We just talked with the journalist and historian Sam Tanenhaus about his new biography of William F. Buckley, Jr., Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. Tanenhaus told us about the new book, based on decades of research into Buckley’s life and the origins of the conservative movement. We also dug into the debates with figures like James Baldwin that were key in shaping American thinking in the 1960s, the difficulty of separating people from their politics, and how Buckley combined his knack for finding contradictions and pressure points in institutions with his pioneering media savvy to launch the culture war that led to the rise of Ronald Reagan and (as he wrote this past weekened in The New York Times) to the election of Donald Trump.
If you’re interested in how we got to our current political crisis, you won’t want to miss this one, and for much more, make sure to check out Tanenhaus’s new book.
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More Live conversations this week!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll speak to Working Families Party national director Maurice Mitchell. On Wednesday, June 4, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll meet with The Ink Book Club. And on Thursday, June 5, at 11 a.m. Eastern, we will be joined by lawyer and former United States Attorney Preet Bharara. We hope you can join us for all of our Live discussions!
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