Four Reforms

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Buckley, William F., Jr., Four A Guide For The Seventies

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American author and conservative commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing style was famed for its erudition, wit, and use of uncommon words.

Buckley was "arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century," according to George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement. "For an entire generation he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure." Buckley's primary intellectual achievement was to fuse traditional American political conservatism with economic libertarianism and anti-communism, laying the groundwork for the modern American conservatism of US Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and US President Ronald Reagan.

Buckley came on the public scene with his critical book God and Man at Yale (1951); among over fifty further books on writing, speaking, history, politics and sailing, were a series of novels featuring CIA agent Blackford Oakes. Buckley referred to himself "on and off" as either libertarian or conservative. He resided in New York City and Stamford, Connecticut, and often signed his name as "WFB." He was a practicing Catholic, regularly attending the traditional Latin Mass in Connecticut.

Reviews

[Bap · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in 1974 expecting to hate it but found the writing to be clear, persuasive and with telling force. I was not quite convinced but I had to admit that my predilictions were sorely tested with thsi intellectual giant of conservatism.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in 1973, Buckley laid out some of the reforms on welfare, taxes, and education that would gain support on conservative side. We don't have intellectuals on the conservative side who are as widely read as Buckley was - and it's a shame. Interesting to see that WFB was more conservative than libertarian at this point; his crime proposal was focused on curtailing the reach of the 5th amendment.