c-span: so you did an essay, you pass it off to arthur schlesinger, and then what? >> guest: and then some people heard about it and picked up on it, and before i knew it, i was in harry evans's office at random house, and he was saying, "you ought to write a book about this." c-span: you say "some people." are these connections you have? >> guest: they were friends. i was talking about it among friends. c-span: so you're in harry evans's office. he's the top guy at random house, and how does he... >> guest: he says, "it sounds like a good book. we should make a book out of it." and so i say, "oh, a great idea. i figured it out. i'm sure it'll only take me six months of part-time work to do this." c-span: did you know him before? >> guest: no. c-span: and did they give you a big advance? >> guest: they gave me an advance. it paid for more than the first year of research help, but it's not a way to make a living. c-span: as you know, you've got lots of anecdotes in here. what would you say is the main source of your anecdotes? >> guest: it's about half and half newsp

so i'm really concerned at this notion of the country and to go back to arthur schlesinger's junior famousok of the disunited of america and this is exactly what he worried about. he thought it was going to come from blacks or latinos but i think what we are seeing is a submergence of the white minority consciousness in the united states and to me that is the biggest fear that i have and i'm wondering to what extent will whites become a more effective aggrieved minority than any other minority we have had in our history. >> is interesting you bring that up and i know that this is a subject you write often about for the "l.a. times" and elsewhere particularly when you want to boost the number of commentators on her column. every time he right about angry whites to get about 500 people chiming in. and they are all very pleasant and well thought out comments. but ronald braunstein with their national journal wrote me last week and said he really wanted to be here in this look like a great event and had a conflict but he said you know he wanted me to reference a poll that the "national journal