. >> host: who was russell kirk that you write about? >> guest: russell kirk is a very important american thinker. russell kirk published a book in 1953 called the conservative mind. this was come his book was part of a kind of renaissance of conservative thinking and united states after world war ii. in the wake of world war ii there were two huge threats that jolted a kind of conservatism to being in the united states. one was a mass expansion of the statist, and the other was the rise of soviet communism. he represents me the greatest representative of the social conservative strand. his book, the conservative mind ranges across the whole of america from the founding -- sorry, not just america but the modern era, america and great britain. from edmund burke forward, shut up active and influential and important the conservatives. has been in the making of the modern mind. >> host: one of the peace before we get into some issues. the federalist, you described as a masterpiece of american political thought. what was the federalist and wh