Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater - Hardcover

Buckley Jr., William F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465008364 ISBN 13: 9780465008360

Publisher: Basic Books, 2008

Synopsis

If any two people can be called indispensable in launching the conservative movement in American politics, they are William F. Buckley Jr. and Barry Goldwater. Buckley's National Review was at the center of conservative political analysis from the mid-fifties onward. But the policy intellectuals knew that to actually change the way the country was run, they needed a presidential candidate, and the man they turned to was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was in many ways the perfect choice: self-reliant, unpretentious, unshakably honest and dashingly handsome, with a devoted following that grew throughout the fifties and early sixties. He possessed deep integrity and a sense of decency that made him a natural spokesman for conservative ideals. But his flaws were a product of his virtues. He wouldn't bend his opinions to make himself more popular, he insisted on using his own inexperienced advisors to run his presidential campaign, and in the end he electrified a large portion of the electorate but lost the great majority. Flying High is Buckley's partly fictional tribute to the man who was in many ways his alter ego in the conservative movement. It is the story of two men who looked as if they were on the losing side of political events, but were kept aloft by the conviction that in fact they were making history.

About this title

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr. is the author of fifty previous works of fiction and nonfiction. The founder and former editor-in-chief of National Review and former host of “Firing Line,” he has been one of the intellectual leaders of the right since the 1950s. He lives in Stamford, Connecticut, and New York City.

Reviews

This is the journeyman Bill Buckley. Part memoir, part political history and part reportage, Flying High sparkles with joie de vivre and syntactical expertise, giving lively accounts of Nikita Khrushchev's historic—and theatrical—visit to the United States, the 1960 Republican convention and fallout, and National Review's heady first years. Readers are made privy to Buckley's behind-closed-doors meetings with other right-wing mavens as they debate the John Birch Society, commission Buckley's brother-in-law, Brent Bozell, to ghostwrite The Conscience of a Conservative and attempt to propel its putative author Goldwater into political office—only to find themselves dramatically excluded from the 1964 campaign. Although the book's scattered time line is slightly jarring (Buckley jumps between the 1964 campaign and affectionate memories of Goldwater), that does not detract from this book's modest and utterly satisfying pleasures. (May)
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Buckley’s recent death casts a valedictory shadow over his posthumously published tribute to the man who, for an entire generation, gave American conservatism its most recognizable public face. In his own inimitable style—elegant yet edgy—the crown prince of conservative intellectuals recounts the decisive events that forged the paradoxical Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964. Though doomed to an abysmal electoral defeat, that campaign galvanized the conservative cadres who would go on to decades of political triumph. Predictably, Buckley highlights his own role in formulating Goldwater’s right-wing agenda and in promulgating that agenda through the magazine (National Review) he founded. More surprising for many readers will be the story of how Goldwater’s landmark political credo Conscience of a Conservative took shape through one of National Review’s carefully groomed correspondents acting as the author’s ghostwriter. Yet it was Goldwater’s own indomitable personal courage that converted a paper-and-ink philosophy into an unforgettable public presence, inspiring bold new hopes among the conservative Republicans who rallied to his banner. Buckley particularly highlights the unlikely circumstances that allowed a relatively new Republican convert—a B-movie actor named Ronald Reagan—to deliver a riveting speech in the waning hours of Goldwater’s ill-fated presidential run. A compelling reminder that individual personality still matters in the modern world of mass politics. --Bryce Christensen

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465008364
• ISBN 13: 9780465008360
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304