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More than two decades in the making, the definitive biography of William F. Buckley Jr. tells the story of America’s greatest conservative and the rise and fall of the movement he led.
Award-winning author and former New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus in conversation with internationally renowned concert pianist – and longtime friend of William F. Buckley Jr – Bruce Levingston for Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, a gripping and powerfully relevant story about the birth of the modern conservative movement and those who shaped it.
About the book
“Buckley is all that a biography could and should be: penetrating, deeply researched, respectful but critical.”—Beverly Gage, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of G-Man
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 prize-winning 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.
Buckley vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases: founding editor of National Review, the twentieth century’s most influential political journal; syndicated columnist, Emmy-winning TV debater, and bestselling spy novelist; ally of Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater; mentor to Ronald Reagan; game-changing candidate for mayor of New York.
Tanenhaus also has uncovered the darker trail of Bill Buckley’s secret exploits, including CIA missions in Latin America, dark collusions with Watergate felon Howard Hunt, and Buckley’s struggle in his last years to hold together a movement coming apart over the AIDS epidemic, culture wars, and the invasion of Iraq—even as his own media empire was unraveling.
At a crucial moment in American history, Buckley offers a gripping and powerfully relevant story about the birth of modern politics and those who shaped it.
About the author
Sam Tanenhaus, the former editor of The New York Times Book Review, is the author of the national bestsellers Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize) and The Death of Conservatism. His feature articles and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and many other publications in the United States and abroad.
About the conversation partner
Bruce Levingston was a longtime friend of William F. Buckley, Jr., and frequently sailed with him and performed music with him. In 1999, he hosted Buckley for a visit to Mississippi. Levingston is an internationally renowned concert pianist and recording artist and has appeared in many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. Levingston has released ten solo albums and is one of the most frequently streamed classical artists in the world with over 30 million streams on Apple Music and Spotify. Levingston’s album Heavy Sleep was named one of the “Best Classical Recordings of the Year” by The New York Times. Levingston is the author of Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull, a best-selling biography and survey of the work of the distinguished Mississippi artist. In 2006, Levingston was awarded the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and, in 2017, he was elected to the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. Levingston is the Chancellor’s Honors College Artist in Residence and holder of the Lester Glenn Fant Chair at the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College of the University of Mississippi.
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America
By Sam Tanenhaus
$40.00
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9780375502347
About the Author
