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Listen to a short interview with Donald Critchlow
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane

Despite significant losses in the 2006 midterm elections, the Republican Right remains a powerful and defining force in American politics. Donald Critchlow, a leading historian of American conservatism, shows that time and again the GOP Right appeared defeated, only to rebound with explosive force. The ascendancy of the GOP Right was not preordained, nor was its political triumph inevitable. Rather, the history of the postwar Right was one of fierce political warfare as moderate Republicans battled right-wing Republicans for control of their party, and conservatives battled liberals for control of government. In the struggle against the dominant New Deal state, conservatives gained control of the Republican party, but their advance against liberalism and the Democratic party proved less steady. At each point the accident of historical circumstance precluded a predictable outcome.

In this provocative history of the Right in modern America, Critchlow finds a deep dilemma inherent in how conservative Republicans expressed their anti-statist ideology in an age of mass democracy and Cold War hostilities. As the Right moved forward with its political program, partisanship intensified and ideological division widened--both between the parties and across the electorate. This intensified partisanship reflects the vibrancy of a mature democracy, Critchlow argues, and a new level of political engagement despite its disquieting effect on American political debate.

The Conservative Ascendancy boldly captures the twists and turns of the GOP Right over the last sixty years, offering a story of how deeply held beliefs about the nature of the individual and the good society are translated into political power.

Customer Reviews (1)

A must read for all people involved in politics
Whether you are Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican, if you are a political junkie, you will like Donald T. Critchlow's "The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History."This is a history of political maneuvering of individuals interested in countering Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and confronting Communism.

Critchlow documents how these ideas drew various interest groups, many of whom were not Republicans, together. It follows the nomination of Barry Goldwater for President of the United States, support of Richard Nixon, the first big Conservative triumph of Ronald Reagan and on to the election of George W. Bush.

This history covers the losses as well as triumphs of American Conservatives. It covers issues that brought them to power, that cost them elections and issues that divided the Republican Party itself. I think that anyone interested in politics will not be able to put this book down.
... Read more

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Under what conditions do political institutions develop that are capable of promoting economic and social elites' accommodation to democracy? The importance of this question for research on regime change and democracy in Latin America lies in two established political facts: alliances between upper-class groups and the armed forces have historically been a major cause of military intervention in the region, and countries with electorally viable national conservative parties have experienced significantly longer periods of democratic governance since the 1920s and 1930s than have countries with weak conservative parties.

The contributors to this book examine the relationship between the Right and democracy in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Peru, and Venezuela during the 1980s and 1990s. The authors focus particularly on the challenges that democratization may pose to upper-class groups; the political role of conservative parties and their electoral performance during these two crucial decades; and the relationships among conservative party strength or weakness, different modes of elite interest representation, and economic and social elites' support for political democracy. The volume includes a statistical appendix with data on conservative parties' electoral performance in national elections during the 1980s and 1990s in these seven countries.

Contributors: Atilio A. Borón, Universidad de Buenos Aires • Catherine M. Conaghan, Queen's University • Michael Coppedge, University of Notre Dame • John C. Dugas, Kalamazoo College • Manuel Antonio Garretón, Universidad de Chile • Scott Mainwaring, University of Notre Dame • Rachel Meneguello, Universidade de Campinas • Kevin J. Middlebrook, University of California, San Diego • Timothy J. Power, Florida International University • Elisabeth J. Wood, New York University.

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This reference work is designed to provide direct comparisons between Labour and Conservative party members in relation to a wide variety of measures, including their social and political backgrounds, political activities and attitudes. ... Read more

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In this, the first full-length, scholarly examination of Martin's career readers will encounter a devoted public servant who often modified his party's extreme stances on domestic matters during the Great Depression and on foreign policy issues leading up to World War II. This political biography effectively illustrates that bipartisanship does not mean abandonment of principles, that kindness, integrity, and gentility are compatible with effective leadership, and that close friendships with members of the opposing party can contribute to a more effective Congress. ... Read more

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Ideologies of Conservatism charts developments and changes in thenature of Conservative political thought and the meaning ofConservatism throughout the twentieth century. Ewen Green'spenetrating study explores the Conservative mind from the Edwardiancertainties of Balfour to the Thatcherite 1980s and beyond. Itexamines how Conservative thinkers, politicians, and activists sought to define the problems they faced, what they thought they were arguing against, and what audiences they were seeking to reach. This is theonly study which blends the history of Conservative thought with theparty's political action, and it offers significant new insights into the political culture of the 'Conservative Century'. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Useful study of Cameron and the Tories
This useful book examines today's Conservative Party. It looks at its ideology, Cameron's role, its economic policy, social policy, policy towards the public services, the notion of the competition state, its environmental policy, defence and security policy, foreign and international policy and policy towards the EU.

