In 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, twenty-five-year-old William F. Buckley, Jr., seized the public stage—and commanded it for the next half century as he led a new generation of conservative activists and ideologues to the peak of political power and cultural influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full, uncensored story of his life and times, granting him extensive interviews and exclusive access to his most private papers. Thus began a deep investigation into the vast and often hidden universe of Bill Buckley and the modern conservative revolution.
Captivating ... Worth the wait. Painstakingly researched and beautifully crafted, Buckley is a capacious and incisive history of the modern conservative movement’s formative years, seen through the eyes of its intellectual leader — a man who, in Tanenhaus’s hands, is enthralling and infuriating by turns, but never boring ... It’s Tanenhaus’s great achievement to have bottled this magic, showing how Buckley played ringmaster in the conservative circus while consistently winning over political adversaries.
Colorful, comprehensive ... The narrative flows briskly: Tanenhaus streamlines decades of research and interviews ... Tanenhaus is fair to this complicated pundit — more than fair — and the payoff is worth it. Buckley is a milestone contribution to our understanding of the American Century.
Superb ... Tanenhaus has left us with a fair and balanced story of a life of purpose, one that was actively lived and whose echoes are still felt today.
