Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement [Hardcover]

Linda Bridges (Author), John R. Coyne Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471758175 | ISBN-13: 978-0471758174 | Publication Date: April 13, 2007 | Edition: 1

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

Editorial Reviews

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

"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

"Bill and I and others have been good friends for almost 60 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

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

Can any other magazine of ideas match the impact of National Review? Almost alone, it articulated and launched the modern conservative movement, helping change the face of American politics and win the Cold War in the process. A remarkable magazine, but no more so than its creator, Bill Buckley, whose brilliance as a writer, editor, speaker, and mentor shaped many of today's cultural and political superstars. Strictly Right is fascinating, entertaining, and ultimately inspiring - the story of how one man and the magazine he created helped to transform American and - ultimately - the world."—Aram Backshian, Jr. Editor-in-Chief, American Speaker

From the Inside Flap

Would there be an American conservative movement without William F. Buckley Jr.? Perhaps. Would it be the robust, broad-based, politically dominant force that it is today? Almost certainly not. When he launched National Review in 1955, Buckley forged a powerful alliance among libertarians, traditionalists, anti-Communists, and other fractious factions of the right, focusing their attention on a single objective—to break the liberal stranglehold on America.

In Strictly Right, two longtime Buckley colleagues place his many accomplishments in their original contexts, both political and personal. Through colorful and revealing anecdotes from his many siblings, even more friends and allies, and, of course WFB himself, they take you behind the scenes for a unique view of the man, the journal, and how they shaped the most important political and social movement of the last half century.

This insightful profile reveals how, starting in the days before anyone was sure what the term "conservative" meant, Buckley displayed a singular ability to seize the initiative on issues that resonated with a broad spectrum of right-wing groups. His indictment of the liberal educational establishment in his first book, God and Man at Yale, gained him national attention and provided a solid platform when, four years later, he struggled to find the money and the right people to build, not just a widely respected magazine, but a movement.

Though financing would continue to be a problem for National Review for years to come, staffing would not. The journal became a mecca for bright young conservatives of every stripe. Almost overnight, the political complexion of America changed.

Buckley soon became the nation's most visible conservative. The authors describe his role in Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and reveal how WFB's own failed run for mayor of New York City led to the creation of Firing Line, which allowed millions of television viewers to watch this witty, highly educated conservative calmly debate an endless stream of America's leading liberals. What National Review did for the conservative intelligentsia, Firing Line did for the silent majority.

Complete with telling personal stories, such as why WFB postponed the launch of National Review, how his sister's choice of colleges changed his future, and why he stopped riding his motor scooter to work, Strictly Right is an affectionate and well-earned tribute to the founding father of the conservative movement. It is must reading for anyone who enjoys lively political biography.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471758175
• ISBN-13: 978-0471758174
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #925,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Paean To WFB, May 15, 2007

By 

SCDay "SCD" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Hardcover)

William F. Buckley Jr. has been at the center of the conservative movement for more than half a century. In fact, it is more than fair to say, WFB is responsible for the conservative intellectual movement in the United States. At a crucial time WFB provided a forum for a diverse set of talented writers and thinkers to come together in a new magazine that is perhaps the most important journal of ideas in the 20th Century. Buckley's dedication to anti-communism and the intellectual defense for the position he and his writers provided was important in the face of liberal intellectuals (anti-anti-communists) who saw anti-communism as nothing more than the boorish antics of McCarthy and others. Later NR became the journal in exile for conservatives after Goldwater's defeat. Even later NR became the house organ of the Reagan Revolution.

Early on NR and WFB directly also challenged some of the less than pleasant strains of conservatism -- Birchers and Randian cultists leading to their ultimate peripheral status. WFB continued his influence with Firing Line, one of the few intellectually stimulating television debate shows (Firing Line was no Hardball or O'Reilly!).

The book gives Buckley his due as we see the formation of NR to its maturation as indispensable read for Goldwater and a Hollywood actor turned Governor turned President.

An enjoyable read.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, much less than it could have been, December 3, 2007

By 

Brian Bailey (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A warm and affectionate portrait, but with merit, August 10, 2007

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Hardcover)

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.