In 1997 the Conservatives got 9.6 million votes, their lowest total since 1929, just 30.7 per cent of the vote. In 2001 they got 8.36 million votes, 31.7 per cent of the vote. In 2005, they got 8.8 million votes, 32.4 per cent of the vote. Clearly, they had to do something different to win. This May, they got 10.7 million votes, 36.1 per cent of the vote.

But did they really change? Or did they just change the image? In 2008 when Cameron dropped his pledge to keep to Labour's spending plans, Nick Clegg said, "David Cameron has learned nothing. It's exactly what the Conservatives did in the 1980s ... To simply slash public spending when we are heading into a recession - there's no case for it whatsoever." Well said Nick: the Tories hadn't changed

But what is Clegg doing now? He is Deputy Prime Minister in a Tory government that is slashing public spending when we are heading into a recession, when there's no case for it whatsoever. This is the same Nick Clegg whose party's The orange book - reclaiming liberalism sought to replace the NHS with `a system of competing insurance schemes'. No wonder they have joined the Tories! His colleague David Laws, who edited The orange book has been found to have cheated on his expenses, just before he fronted the Tories' attack on public spending.

On social policy, Cameron has widened the application of, not abandoned, the Thatcherite principles of entrepreneur-led and market-driven initiative from the economic to the social sphere. The Conservative Party supports our continued membership of the EU because, as Mark Evans notes, "The EU has also acted as a driving force for neo-liberalism and a champion of the competition state model."

It's still the same old Thatcherite Tories: anti-public services, anti-environment, anti-trade union, anti-working class, pro-EU, pro-USA, pro-Israel and pro-NATO.

... Read more

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The Conservatives are back - but what took them so long? Why did the world's oldest and most successful political party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major? Just as importantly, what stopped the Tories getting their act together until David Cameron came along? And what did Cameron do that William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard couldn't or wouldn't? Has the Tory leader changed his party as much as he claims? Or has his leadership involved more compromise - and more Conservatism - than we realise?

The answers, as this accessible and gripping book shows, are as intriguing and provocative as the questions. Based on in-depth research and interviews with the key players, Tim Bale explains how and why the Tories got themselves into so much trouble - and how and why they were eventually able to rediscover their winning ways. The answer, he suggests, lies in the people, the power structures, the ideas, and the very different interests of those involved. The Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand what makes the Tories tick. ... Read more

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Useful account of the Tory party's recent history
Tim Bale, a lecturer in politics at Sussex University, has produced a fascinating study of the Conservative Party since Thatcher became unelectable. He studies the leaderships of John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard and David Cameron.

Bale shows how Cameron talked of change and modernisation, moving to the centre when talking of health, education and social issues while still talking from the right on the familiar Tory themes of immigration, crime, tax and the EU. He pretended to move from preference shaping to preference accommodation.

Bale shows how the Conservative Party still claims that only the private sector can run education or health properly. It still believes that private is good, public bad. Danny Kruger, now Cameron's special adviser, said in March 2005, "We plan to introduce a period of creative destruction in the public services." It focuses on government waste, but applauds the huge waste and theft from the public of bankers' bonuses and dividends. Bale, unlike the Tories, acknowledges that the market is not the answer in education, health or the criminal justice system.

The Conservative Party has adopted Blair's academies scheme, but how would giving `outstanding' schools more freedom from local control, or giving parents more choice, assist the rest? How is offering the rich an escape from public services the best way to improve them? Why should we all subsidise the tiny minority who have enough money to opt out of state healthcare or education?

In February 2004, Michael Howard promised to freeze civil servants' pay from day one of a Tory government. He said, "Only when the state is small will people be big." All rather familiar, now in June 2010.

