Buckley Review
My review of Reid Buckley’s history of his clan, An American Family: The Buckleys, is now on-line. I knew that William F. Buckley Sr. was very much a noninterventionist and man of the Old Right, but I didn’t know just how true that was until I read Reid’s book, which I highly recommend.
At some point I’d like to write an essay on three generations of the Buckley family, tracking their involvement with main currents of American conservatism from the Old Right (Will Buckley) to the Cold War (Bill Buckley) to post-movement conservatism (Christopher Buckley).
Explore posts in the same categories: Books, Conservatism, magazines
August 18th, 2008 at 4:16 am
A Buckley roman-fleuve - what a capital idea, Daniel! And you’re just the chap with the chops to pull it off.
Yes, Chris Buckley seems a worthy subject after Austin Bramwell’s recent strictures, i.e., a non-movement figure whose talent has taken him well into the cultural mainstream, which latter’s presumed icesheet monolith, a convenient article of faith among many on the right, dissolves under disciplined scrutiny. Think Henry Hazlitt’s 32 years at, successively, the NYT and Newsweek, Buckley’s contrarian libertarian pal (and collaborator) John Tierney at the NYT today, James Grant’s NYT op-eds on credit crises, Nock in Harper’s and the Atlantic, all immunised from ghettoed habits in an ideological age.
A little movement immersion, especially in youth, isn’t the worst thing in the world, provided its limits and diminishing returns are recognized speedily enough. But the way of the true artist wills out in outgrowing its confines soon enough, assuming a capacity for ongrowing growth. By the age of 20 or so, wearing funny hats and booing on cue at conventions are *so* CPAC.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:21 am
I loved your temporary storming of the archival Bastille over at the AmCon blog, which I forwarded to All My Usual Suspects under the header, “Free The AmCon 142!”
August 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Great review. Will Buckley Sr is my new hero.
Lesson to be learned, keep the kids in Texas. Stay away from CT.