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An American Family: The Buckleys

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I just finished reading this poignant tome and am quite surprised to find that this review shall be its first within this arena. I scarcely imagine that any hastily-crafted lines that I manage to put down can match the warmth, the elegance and the humility with which this book is written. Certainly, there are many other avenues with which to gain insight into the lives that were, and remain, the Buckley. "Miles To Go" comes to mind first, along with Priscilla's memoirs from The National Review days a close second, followed by the many other words/works of William Buckley, Jr. and Christopher. Nonetheless, this is a different take and, although there were never any doubts to begin with, upon its completion one is left with the unequivocal sense of a family firmly rooted in all that has come to be colloquially know as "family values," and one which served as a bastion of Conservatism, duty and honor. It's a fine portrait that has been crafted here, and one which will futher serve to solidfy the warm admiration of William Buckley, Jr. and his family.

Highly recommended - for Buckley-ites, as well as non.

Reid Buckley (RIP) has masterfully written an insightful memoir of a family (his own) that, along with many other families, formed the backbone of a once-great Country, a dynamic culture regrettably on the wane.

As one would expect, coming as it does from the Buckleys, this book entertains and informs, amuses and instructs, simultaneously opens the heart and breaks it with reminiscences quite common to us all. Primarily, Mr. Buckley's words address both the individual's and the culture's soul.

If you presume that the Buckley family of the passed and passing generations was comprised of elitist snobs, that presumption will be dispelled; unless, of course, you consider those who place God, Family, and Country (and in that order) first are somehow representative of primordial elitism.

One might ask: "How could one family produce so many creative and successful citizens?" The answer is to be found in the Buckley definitions of "citizenry" and "success." For that you will have to turn especially to Chapter 12: "The Mexican Impact and Its Legacy" and pages 253 and 254 (the Buckley inheritance contraindicating that of materialism). Therein is established a propaedeutic on both concepts.

You will love this book because it exemplifies what is being lost in the present generation of America; you will identify with the Buckleys and you will sense a loss. In doing so, you may be caused to engage in recovering what is being withered away. Reid Buckley, and Bill, etc., have left their fellow-citizens a legacy - a gift. This book is the culmination of their contribution.

I have been fascinated with the Buckley's since I first discovered a copy of National Review at a teenage friend's home in the 1960's. Throughout the succeeding decades I gobbled up anything Buckley. I must admit after reading Reid's book, that they are a different type of Irish American especially when juxtaposed with the Kennedy's of Massachusetts. However when you combine a heritage of Wild West frontier, New Orleans, Swiss heritage, oil money with a big heaping teaspoon of old fashioned Catholicism you get the Buckley's. You'll read this book with a feeling of nostalgia for a time and place that has disappeared forever just as the New York City of my childhood is long gone as well as the parents and grandparents who were once part of that world. Mr. Buckley writes with this nostalgic tone while at the same time still railing and kicking about what is wrong with this modern world. What would his beloved parents think of this non-republic USA, gay marriage, inarticulate President, Brittney Spears et al.? Alas, the Buckley's and their kind s we will see no more and what a treasure they were while these two generations graced our world. Thank you Mr. Buckley for a delightful glimpse of your wonderful world and a description of the family values that made this a great country.

"An American Family: The Buckleys," is the story of a youthful and ambitious clan that grew great together with the young and ambitious country in which they lived.

We have before us a gaggle of children born with the 20th Century. Children reared by proper and upright parents who accepted nothing less than perfection from them. In exchange they gained lives on sprawling estates with names like "Great Elm," and "Kamschatka."

They pursued overseas educations and employed nannies who alternately taught French and administered castor oil. They rode horses, walked their property lines shooting quail and rabbits...

Of course, the Buckleys were not just any American family. the large brood of William Sr., and Aloise grew up to be a rather potent bunch who left their traces upon the thin ice of American culture.

This story charts trajectories of the famed conservative ideologue William Jr., the one-term Conservative Party senator from New York, James, and a bevy of other sisters and brothers in lesser, if equally loving, detail.

Nonetheless, brother Reid's real purpose here is scripting a Valentine to his parents. He crafts a recollection demonstrating the strength of their imprint on the offspring.

"Our bonding as a family of individuals has expressed itself in the social, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions in astonishing degree," the author writes. "Though we differ widely among ourselves, and almost always, when coming together, argue fiercely, it's often as though the ten of us were extruded from the same toothpaste tube."

Which is to say, not a single one of The Buckley's sprawling progeny strayed from the family's profound Catholicism or credo of self-reliance.

Buckley's mom has an interesting background out of old New Orleans, a sturdy character with positive energy, and discrete charms, and the author canonizes her in the way those of us who love our mothers do.

But the chestnut here is Bill Sr.

For those of you who thought the Buckleys were a blue-blooded crowd with fake English accents out of Connecticut, the family's southern, even Confederate, roots may come as something of a surprise.