Cameron said in January 2007 that the Conservatives `will be a party that is for working people, not rich and powerful vested interests'. Bale echoes, "The Conservative Party supposedly promotes the interests of industrial and especially finance capital." Real life is showing us pretty swiftly whose interests the Conservatives serve.


... Read more

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Yellow Dogs and Fruit Flies is a short book that packs a lot of information.It provides in-depth, how we got in the mess we are in today, and lays much of the blame squarely on the conservative democrats out there who have allowed the extreme liberal wing of our party, to Hi-Jack the rest of us.Our Democratic Party has been so busy trying to entice non-producing Americans to vote and win elections, that we have lost track of who the party was formed to serve.The democratic party was not formed to support poor people, it was formed to give the working class representation in government. ... Read more

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The history of the Conservative Party during the first half of the twentieth century was marked by crisis and controversy, from Joseph Chamberlain's tariff reform campaign through the Lloyd George coalition and the National Government between the wars to the defeat of 1945 and the post war recovery. This study provides a lucid account of this turbulent and formative period in the history of the most durable and adaptive force in modern British politics. ... Read more

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With the growl of the Marine sergeant he was, Senator Zell Miller leaves no doubt that he believes his own Democratic Party is badly out of step with most of the country and needs to shape up or ship out.

As part of a stinging critique of the Democratic Party, Miller outlines key positions on important issues that can again make the party relevant for the entire nation. From tax cuts to welfare, gun control to the environment, the arts to education, immigration to terrorism, Miller identifies values that make sense to a growing majority of Americans.

Miller’s candid analysis of the campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton further underscores his conclusion that the Democratic Party can no longer field a serious presidential challenge.

Many party loyalists will not like what Senator Miller writes; yet his credentials are beyond question, for few Democrats have worked longer or stronger for the party and its candidates.Zell Miller has served in an elective office in each of the last six decades. When he left office as governor after two terms, he had an 85 percent approval rating, prompting the Washington Post to call him the most popular governor in the country. After getting to Washington, he became President Bush’s biggest Democratic supporter, but steadfastly refused to switch parties.

A National Party No More is a firsthand account from the enigmatic senator who has confounded his Democratic colleagues. Driven by conscience and common sense, Senator Miller names the self-destructive direction of his party and stubbornly pulls the Democratic family toward reform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (228)

Let the book stay in print -- it shows what many didn't see exactly the opposite coming...
In the 2008 election, the Republican performance increased (in a statistically significant way) only in the Appalachian region.Perhaps the author, who is pleased to call himself a hillbilly, should write another book, explaining why his region seems to be increasingly out of step with the rest of the country.

This is still in print????
The whole book was discredited in 2006; November 4, 2008 was the final nail in its coffin.It should be sold only for purposes of ridicule, in a 4-pack with "Dow 36,000," "Hilary vs. Condi: The Next Great Presidential Race," and "88 Reasons the Rapture Will Be in 1988."

ha
"Miller's candid analysis of the campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton further underscores his conclusion that the Democratic Party can no longer field a serious presidential challenge."

Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. *wipes eyes* Ha...

book
Very well written and informative.Good insight into the way our country is going.Too bad we don't have more people like Zell Miller.

A whine as a swan song
I couldn't be happier that Zell Miller is out of the US Senate.

And this was quite a vanity whine as a final word, or what I hope is his final word.

Like many swan songs by overbearing political types, and media gasbags, Miller tells a series of shaded or half-truths to convince the reader that everything has gone sideways, and that GOP = Good, Democrats = Bad.

I think a more accurate portrayal of the truth inside the Beltway is politicians (including Miller) = bad. ... Read more

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The story of New York's feisty Conservative Party is really the saga of America's tumultuous political maturity. Born in response to the rise of Nelson Rockefeller's liberal Republicanism, the New York's Conservative Party has grown to become the nation's most successful third party. It has also turned out to be its political conscience.

The Conservative Party's founders understood that their mission was primarily to keep the Republicans honest; to ensure that there was room in New York's GOP for conservatives and conservatism. They knew this meant that some Republican candidates who sought the Conservative endorsement might flourish and others who shunned it might founder, and this is exactly what happened. But throughout its forty-year history, the Party has stuck to its principles as much as it has played politics.

In vivid and often amusing detail, Mr. Marlin gives us an insider's view of:

*The derailing of Rockefeller's presidential freight train.

