authored documentary, by Mike Craig, a natural hoarder who keeps concert tickets and even tapes of old answerphone messages.

For the past five years he's also kept every piece of junk mail he's received at his house in London.He used it to construct a colourful and affectionate portrait of the way his community has developed, hearing the personal stories of the cab drivers, pizza shop owners and builders who stick their flyers through his letterbox. A brilliant idea that, at 25 minutes long, wasn't long enough.

- Pat Stacey