The Conservative Crack-Up

Mixing memoir with analysis, the author shows why recent Republican domination of the White House has not resulted in a political community and a vital philosophy

Tyrrell, editor of American Spectator , argues that a "conservative crack-up" began in 1987 with the rejection of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. The Bork hearings, in his view, typify the battles that conservatives are increasingly losing to "the infantile left." Melding memoir with political analysis, the book is at its most interesting when discussing individual conservatives the author has known--Irving Kristol, Luigi Barzini, William Casey, Malcolm Muggeridge, William F. Buckley--or when blasting such liberals as "the radical mountebank Jesse Jackson." The most memorable section of the book is a hilarious set-piece on an evening President Reagan arrived for dinner at the Tyrrell home accompanied by a battalion of Secret Service agents. The author asserts somewhat recklessly that Reagan was the most successful president since FDR. An amusing and occasionally clever commentator on the political scene, Tyrrell has a reputation as a debunker of balderdash. But in these pages it is not always clear what balderdash he is debunking.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The founder of The American Spectator and author of The Liberal Crack-Up (1984), etc., widens the scope of his satiric fire to include his fellow conservatives. Tyrrell is far kinder to his comrades on the right, however, than to his old enemies on the left. Writing with great wit that only occasionally is forced or flat, he offers fresh insight into Irving Kristol and the rise of the neoconservatives and provides revealing commentary on William F. Buckley, Jr. The entire book acts as a paean to what Tyrrell considers the political genius of Ronald Reagan, whom he believes was finally betrayed by ``pragmatists''; there is a lengthy and clever comparison of FDR and Reagan as the century's most successful presidents. Nationally syndicated columnist Tyrrell is at his best when he takes on the tide of political correctness inundating American universities, seeing in p.c. nothing less than an assault on the liberties its defenders claim to be trying to save. For Tyrrell, the ``conservative movement's'' shortcoming rests not so much in politics as in its failure to influence or dominate the American ``kultur'' that he sees as securely in the grip of his liberal opponents. The author's fear is that older conservatives have grown tired and that there is no young generation of conservatives ready to lead into the future. Tyrrell has a lot to say about virtually everything under the American political sun, and much of what he says is noteworthy; but some judicious editing would have pruned his more prickly pontifications. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Tyrrell first exposed liberal follies in The Liberal Crack-Up (S. & S., 1984). This time around, the editor of the conservative monthly American Spectator takes on his fellow conservatives. Part political analysis and part memoir, Tyrrell's book wittily examines the vagaries of post-World War II conservatism in America, especially during the Reagan years. While conservatism has become popular as a political philosophy, Tyrrell argues (quite correctly, this reviewer thinks) that conservatives have had little effect (or interest in effecting) wider cultural concerns. The lucid political commentary is spiced with vivid personal sketches of Ronald Reagan, Malcolm Muggeridge, William F. Buckley, Irving Kristol, Taki, and even Doc Counsilman, Tyrrell's legendary swimming coach at Indiana. All in all, a book of keen political insight and sometimes hilarious personal memoir. Recommended for general collections.
- Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&I Univ. Lib., Kingsville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.