mccarthy era. it's easy to make comparisons, you know, from then to now. you actually started this before this administration was even kind of a glimmer in anyone's eye, right? >> yeah, i just thought it was such an interesting era on the veneer, it's romantic, seems pleasant. the eisenhower years. you just scratch a little bit beneath the surface, there are literally communists infiltrating the government, the rise of mccarthyism, the atomic race, the country still segregated, it's still a very sexist society. so it looks pleasant, but it's really, there's this undertone of menace throughout the 1950s. all of that was cooking long before donald trump came down that escalator, but then once he became this candidate and, you know, they say history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. there's a lot of rhyming when you read about presidethe 1950s look at. th trump president trump and 2018. >> explain what the book is about, "a," it's fiction which i'm so impressed you were able