*William F. Buckley Jr.'s race for mayor of New York City in 1965.

*The Conservative Party's battles with John Lindsay in the late Sixties.

*The senatorial victory of Conservative James Buckley in 1970.

*The Conservative response to New York City's fiscal crisis.

*The Party's love-hate relationship with Rudy Giuliani.Fighting the Good Fight confirms Ronald Reagan's observation that "The Conservative Party has established itself as a preeminent force in New York politics and an important part of our political history." ... Read more

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Conservatively Speaking....A Great Read
"Fighting The Good Fight:A History of the New York Conservative Party" is an outstanding account of the New York State Conservative Party which was founded in 1962 as a counterpart to the decades-old Liberal Party.The book is written by George Marlin, a long-time player in Republican Party and Conservative Party circles in New York.Marlin ran for mayor of New York City on the Conservative Party line in 1993 when Rudy Giuliani defeated David Dinkins (he got 1% of the vote).

In New York State, cross-party endorsements are permitted in tabulating election returns:this enables candidates from the two major parties to accumulate additional votes on smaller party lines.This gives parties like the Conservative Party important leverage, since their philosophical strengths can be translated into votes on Election Day that can reward or punish politicians (usually Republican) who veer too far off course.The New York State Conservative Party also holds the distinction of electing one of its own, James Buckley (William's F.'s brother), to the United States Senate in 1970, defeating both the Republican and Democratic nominees in a three-way race.Prior to the formation of the Conservative Party in 1962, both the Democrats AND Republicans running statewide and locally courted the Liberal Party line and endorsement.It was this influence on the GOP by the state Liberal Party and New York's liberal establishment that so infuriated local conservatives, who were fed up with the big spending policies of Nelson Rockefeller and later, John Lindsay.

Marlin's book is a fascinating grassroots look at the Conservative Party from an individual who was one of the young foot soldiers in the late 1960's (you can read about Marlin literally getting "roughed up" while working on William F. Buckley's campaign to unseat Mayor John Lindsay in 1965).The book has meticulous detail and recollection of specific events, times, and places.Marlin liberally (!) quotes from many Conservative Party veterans and current members, including Mike Long, the current chairman of the party.The result is an in-depth look not only at the building and evolution of a small band of committed, principled individuals looking to "make their mark" but also a very good historical review of New York State politics from the 1950's onward.

Marlin's background as an investment banker and finance professional is clearly evident when discussing the many budgetary gimmicks and debt-accumulating policies that both New York City and New York State have engaged in these many decades.Whereas New York City had its baptism of fire in the fiscal crisis of 1975, the state government -- with larger resources (read: tax revenues) at its command -- has been able to delay and postpone the day of reckoning.Judging by the recent political fiscal mismanagement up in Albany, it appears that New York State -- like California in 2003 -- may finally be about hit the brick wall like her largest city did three decades earlier.

"Fighting The Good Fight" excels in a way that other books on the conservative movement do not.Marlin spends less time discussing philosophy and the national conservative movement than he does in paying attention to the Little Guys (and Gals) who made the New York State Conservative Party what it is today.In every chapter it seems like Marlin has gone out of his way to mention some loyal party volunteers who ran for office to keep the Conservative line active in some off-year elections, or volunteers who spent long hours working on nominating petitions, or locals who lent the party funds to meet expenses.Unlike the state Liberal Party, which could count on well-heeled financial and political elites to generously drop money into their lap, the Conservative Party had to rely mostly on small contributions from many people at the grassroots.Only in later years did the Conservative Party have any benefactors of any great social or financial standing, and even then they paled in comparison to the resources that their opponents could bank on.

Along with "Actions Speak Louder" by J. Daniel Mahoney (one of the 1962 founders of the New York State Conservative Party) and "The Unmaking Of A Mayor" by William F. Buckley, this is one of the must-read books in the trilogy of New York State conservative politics.Those books are important, but since they stop in the 1960's, to get a multi-decade look at the Conservative Party and New York State politics, "Fighting The Good Fight" is essential reading.If you are not a Republican or conservative, it will still offer an interesting and fascinating look at decades of New York State politics, and in particular, the fiscal follies and budget gimmicks that have plagued New York (both the city and state).

