Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America (Author Talk)

Sam Tanenhaus will do a reading, followed by a Q&A, of his work Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, which vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases: founding editor of National Review, syndicated columnist, Emmy-winning TV debater, bestselling spy novelist, ally of Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater, game-changing candidate for mayor of New York, mentor to Ronald Reagan. 

Tanenhaus also has uncovered the darker trail of Bill Buckley’s many exploits – his secret partnerships with Southern segregationists, his campaign to free a self-confessed murderer from death row, CIA missions in Latin America, collusions with Watergate felon Howard Hunt — and Buckley’s struggle in his last years to hold together a movement coming apart over the AIDS epidemic, culture wars, and the invasion of Iraq, even as his own media empire was unraveling. 

“Sam Tanenhaus is one of the premier biographers and storytellers today . . . a master craftsman of narrative and historical writing.”–Peter John Loewen, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University