we're now joined for the hour by donald barlett and james steele. they have worked together for over 40 years. most recently, the road together at "vanity fair." their first book was a new york best seller, "america: what went wrong." the share two pulitzer prizes and two national magazine awards. the latest book is called, "the betrayal of the american dream." start off by laying out your thesis, start off by talking about the the trail of the american dream. >> it goes back to when we did the, "america: what went wrong." at that time, people were upset around the country. they knew something was happening, but did not know what. what made the book so successful is we pull everything together in terms of pensions and pay and union membership -- just everything economics. you could see there was a systematic attack going on in the middle-class. at that time, it was still the alleged it could have gone either way -- it could have gone either way. there was not a political response. as a result, we received literally hundreds and hundreds of letters o

was it important that people saw barlett and stelle as the authors of this book? >> absolutely. the book that we attribute in the best seller line america and what went wrong that put barlett stelle on the national map. it was 1992 they were reporters in the philadelphia inquirer and they were doing a series of what had happened to the middle class since 1980 which would be since president ronald reagan, and they were really reporting and investigating the questions that haven't been looked into y systematic way in the same way. it took america by storm and was collected quickly into a book. the book came out. it was a number one bestseller and people still remember the book. and the beginning of a -- as the beginning of a kind of maybe reaganomics wasn't true and the middle class losing ground has only become more serious since that time, and they felt with this election coming in needed to be more revisited and updated and they had written stories all in that time on this. but again, the bigger picture, the context, what has happened since 1980 to the middle class. >> i want t