and reality tv and how that gets in the way of solving crimes of investigators and police detectives doing their job and what it means for us as a society so it should be an interesting book and hopefully another good bestseller for regnery. >> marjory ross, president thank you very much. >> thank you very much. good to see you. >> donald critchlow author of the conservative ascendancy. are conservative still in the ascendancy? >> you probably have heard about this. i think this is the worst time for conservatives, at least since watergate and i think it is may be compared to the republicans in the new deal. so, they are in very tough streets right now. >> so, as the conservative what

is your prescription to get out of that riot? >> one thing i discussed in the conservative ascendancy is the fortunes of conservatives and the republican party and what we learn is that every time the left and the aggressive primarily within the democratic party have counted out the conservative's they always come back, often through the misfortune of democrats, so don't think conservatives should give up hope. they might, they still may have opportunities. >> when you hear the term modern conservative movement what do you think and who'd you think of? >> well, i think it is a movement that is really quite the verse within its own grouping and i think there are a number of tensions within the

conservative movement and within conservatives with social conservatives and free-market conservatives and i also think that there is tensions within purists among the conservatives and people who are active within the republican party, who want to understand that concerta is in order to win elections need to be pragmatic and compromise on certain issues that in principle ways. >> schuett do you think is the voice of the conservative movement today? >> i think i was suggesting right now there isn't a voice and i think it shows some of the problems within the republican party that rush limbaugh now has become the voice and of course

that was the strategy by obama, the obama administration to focus on risch-- rush lembo while he has many fans also has many people who don't like rush limbaugh so i think right now there is a fight within the republican party to find its leadership. i think that-- 2010 is going to be an important election for republicans. at this point i don't think they can regain control of congress but, if they lose badly in 2010 we are going to c8 bush within the republican party to return more moderate. >> the conservative ascendancy came out in 2007? now you have a new book out and it is co-written with nancy maclean, the american conservative movement, 1945 to

the present. first of all why did to start in 1945? >> i think modern conservatism immerges-- there has been conservatives before the second world war but it is primarily a modern movement so that is why we began in 1945. >> why, what happened in 1945? >> i think primarily the emergence of the communist issue in the cold war. i think that really gave the conservative movement and but this. and there was a coming together of intellectual forces. the number of intellectuals such as frederick von hayek and others as well as people such as intellectuals such as william buckley who gave it an intellectual coherence and that was in line with the large grassroots anti-communist

movement. those two forces came together to revitalize the conservative movement and actually would gain power within the republican party. >> your first book is on phyllis schlafly. when did this come out and is phyllis schlafly still a force in the conservative movement? >> yes, that book came out i think in 2005 and she is still a force within the republican party and within the conservative movement. she reflects social conservative voice within the conservative movement around issues such as abortion and and those issues that appeal to primarily traditional catholics and evangelical christians-- christians as well as traditional. >> there is a couple books now

on the market regarding the reagan legacy and perhaps a reinterpretation of the reagan legacy. is roybal reagan's legacy on the decline? >> not among conservatives. i think he is writing its high as franklin roosevelt and in 1948 or after his death. i think ronald reagan's presidency has always been a contest of once among historians. the picture of ronald reagan is a man not very smart, sleepwalking through history was challenged by historians, some very good ones and we learned that ronald reagan was very well read and also had principles. strong ideological principles and that he was in control of his administration. he was not a detail man but was

able to articulate basic concerns of the republican, of the republican right and that is lower taxes, stimulating the economy and confronting the soviet in which had undergone a massive arms buildup. >> in your view did george w. bush contribute to the decline of the american conservative movement? >> well, there is a strong sentiment that he didn't within conservative. i think, i do think that the war in iraq, while george bush thought it was a principled action, really caused a great consternation among large segments of the rights and i also think the republican-- republicans having gained control of congress in 2004 and

being spendthrifts really helped cause a reaction as well. but it is easy to forget that bush won a pretty decisive victory in 2004, so the downside in the fortunes of the republican party were pretty quick and pretty severe, as you look at 2006 in the midterm elections in 2006 and the last election in 2008, presidential election. >> speaking with you here at the organization of american historians annual gathering, as a conservative, argued in the minority as a historian? >> i think in a very decided minority. in fact you can-- even calling it a minority is exaggerating to a number of conservatives here at this meeting. i start off on the left and i

got my union card, my ph.d. at the university of california so once i was admitted into the union that can expel me now, so maybe some would like to come up but i am here. >> do you feel a reaction? to you? >> no, i think people respect me. a number of hysteria ins wonder-- historians wonder how eccentric i am to be a conservative in this day and age especially within the historical profession. >> why did you start on the lifton now you are on the right? >> that's changed was kind of a long change. in fact they think it is a difficult for historians to declare themselves republican or conservative. your in a general milieu of

people who were on the left. usually on the left of the democratic party so i remember i was in poland up for a year in the teaching program in the election of 1988. i went to vote at the embassy and we had-- they gave us ballots and i was filling the mao next to my wife who is a strong democrat at that point and i said i think i am going to vote for george w. bush. she said, h. w. bush, thank you for correcting me, h.w. bush. she said if you do i'm going to go back until everybody up the university of notre dame that i voted republican so i won't tell you how i voted because i don't want to get in trouble with my wife.

anyway, i think there were a number of things that were changing and how i view the world and being in poland in 1989 was a major turning point for me having lived under a socialist system at that point. >> you have written three books for a good deal of another one working right now? >> yes i do. it is a book on, when hollywood was right, how the hollywood right change the republican party. >> we have been talking with donald critchlow who is a professor at st. louis university and the author of three books. this is his most recent, the american conservative movement, 1945 to the present code written with nancy maclean. >> thank you.

>> this summer booktv is asking, what are you reading? >> two books i have recently finished work walter isakson's biography of benjamin franklin and taylor branch phos biography on king. i really enjoyed reading those. the two books i want to read this summer, have to find time his team of rivals, the book about the cabinet and the sociologists at harvard. so come and visit to books at wunsch weafer myself. i have two young children at home. we are on the fifth harry potter book read downed by the end of the summer we may be through that whole series. >> to see more summer reading

lists and other program information visit our web site at booktv.org. >> next, booktv brings to selected programs from the 2009 virginia festival of the book in charlottesville. first, michael dirda, pulitzer prize-winning book critic for "the washington post" discusses his book, classics for pleasure. this program is 17 minutes. >> michael dirda, a longtime critic at "the washington post" and author of the book classes for pleasure, how do you find-- the fine classic? >> classic is a book that people keep going back to generation after generation. it doesn't have to be one of these chronicle classes that we think of what shakespeare but the premise of this book is that a lot of