Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State

by James L. Buckley

James L. Buckley may be the only American alive who has held high office in each branch of the federal government as senator of New York, undersecretary of state under Ronald Reagan, and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. His unique understanding of how Washington works equips him to address the intrusive and exponential growth of the federal government in the past forty years.

In Freedom at Risk, Buckley’s collected essays, musings, and speeches tell the real story of why government is incapable of managing an economy, and why the transformation of the federal government into a centrally administered welfare state is undermining the critical safeguards that the Founders wrote into the Constitution.

Here, in a sober book of perceptive analysis spanning a lifetime in Washington, lies an outline of the steps that must be taken to save constitutional government, if that is still possible.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[The American Conservative]

'Freedom at Risk collects almost 40 essays, speeches, and commentaries over this long career, covering subjects from the Cold War to environmental regulation, from foreign affairs and energy policy to campaign-finance reform and the role of judges. What comes through in Buckley’s impassioned but not overly partisan writing is that the federal system is broken and cannot be fixed unless certain features—federalism and judicial self-restraint chief among them—are reinstated.'

Read the full review, "Mr. Buckley Goes to Washington," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although published in 2010 this is a collection of 38 essays written over the course of the authors career in government. They relate to the following topics: Governance, the role of a judge, religion and public service, the environment, energy and its regulation, beyond the waters edge (international), reforms, cultural drift, womens right, a selection of radio commentaries, and - of historical interest.

The section on governance does a fine job explaining how bloated federal bureaucracy is, and how the 9th and 10th amendment are largely ignored.

The section on reforms is particularly enlightening as a portion deals with a Supreme Court case on campaign finance reform that the author was a plaintiff in, and won, in part.

Most of these were written in the 1970's and it's interesting to see how issues that pop up today affected us half a century ago, from the ERA amendment, to the Post Office, to the electoral college, etc.

The chapter on Radio Free Europe (which the author was President of for three years in the early 1980s was a great summary of the work it was involved in as well.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not even sure how this one ended up on my Kindle, but it was okay. I was underwhelmed at first, the prose was adequate, but it was a lot of "in my opinion" and "I believe" without a lot of anything else. It got a bit better when Buckley spent more time actually talking about his time serving in Congress, the executive branch, and on the bench. The fact that he served in all three branches of government does give him an interesting perspective. His characterization of Senate work and his reflections on the proper way to be a federal judge were perhaps the most insightful parts of the work. As for the more polemical parts of the work, they won't convince anyone who doesn't already see things from Buckley's view. And they're not even that much red meat for the true believers, because there are far better works out there for that. If you're going to spend the time to read this, it's because you're interested to hear about his government experience per se and his lessons learned from them. A good enough read, but it doesn't belong at the top of any to-read list.

[John Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Know the Author. Wisdom at its best.