MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewImmersive ... Tanenhaus’s case for Buckley’s significance is mostly tacit, as the book curiously lacks a formal introduction ... Tanenhaus ably covers Buckley’s central role in the emergence of postwar conservative politics ... Engaging if unsurprising as political history, as biography the book raises more questions than it answers. Tanenhaus strives to distinguish between Buckley the ideologue and Buckley the friend, but neither persona is fully rendered.
Max Boot
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewGripping ... Dives straight into the contradictions that defined the man ... Boot is particularly good at depicting 1920s small-town America, and he gives full consideration to how religion shaped Reagan’s outlook.
