your--the people that--you defend yourself, basically, here on supply-side economics, saying--you tell us why. i mean, the people that criticize the ronald reagan era for bankrupting the country. >> guest: well, it--it really is colemack ..

>> head. >> and i think when i feel strong guest about those pages and there are not that

many end my personal feelings and beliefs being a father and husband, these came from the bottom of my spiritual but so to speak with a personal relationship to those that they don't have to more philosophical. >>c-span: where do you write? >> on my map by my hand at home.úuñ >>c-span: have you always done it that way? figures ago used to typet(. >> i found riding with a yellow pad was much more relaxing. >>c-span: is there a certain time of day? >> only in the morning. at my discretion. >>c-span: is there a way that you prepare?

do you spend? >> i brooded, meditates, sometimes i actually take notes i will take something long but i will write a shorter piece. i just do it some days and right in and see what happens. >>c-span: you wrote a piece and joseph mccarthy that made people react strongly. >> i was telling of the mccarthy goings on i was anti-mccarthy and i was the managing editor in cairo this piece attacking the communist fellow travelers that were fairly or unfairly attacked by mccarthy some were fairly attacked i do believe. a and i explained why

mccarthy was so popular where the old liberal intellectuals were having so much trouble and one sentence is that the american people know about is he is the anti-communist but they don't know this about the liberal intellectuals. but so many were fellow travelers at the time. and for some reason that was with it in disfavor with a lot of people saying he was not sincerely the anti-communist i don't know if he was about anything but he seemed to be. and of course, a lot of the intellectualsq6n were liberal intellectuals. although whole i don't think i was. but that particular article

demonstrably very foolish about soviet communism was very naive and childish idea is with the kind of system that was. but this exposed liberals in general to ridicule. >>c-span: again, one individual that leads the way it your book mentioned the most often. day you have any idea? >> no. >>c-span: karl marx. why would you so often mentioned karl marx? what role has he played in our lifetime? >> of course, carl marx founded the doctrine that established the soviet regime and in a sense the whole cold war was a testament to the power of his ideas.

you ask of the influence, just imagine a great power in the system threatening the rest of the world all based on the karl marx idea as interpreted by others but nevertheless his ideas and london did not restore his ideas would just carry them along to the logical conclusion. can now since so many essays were written during that cold war period that is i i mention him but he was a very shrewd thinker. infantile with his aspirations bavarian learned. he thought ideas had consequences. and i suppose i may have mentioned out of respect for a worthy opponent.

>>c-span: 100 years from now what will people think of the life that you leadnm with the ideas that came out of your writings over the years? how are you different from the 1800's and the role in society? >> i don't know if it is that much different. there is not much higher education or less higher education those days. the idea generated by the intellectual class's had tremendous impact on society as they do today. somehow people don't think the printed word is as important today as it was 150 years ago and people think it will be as important as 100 years from now.ñr

i think the printed word is the place where ideas get generated. television can take them over. newsmagazines can take them over. but printed words those developed by the intellectual community are the source of the idea is that people find their place in the world and for their country. >>c-span: with this book would you want people to pick this up in 100 years to say right here? >> title want them to confuse me with anyone else on. >>c-span: but is this the work. >> yes. i am committed to this work. >>c-span: i have always wondered over 325 authors it was interesting to see you

right about one of your favorite people named michael who you published a book in the only sold 600 copies. >> it was the failure. >>c-span: who was he? >> a professor at the london school of economics. and he was av,ñ conservative with the idea of a socialist being succeeded by a conservative upset people a brilliant writer but a little offbeat as far as the united states was concerned. he was very english and only died 10 years ago. something like that. a very elegant writer and i think some of his estates -- essays are classical. >>c-span: how long did you teach? >> 16. >>c-span: what you think

makes a good teacher? >> there are many things. you have to respect your students. that what you say means something to them. if it doesn't then is a failure to communicate then you are not teaching well. there is no excuse for not understanding what you are saying more where the students may be at it is your job to make them understand and in the process stretched their mind. there are a lot of accomplished teachers in this country who do exactly that but of course, after you talk for a long period of time you begin to go through the motions and you

lose energy and inspiration in the new faces polar with the old faces. there is something to be said for a professor to retire after 20 years. >>c-span: what about leo strauss? bernanke kept pushing his ideas and conveyed that to his students. he did not have that many but the passion for ideas caused his students in turn to engage in a passionate steady and they in turn encouraged to engage in passionate study of ideas. teacher. >>c-span: of all the essays that is the most important part which of these do you think are the most important ? the one that captures the essence of what you think?

[laughter] we are running out of time. with history and capitalism and some backward glances and cold warriors. >> i think them a more -- memoir and there is one little essay bear about the contradictions of capitalism. name the the kinds of problems that a capitalist system experiences to move away to a more modern corporate egos. that stands well today and the big problem for modern capitalism in general. >>c-span: what is your

prediction for the future of this country? >> it will survive. i am an optimist or a cheerful pessimists. i refuse to be discouraged. terrible things are going on in the world the and in that country but i have lived long enough to see lots of terrible things and i am optimistic about the future of this country. >>c-span: the cover of the book neoconservatism 1949 through 1995 our guest has been irving kristol. thank you. >> thank you.