The Politics of William Buckley

William F. Buckley, Jr.—author and editor, lecturer and columnist, one-time mayoral candidate for New York City, and leading publicist for the body of thought that goes by the name of conservatism in America—is an intellectual of a very special kind. He is a celebrity intellectual. The celebrity intellectual is a creation of fairly recent times—a creation, specifically, of the television talk shows, of the interview as a staple of magazine publishing, and above all of the national conce...