Person

Sam Tanenhaus

Bylines

What Made William F. Buckley So Unusual

The author of a new biography talks about the conservative journalist’s life and legacy.

by Sam Tanenhaus, Cullen Murphy via The Atlantic on June 1, 2025
When William F. Buckley Jr. Met James Baldwin

In 1965, the two intellectual giants squared off in a debate at Cambridge. It didn’t go quite as Buckley hoped.

by Sam Tanenhaus via The Atlantic on May 20, 2025
The Architect of the Radical Right

How the Nobel Prize–winning economist James M. Buchanan shaped today’s antigovernment politics.

by Sam Tanenhaus via The Atlantic on June 20, 2017
When Pat Buchanan Tried To Make America Great Again

If you're wondering how Trump happened, all you have to do is let Pat Buchanan beguile you with a history no one else can tell.

by Sam Tanenhaus via Esquire on April 5, 2017

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America

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William F. Buckley Jr. (far right) with his brother, New York senator James L. Buckley, Ronald Reagan, and Barry Goldwater at National Review’s twentieth-anniversary celebration, New York City, November 1975

Conservatism’s Baton Twirler

A Republican administration that wages war against immigrants and colleges should be understood as the culmination of William F. Buckley conservative movement.

by Osita Nwanevu via New York Review of Books on September 2, 2025

Brent Bozell and William F. Buckley, reading a book about Joseph McCarthy.

All In the Family

How William F. Buckley Jr. turned his father’s private convictions and prejudices into a major political movement.

by Paul Baumann via Commonweal on June 26, 2025

William F. Buckley during a press interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina, circa 1970s. (Alamy)

Steering Right

Sam Tanenhaus’s biography of William F. Buckley has certain limitations, but it captures the character of conservatism’s founding father.

by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on June 19, 2025

William Buckley stands behind a podium, surrounded by a throng of people, and waves.

The Real Bill Buckley

Even some liberals toasted William F. Buckley Jr. as a patrician gentleman. A long-awaited new biography corrects that record.

by Nicole Hemmer via Democracy Journal on June 17, 2025

William F. Buckley reclines behind a desk, glasses in hand, a bulletin board of National Review magazine material behind him.

The Conservative Intellectual Who Laid the Groundwork for Trump

The political vision that William F. Buckley helped forge was—and remains today—focused less on adhering to principles and more on ferreting out enemies.

by Jack McCordick via The New Republic on June 3, 2025

William F. Buckley Jr. at a press conference.

An Implausible Mr. Buckley

A new PBS documentary whitewashes the conservative founder of National Review.

by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on April 17, 2024

What Is the Role of the Historian?

Rethinking the job of history — and the American Historical Association — after the veto of the Gaza “scholasticide” resolution.

by Barbara Weinstein via HNN on February 4, 2025

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