Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'william f. buckley'

August 19, 2025

Frank Meyer: The Triumphs of Mr. Fusionism

As political divisions widen across the American right on topics ranging from the proper conduct of economic policy to the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world, considerable attention has been given to the ensemble of ideas given the label “fusionism.” Continue Reading...
July 30, 2025

William F. Buckley Jr.: A Man for Our Season

Sam Tanenhaus’s new biography of William F. Buckley Jr. is not just another book—it is an event. The National Review founder originally authorized Tanenhaus to write it in the 1990s, inspired by the strength of Tanenhaus’s biography of the anticommunist journalist Whittaker Chambers. Continue Reading...
June 27, 2025

What Is a Conservative Novel?

Christopher J. Scalia’s 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven’t Read) is a good primer, but I would not recommend it to anyone who can identify Hemingway and Henry James by their styles. Continue Reading...
September 28, 2023

The Right’s Racial Suicide

“To be conservative,” wrote Michael Oakeshott, “is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery.” His definition of conservatism, not as a set of policy aspirations but as a deeper sensibility, explains the conservative respect for tradition and view of history as a source of norms—that’s the positive side. Continue Reading...
January 24, 2017

Video: Avik Roy on the end of cultural conservatism as we know it

Bill Buckley and Russell Kirk were leaders in building a movement of cultural conservatism to counter the dominant strain of liberalism that governed American politics following World War II. This movement would eventually lead to the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the end of the Cold War, as well as the rise of Republican congressional leadership in the 1990s and following. Continue Reading...
September 04, 2010

Jeremy Lott’s Life of William Buckley

The Thomas Nelson company sent me AmSpec alumnus Jeremy Lott’s William F. Buckley. I will write a full review later, but I have just begun the book and can already tell that Lott is going to bring attention to some underappreciated territory. Continue Reading...
June 11, 2010

Review: William F. Buckley Jr.

Lee Edwards calls William F. Buckley Jr. “The St. Paul of the conservative movement.” No other 20th century figure made such a vast contribution to the intellectual force of political conservatism. Continue Reading...