yuval: is a very important question. we look at them this perception of the norm, were looking at a moment that culturally very dominated by the baby boomers. in the generation of people who were in between, about 9046 in the early 1960s. these are still today though, often in their 70s and 60s. people are running our core institutions and in charge of our politics. and with president donald trump, was born 74 years ago this month, june 1946 pretty george w. bush was born in july of 1946 and bill clinton in august of 1946 pretty rock obama was born in 1961. they are all boomers. the life experience that they have had to come is actually been pretty unusual version of america. in a market that came out of the second world war very unified and having achieved something great by coming together and mobilization. the country was in norma's confidence is institution. in his government and big business and big labor and working together to solve problems. and over the course of the 50 or 60 years since that kind of height, we

thank you. >> host: yuval levin? >> guest: every form with her it is a way that can inspire us to be better people, rather than just inspire us to lose faith and hope in the country. whether it's education that is directed specifically to explosively forming character helping to shape us i think ultimately the formation is a moral formation one way or another so that it will lead to moral of the formation and that is why the health, standing, director of the institutions matters enormously. the evolution of religiosity in america is a complicated story. in some ways, we certainly have seen the decline of religious practice and affiliation, but in other ways we have seen an increase in the demand and the hunger for the moralism in our public life and that is the hunger that traditionally has been answered by the religious institutions and can be answered that way again if they approach the society in the terms of contemporary problems by offering themselves about solutions to the sort of challenges they face now. whet

. >> next author in american enterprise institute scholar you yuval levin talks about the political dividecountry today. he is the author of the great debate, the fractured republic, and a time to build. this in-depth interview is two hours. >> author yuval levin here on the june 7, 2020, what is your assessment of the united states? >> thank you for having me, that's a broad question open with and it's a challenging one, were living in a moment of crisis and that's hard to deny, we've been through a spring that has been dominated by a public health crisis that is very much with us, we are facing now a social crisis that is as old as our country in some ways, the struggle for racial equality and for human

yuval. james: it was not only superb general dwight eisenhower pretty brilliant organizer with the supreme commander of nato. also the president of columbia university. a lot of people miss that. i went on to be highly successful two-term president of the united states. really marvelous book out there about eisenhower. i would encourage people to relate to state in europe which is his treatment of his time in command. he was also bynd all accounts, someone assailed true north. and made occasional mistakes in life and in politics but i think the overall, was a superb kind of been 20th century president. entering. time and there's a real danger the cold for, he was the one who managed that set of challenges rated brilliance brilliantly. from 52 to 60 and a great book about that. he was thomases bluff about the way that eisenhower who was a superb person who could bluff his geo political opponents. so there is one example. then friendly, we could go on and is subject but i think there is plenty

yuval: yeah a role.asers the role we wanted to pretty think the forces here and deeper than technology. not just at the whim of social media for the internet. we use them in these ways because that's what we're looking for. anything the larger social process that we have been living through, has been a function of the kind of liberalization, diversification. in the america we are talking about before, in the middle of the 20th century, many of the great social forces in the country were telling people be more like everyone else. they were forces of conformity. this sounds districting 20 people. in our times, the same social forces are telling everyone to be yourself. the forces of individual liberation. there's a lot of good to that predict but it also can tear society apart and i think we can find the balance can push against some of the places where we tend to lean too hard. right now the means they are covering solidarity and how we think about our society. peter: honoring your book the great debate i