h. l. mencken, with an inch -- h. l. mencken be read outside of baltimore? >> yes. he was the baltimore sun columnist, but his famous column, the scopes monkey trial, which is in the book, where he chronicles that great debate over evolution, which becomes the basis with the play and then the movie inherit the wind where his role is played by gene kelly , finley, that is and national figure. the point about this, we did not want to give people great reading. this is literary journalism, and the average length of column is it hundred 50 words, you can read it on the go, commute, before you go to bed, but the relevance is amazing, enduring wisdom. if you are concerned about the rise of the populism today you reid h. l. mencken and see how much what is old is new. it is like harry truman said, the only thing new is the history you don't know, that is one of the things. >> what is your day job? >> i am a columnist for newsweek and the daily beast and the san it contributor. >> and also author of when that's, of a limited range is hijacking america, a co-edited book. and

h. l. mencken, the baltimore journalist, said in the middle of the 1920's that what if he were to even egg from pullman car anywhere in america you're bound to hit a fundamentalist and the head. and there are millions of people that embraced it. it was much more than religious. it was a call for reaction to the way things changed. another movement that was very big, at least for a time in the 1920's commensurately even here in the state of texas was the ku >> klan. it had seen a revival. many manifestations up into our time, many of them marginal, but the most significant emergence of that particular movement were, of course, during reconstruction with the original plan. but in about 1915 there was a regrouping of the clan. by the time you come into the 1920's this crew very patriotic. very pro-american, very anti-immigrant, very anti foreigners and the thing faugh mcgraw-hill. for a moment in time there is a blending together a lot of account -- commonality. this is something that evangelicals hav