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William F. Buckley Jr.

Up From Liberalism Paperback – October 15, 2011

by William F. Buckley Jr. (Author), Barry Morris Goldwater (Introduction), John Dos Passos (Foreword)

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This witty, piercing, and smart assessment of Liberalism is as relevent today as it was when it was first written 30 years ago. 5 cassettes.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Literary Licensing, LLC
Publication date

October 15, 2011
Dimensions

5.98 x 0.47 x 9.02 inches
ISBN-10

1258119838
ISBN-13

978-1258119836
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Literary Licensing, LLC (October 15, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1258119838
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1258119836
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.47 x 9.02 inches

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87 ratings

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Timeless

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2022

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What is old is new again. This book is as insightful today as it was in the 50's. It outlines the dilemma faced by conservatives in defining positions against the perceived loss of freedoms, expanding deficits, welfare, expanding state interferences with citizens lives. The beat goes on. The is much wit and humor in the Buckley style.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Long live the king

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2022

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I was surprised by how similar the dynamics of the left and right struggle are today 63 years later. Today's conservative must find its way back to the movement this man started. Updated but put back in line with principled conservativis.

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Aronne

Saying “I’m an Authoritarian” in the Fanciest Way Possible

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2020

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It’s probably for the best that William F. Buckley Jr.’s breathless and rambling style does little to mask the same loathsome ideology that animates American conservatism in 2020. He writes, “human beings are not equal, cannot be made equal, and must not be deemed equal other than before the law;” which is not, shall we say, the most heartwarming of sentiments.

Buckley’s adoration of hierarchy is reminiscent of unspeakable authoritarian rulers such as Augusto Pinochet, Francisco Franco, and Antonio Salazar—all of whom Buckley explicitly praised, the latter in this very book. Look up Buckley’s authoritarian heroes in an encyclopedia, and you’ll often find a section debating whether they were technically fascists or just dictators. Cool!

The primary merit of Up From Liberalism is that Buckley identifies a few of the key problems with his left counterpart. Even today, liberalism is bloodless, procedure-driven, and civility-obsessed. But Buckley doesn’t follow these observations with a call to democracy and liberation from hierarchy as a leftist would. Instead, Buckley writes, “I see no fixed correlation between the democratic society and the just society; and certainly none between the stable society and the democratic society.” To Buckley, the will of the people is a frustrating annoyance unless it coincides with what he wants.

He gets very mad at Eisenhower for losing a debate with a communist (lol), and later can’t quote a liberal at length without inserting bracketed rants. But there’s only so much laughter to be had.

He naively declares that the elimination of social security would result in businesses giving that money to employees (via wages) or consumers (via price cuts), something history has shown to be pure fantasy. He decries academic freedom as a wastefully endless search, because we already have the most important answers. And worst of all, he speaks warmly of the sympathy conservatives should feel for southern whites suddenly expected to end segregation. Suspiciously absent is the corresponding passage detailing his sympathy for black Americans.

This book is a gleaming gem in the crown of ideological evil that has produced the worst politicians of the past 50 years. William F. Buckley is grinning from hell, and I spit back into the void.

13 people found this helpful

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Mary V

Conservative

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2018

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I love William F Buckley. We lost him too soon. I’m sure he has turned over in his grave several time at the turn our country has taken. He had the liberals pegged many years ago. The extremely sad thing is, they seem to have won. They have brainwashed many of our youth, so that they have no idea how to think.
It is very discouraging, makes me glad I’m old and will not have to live in the world the liberals are making.
The only silver lining, they will pay

23 people found this helpful

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Ginganinja

Great Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2021

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An excellent book and a great edition. His wit and humor continue to amaze. Lovely guidance for the conservative mind especially in a populist period.

2 people found this helpful

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N. Foster

Read with a good dictionary in hand

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 13, 2017

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I read Buckley mostly to improve my vocabulary. If he thought university was liberal in the early 50s he should see it now. It is a festering hotbed
of uni-think where only "progressive" views are allowed. Anyone who disagrees with the official viewpoint is automatically a "Nazi", and is to be dealt with accordingly. No wonder universities are losing millions of dollars from alumni contributions.They should.

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Relevant Yesterday Today And Tomorrow

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 17, 2016

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Considerations to truly ponder. Not merely talking media heads screaming over one another in sound bites. Gets to the point and does not "topic pivot" when reality is "inconvenient" to a perspective. Respectful and gracious while humorous and poignant. Refreshing to see the "people stuff" is a forceful element to be reckoned with regardless of generation or culture. Whatever positions you hold, this work provides ample opportunity for the reader to identify, examine, and question with integrity the "why" behind the values one holds.

10 people found this helpful

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Tanner Shipman

Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 16, 2019

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This book gives an insight as to how we can conserve liberty and protect our great American values and freedoms. This is a must read and should be read by every American.

2 people found this helpful

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Occasional Thinker

Leftwingers poisoning academia back in the 1950s

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 14, 2017

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Quite an eye-opener. Published in 1959, and with lots of reference to the McCarthy era, this book astonished me by revealing that the dominance and poor behaviour of lefties in American academia was commonplace back then. It is of course currently at lunatic levels as illustrated at Evergreen and Berkeley and Amherst, and many many other places. Back to this book. It is well written, in a sort of old-fashioned style - old-fashioned because of understatement, low levels of repetition, good grammar, impressive vocabulary, and flowing prose. Sardonic also comes to mind.

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Up From Liberalism Paperback – October 15, 2011

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