In 1962, when the Conservative Party was formed, New York State had the largest population in the country.It had the largest electoral base for presidential elections. Ten years later, California surpassed New York in population.Today, Texas and Florida have surpassed New York, which is down to 4th overall in the rankings.The loss of power and prestige for a state whose population has not grown at all in four decades is frightening.If New York City and New York State are to reverse the voting done by citizen's feet, they would do well to listen to the political prescriptions offered by George Marlin and the New York State Conservative Party.

Window on New York Politics over 40 Years
While this new work has obvious resonance for persons of a Conservative political persusion, its appeal should transcend the National Review readership.

George Marlin -- best known as the Conservative alternative to Giuliani and Dinkins in 1993 -- presents a fascinating chronicle of the unexpected rise of the Conservative movement in one of the nation's most avowedly liberal states.In the process, he provides an engaging -- albeit uni-dimensional -- history of New York politics over the past 40 years.

Marlin's book -- in concert with other political works on the period -- will help future generations to understand Conservatives' formidable electoral clout in the second half of the 20th Century, even in formerly liberal, urban bastions in the Northeast.A standout work in this genre is Samuel G. Freeman's "The Inheritance," published about six years ago (though regrettably out of print the last time I checked).

I did downgrade Marlin's book by one notch because of a higher-than-acceptable quotient of typographical errors, especially disappointing for a Christian Brothers-educated scholar.(Full disclosure: Marlin and I share a college alma mater.) ... Read more

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An affectionate portrait of the man who started it all

"With this graceful homage to Bill Buckley, two people who have known the pleasure of his company as friends and colleagues place him where he incontestably belongs--at the center of the conservative political movement that moved the center of American politics to the right."
--George F. Will, Newsweek

"Strictly Right paints an intimate and penetrating portrait of the elegant and multifaceted figure who has helped to add a new dimension to the American political canvas."
--Henry A. Kissinger

"Bill and I and others have been good friends for almost sixty years and I thought I knew of his life as well as anyone, but Linda and John have brought the events together in a magnificent story that surpasses all that we have absorbed. If you like and admire Bill, you must read this. If you don't, read it anyway--it will be good for you."
--Evan G. Galbraith, former Ambassador to France and Chairman of National Review

"Linda Bridges and John Coyne evoke the true old times, when every morning brought a noble chance, and every chance brought out William F. Buckley Jr., ready to write, speak, question, provoke, tease, or praise, in print, in person, or on the tube, as required. All honor to him, and to the authors who capture him in these pages."
--Richard Brookhiser, author of What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Incidentally Buckley
William F. Buckley Jr. is here and there in "Strictly Right." Beginning with what its dust jacket promises ("an affectionate portrait") the book, halfway through, first sheds fresh or exclusive information, then primary sources, then any coherent narrative on Buckley altogether -- ending in weirdly detached conjecture by authors whose orbit from the founder of National Review and patron of modern rightism was close, but not that close.

The drift would be OK if "the American Conservative Movement" were more than a subtitle. As the book progresses, biography is substituted by generic history, borrowed-interest anecdotes, and brittle gossip. The worst offense comes when the authors -- who apparently personally dislike Alfonse D'Amato -- take an opportunity to denigrate the former senator as they recount editorial lunches. Fair enough if they don't care for Al. But where does Buckley figure on that page? He is . . . referenced.

"Strictly Right" is an unsuccessful try at a difficult task. There's a characteristic noted by most who have written about Buckley, which is that Buckley was by all appearances hardworking, focused, private, and a little impersonal. He inclined not to biography but bibliography: fiction; nonfiction; commentary, in print and on television. Even in writing his many, touching eulogies, Buckley focused on the subject rather than on himself. Faced with that kind of reticence, biographers have had to search; or like these authors, really strain.

For those who wish to know the man, you can find William F. Buckley Jr. in the work of William F. Buckley Jr. At the very least you won't find him in this book.

readable background history
Linda Bridges gives us the background on how Buckley and his magazine helped transform the American political landscape. In witty fashion shows how this individual could help save the world while having a lot of fun on the way. Young people may not realize how lonely and beleaguered conservatives felt forty and fifty years ago. Those were heady times for young conservatives as well as the rabble-rousers of the New Left. People took ideas more seriously back then, too, not just the slogans and PR cliches that are our diet today.

