this book seems choppy and seems to lack any particular direction. originally, i thought this to be the buckley version of "Strunk and White: Elements of Style" -- but it's not. buy it if you want to see some of Buckley's essays; however, i would recommend going to the archives on the National Review web site.

This book contains 94 of conservative pundit William F. Buckley's speeches from five decades, the 1950s through the 1990s. The 25 speeches from the '50s and '60s are very good and show Buckley at his best as a passionate conservative joining the current-affairs battles of those decades. The speeches from the later decades are uneven; by this point Buckley is secure in his reputation but can sometimes seem ossified. A prime example of this is the speech entitled "Without Marx or Jesus," in which Buckley is called upon to respond to the arguments of French intellectual Jacques Revel. It's clear that Buckley has no idea how to deal with Revel on Revel's own terms and Buckley tends to flee into a discussion of persons and institutions that are obscure today. But when Buckley is asked to orate on a subject friendly to him, he does well, such as in various commencement addresses which are, as David Brooks notes in his introduction, essentially theological orations. But to understand the political background of all the speeches in the last three decades of the last century, it seems that the dictum, "Well, I guess you had to be there," applies.

William F. Buckley may be the most influential American writer of the second half of the 20th century. A strong statement, but think about it. When he wielded his pen he defended freedom in an era when that concept was beginning to be considered passe. He famously jumped "athwart history, yelling 'stop!" With his elegant, cosmopolitan prose he made consevativism intellectually respectable. He advocated a philosophy that was faith-based, yet humane and rigorously inqusitive about the world. And he's one of the funniest damn writers around. One of his greatest contributions in the 1950's and 60's was his adamant insistence that anti-Semites, racists, and extremists like the John Birch Society weren't a legitimate part of the consevative movement. This advocacy of tolerance and respect for rationality sprang from the charity that comes from a properly understood religious faith. He always strongly supported Israel as the vessel of Western values in a dangerous part of the world.

This is a collection of speeches that Buckley gave over the course of a 40-year career. Because they were meant to be heard instead of read, they are more informal and less intimidating than some of his other work. One can find here a rich slice of recent American history from the perspective of one of the good guys.