Big Buckley hailed out of deep south Texas and made his first bundle of serious money in, of all places, Mexico. There he successfully "wildcatted," for oil and helped develop Tampico before his Catholic principles ran afoul of the new revolutionary (and anti-clerical) government, which threw him out of the country.

Dad was forced to "start all over," but not in the way most of us would, which is why his story is worth a read.

Buckley lived large for a number of years, popping children hither and thither, housing them in impressive realty, without letting on that his was a shirtsleeve operation. He eventually struck some more oil in Venezuela. Only then was the future security and prominence of the family America came to know assured.

The children's textured lives in Texas, Mexico, Connecticut and South Carolina make for worthy recounting and Reid, like all the lucky long-lived, enjoys the reserved grace of explaining a disappeared world to us.

An accomplished, if not widely celebrated novelist, Buckley's well-developed mind and pen combine to render credentialed insight regarding Mexico. He is, too, great at recalling the eccentric and authentic characters populating his past, delighting and reveling in them.

He is looking back on a fulfilling and eventful life.

The book's lure may dim for some when Reid Buckley steps aside to punch in an article written by one or another of his many siblings about the good old days, which they certainly were.

He declares conservatism, such as the clan purveyed, dead. And the brainy Buckleys do not appear to have much in common with that breed of rural no-nothings carrying the banner today.

"On the ideological level, we inherited an anachronism that we have tried lifelong to defend and perpetuate," he writes of the family's run through American politics. "Vain endeavor. Our parents were the product of a nation that has vanished, and we, their children, have manned the ramparts in defense of that ghost. From this standpoint, our existences have been futile, our works folly."

Indeed, "An American Family," views the world through the dark lens of an aged fellow looking backward, weighed down by the loss of so much family and so many contemporaries. It is a tome that loves the past.

His parents' time, he notes, "was the age of American infallibility. How lucky they were, both of them, born to the simultaneous emergence of our country from its international status as an exotic experiment in a faraway and uncouth region of the globe to become economically and militarily the central power on earth."

Reid Buckley is something of a fuddy-duddy. He seems proud of it, and even makes it look good. He likes what he likes, and don't be surprised if your lifestyle or personal philosophy doesn`t meet with his approval.

The things he approves of, and the type of person he admires, are gone from the scene, and this book recuperates their memory one last time.

This is a wonderful book. It shows us the joy,and sometimes sadness,which comes from being in a strong family.It also gives us wise political and cultural observations about what has made the USA great.It portrays the power of love. As WFBsr said, love for "God, Family,and Country in that order".In doing all this, it makes clear the profound good brought to this earth by disciplined,loving parents. It is full of awe inspiring history and stories about this great and hugely talented family. I laughed frequently,experienced sadness occasionally, and was inspired always. WFBjr was one my American heroes since my grad school days in Politics. I own more than 50 of his books and have cherished them all. Reid's new book will be a wonderful addition. I hope it can serve as powerful encouragement to all who love the American family and America itself.

Reid, once again, captures the truth of what our Founders sought. This time, through the personal story of his family, An American Family. What a gift he has given us!

When the two-hundred-year-old (at least) elm died,
the tree that gave its name to the Buckley home,
Great Elm, in Sharon, Connecticut, family members
planted maples, and watched them grow. So Reid
Buckley follows his family's lives--he tells what
each tree, each person has meant to his life, shares
the good times, accents the joy, looks back and looks
forward, looks within, looks around at his world.
I learned better ways to consider other people's
lifestyles and beliefs. I will re-read this book,
after I've lent it to my grandson, to whom WFBJr.
has been a guiding spirit.

This is an incredibly interesting book on one of the greatest American Families. It is written with love and depicts a true picture of the author and brother of William F. Buckley Jr.'s parents. Their pioneering and hard working spirits are a great example of what being an "American" is all about. Their priorities of God First, Family Second and America Third, is a great example for all of us to live by. Thier hard work and dedication to those 3 principles really shows how people can prosper, if they follow that path. It is also so very interesting to hear their history. They were amazing people and thru this writing, it made me sad to know that I did not know them personally. An incredible book of love and a joy to read!

A great book. A wonderful story. Keeps the reader glued until the end. Told in the classic storyteller style of the Buckleys. What a family! Especially enjoyed the anecdotes of Camden, South Carolina. Highly recommend.

Regardless of one's opinions of their political positions, the members of the Buckley family have led fascinating lives. Centered on the patriarch and matriarch of the Buckley clan, William F. Buckley, Sr. and Aloise Steiner Buckley, this book explores their world from the viewpoint of an intimate insider, their son Reid. At points the book is both touching (in the obvious love the author has for his parents and his siblings) and extremely funny (never has so prominent a family taken itself less seriously). Most of all, it describes a era (most of the twentieth century) that seems to have faded away like so many centuries before. But at least we have this wonderful book to remind us of how America, and Americans, used to be.