Janis Starcs

Disappointing, much less than it could have been
I was very excited to read this book. In fact, I asked for it as a present. I have been following WFB since I was a teenager and couldn't wait to get a full picture of his professional life and his role within conservatism and the Republican Party.

Unfortunately, this is not the book for that.

The book is written from an insider's perspective, but a completely uncritical, cloying one. There is more time spent of social details about NR parties and what type of hostess and decorator Buckley's wife was than on editorial debates and business decisions. I was dumbfounded to have to wade through minute details of who skied with who and which daughter of this important person used to ride horses with this other important person when they were young. You will learn nothing about Firing Line, but a great deal about chateaus by the time you're finished. As another reviewer mentioned, it's also surprising how much space is given to each Buckley novel, including excerpts.

The authors, who were both involved in NR and Republican politics, can't resist being a substantial part of the story, turning it into more of a memoir of their experiences than a true account of Buckley's life and impact. You'll wonder throughout why so much time is spent on Spiro Agnew, who one of the authors worked for. Additionally, they reference themselves throughout with the odd device "one of the present authors" such as "one of the present authors recalls". You'll also find pages of shallow American history, such as a retelling of Vietnam.

Again, I truly wanted to love this book. I hesitate to write such a negative review, but I really feel like you should have a better idea of what to expect. For people who were supposedly such insiders, I don't know that you will gain any actual insight into WFB or learn new details that have not been made public elsewhere. It reads more like a scrapbook for former employees of NR, with an emphasis on staff personalities and health problems, the social calendar and the authors' own experience.

You can't judge a book by its title
I was quite disappointed.From its title I was expecting more details about Buckley's influence on the movement but instead there were tidbits with filler about his novels, his ski trips, and his sailing.Those details would have been important in a WFB bio.A reader curious about Buckley's influence on the movement would have instead been looking for what was not found in the book, which is more details about his conflict with the Birchers and the Randians, perhaps his differences with libertarians over immigration, with social conservatives over drug policy.I am hopeful that Hart's book will have more meat to it than the present study.

A warm and affectionate portrait, but with merit
There have been a number of books published in the last few years tracking the influence of "National Review" on the rise of the American conservative movement. And while all have their merits (at least, the two or three I've read so far all do), this was the most entertaining of the three. That's because in addition to being a history of "Buckleyite" or "National Review conservatism," so-called, it's also -- as the blurb on the back cover says -- "an affectionate portrait of the man who started it all."

The authors are long-time NR writers and editors and close associates of WFB, and so they don't claim to have produced a work with the olympian distance and objectivity (real or feigned) modern historiography seems to require. "Strictly Right" is a candid, relaxed, and very personal look at a man, a magazine, a movement, and the close ties between the three.

Fans of the man and the mag will certainly enjoy the authors' storytelling abilities and their recounting of interesting and half-forgotten episodes. Readers interested in the history of this form of conservatism would, I think, do well to pair this book with Jeff Hart's "The Making of the American Conservative Mind: National Review and Its Times" (2005) which, I think, does a better job placing NR in historical and political context (Bridges and Coyne cite "The Making..." in their bibliography). Hart is another NR insider, of course, and so his book too is fundamentally sympathetic to the people and ideas discussed. He, however, has a jaded view of the magazine's relevance to modern conservatism that -- at least to judge by this book -- Bridges and Coyne do not share.

From uniting selected strands of the Old Right in the 1950s to charting a course between neocons and paleocons today (the authors devote several pages to David Frum's 2003 NR ukase "Unpatriotic Conservatives," which read people like, well, me, out of conservatism ... at least as David Frum defines it), Bridges and Coyne do a fair job showing how NR has shaped how "conservatism" has been defined and understood on the American political spectrum.

When you get right down to it, though, this is a book about William F. Buckley, Jr. And in the absence of any full biography of the man since John B. Judis' "William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives" in 1988, it's about the best look we've yet had at the man who can justly claim to have had as much influence as anyone on the political and cultural direction of America in the second half of the 20th century. The admiring tone of this book may put off readers not already sympathetic to man and cause, and certainly points out the need for a more scholarly volume or two on the subject. But conservatives and even libertarians -- particularly the young conservatives Hart argues are disconnected from their historical and philosophical roots -- should find much in these pages to appreciate and enjoy. ... Read more