Let Us Talk of Many Things : The Collected Speeches

by BUCKLEY, WILLIAM F. JR

• ISBN13: 9780761525516
• ISBN10: 0761525513
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles

Summary

William F. Buckley Jr. has long been admired for his remarkable gifts as a writer, debater, and orator. The man who helped ignite the modern conservative movement has for the past fifty years played a significant role in the great social debates that have shaped our country and indeed the world. In the course of his long career, he has given hundreds of speeches to generations of listeners. "A veritable treasure house. This book has long been awaited by those of us addicted to Buckley's profound, elegant, and witty commentary on the twentieth century." Henry A. Kissinge He has talked of many thingsfrom the Cold War to the passing of dear friends, from moral decay to the joys of sailing the open seas, from the defense of liberty to the comfort of faith. Here, collected for the first time, are Buckley's most memorable speeches, spanning five decadesfrom the precocious Yale student's Class Day address in 1950 to the elder commentator's accumulated wisdom at century's end. The speeches are one-of-a-kind snapshots that capture the breadth and depth of the ideological wars fought during our country's most turbulent days. They are also richly worded masterpieces of wit, eloquence, and persuasion. Including new commentary from the author that provides historical context for his speeches, this book is a celebration of an extraordinary public life. From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

"To brutes of the left, Mr. Buckley is Savonarola; to those on the right, he is St. Francis of Assisi. His most inimitable pieces are those that skewer the people he doesn?t like, of whom there is no shortage." That's how a <i>New York Times</i> essayist summed up William F. Buckley Jr. one of the most authentic and authoritative journalistic voices of conservatism today. <br><br><br>William F. Buckley was born in New York City in 1925. He graduated with honors from Yale University and has taught and studied at Yale, the University of Mexico, and the New School for Social Research.<br><br><br>In 1955 Mr. Buckley founded the conservative journal <i>National Review.</i> In 1962 he began his syndicated column, On the Right. Today it appears three times a week in over 300 newspapers here an

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Foreword	xvi
David Brooks
Notes from the Lecture Circuit: A New Yorker Essay	xxi
THE FIFTIES
Today We Are Educated Men	3	(4)
An address to fellow graduates
The Trojan Horse of American Education?	7	(6)
A defense of private schools
The Artist as Aggressor	13	(3)
On congressional investigations
Only Five Thousand Communists?	16	(4)
Welcoming the House Committee on Un-American Activities to town
Should Liberalism Be Repudiated?	20	(13)
Debating James Wechsler
THE SIXTIES
In the End, We Will Bury Him	33	(5)
Protesting Khrushchev's visit
Scholar, Fighter, Westerner	38	(3)
Introducing Jacques Soustelle
The Lonely Professor	41	(1)
Saluting O. Glenn Saxon
An Island of Hope	42	(6)
Defending Taiwan's independence
Norman Mailer and the American Right	48	(10)
A debate
What Could We Learn from a Communist?	58	(10)
An appeal to the Yale Political Union
Who Did Get Us into This Mess?	68	(6)
Debating Murray Kempton
The Impending Defeat of Barry Goldwater	74	(4)
Off the record, to the Young Amerians for Freedom
A Growing Spirit of Resistance	78	(7)
To the New York Conservative Party
The Free Society---What's That?	85	(3)
Applauding Henry Hazlitt
Buckley versus Buckley	88	(5)
A self-interview, on running for mayor of New York
The Heat of Mr. Truman's Kitchen	93	(3)
Celebrating National Review's tenth anniversary
On Selling Books to Booksellers	96	(4)
Addressing the American Booksellers Association
The Aimlessness of American Education	100	(8)
In defense of small colleges
``You Have Seen Too Much in China''	108	(4)
To a concerned organization
The Duty of the Educated Catholic	112	(5)
To a high-school honors society
Did You Kill Martin Luther King?	117	(6)
To the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Life with a Meticulous Collegue	123	(5)
Saluting William A. Rusher
On the Perspective of the Eighteen-Year-Old	128	(5)
To graduating high-school students
Words to the Counterrevolutionary Young	133	(12)
Addressing the Young Americans for Freedom
THE SEVENTIES
On the Well-Tempered Spirit	145	(4)
A commencement address
Resolutely on the Side of Yale's Survival	149	(3)
At a twentieth reunion
The Republic's Duty to Repress	152	(11)
To a conference of judges
``That Man I Trust''	163	(5)
Appreciating James L. Buckley
The World That Lenin Shaped	168	(11)
On visiting Brezhnev's Soviet Union
John Kerry's America	179	(5)
To the cadets of West Point
The West Berlin of China	184	(5)
Upon Taiwan's expulsion from the United Nations
Affection, Guidance, and Peanut Brittle	189	(2)
A special toast
On Preserving the Tokens of Hope and Truth	191	(6)
Saluting Henry Regnery
Without Marx or Jesus?	197	(5)
To the American Society of Newspaper Editors
The ``Leftwardmost Viable Candidate''	202	(6)
Debating John Kenneth Galbraith
The Terrible Sadness of Spiro Agnew	208	(3)
To the New York Conservative Party
The High Cost of Mr. Nixon's Deceptions	211	(2)
To the New York Conservtive Party
On Serving in the United Nations	213	(5)
Testimony to a Senate committee
No Dogs in China	218	(5)
At the National War College
The Courage of Friedrich Hayek	223	(12)
Addressing the Mont Pelerin Society
The Protracted Struggle against Cancer	235	(3)
To the American Cancer Society
A Salutary Impatience	238	(4)
A commencement address
Cold Water on the Spirit of Liberty	242	(7)
Replying to President Carter
The Reckless Generosity of John Chamberlain	249	(3)
A tribute
A Party for Henry Kissinger	252	(3)
A birthday toast
What Americanism Seeks to Be	255	(6)
To the Young Republicans
THE EIGHTIES
His Rhythms Were Not of This World	261	(2)
Remembering Allard Lowenstein
The Rudolph Valentino of the Marketplace	263	(5)
Saluting Milton Friedman
The Greatness of James Burnham	268	(4)
To a friend and mentor
Halfway between Servility and Hostility	272	(3)
At a historic college
Earl Warren and the Meaning of the Constitution	275	(2)
Addressing a class of future lawyers
Sing a Song of Praise to Failure	277	(10)
At a graduate business school
How Leo Cherne Spent Christmas	287	(3)
An introduction
10 Dowining Street: The Girls Club of Britian	290	(2)
A translantic salute
Moral Distinctions and Modern Warfare	292	(9)
Parsing nuclear war
Democracy and the Pursuit of Happiness	301	(7)
A commencement address
The Genesis of Blackford Oakes	308	(8)
On the distinctively American male
Waltzing at West 44th Street	316	(4)
An ode to the America's Cup
The Blood of Our Fathers Ran Strong	320	(2)
Celebrating National Review's thirtieth anniversary
The Distinguished Mr. Buckley	322	(2)
Introducing a best-selling novelist
On Her Way to the Cross	324	(5)
Remembering Clare Boothe Luce
Out of Oppression, a Political Poet	329	(3)
Introducing Vladimir Bukovsky
The Massive Eminence of Dr. Sakharov	332	(2)
A salute
Towards a Recovery of Gratitude	334	(3)
To the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
A Hero of the Reagan Revolution	337	(2)
Applauding Jack Kemp
The Pagan Love Song of Murray Kempton	339	(8)
An appreciation
THE NINETIES
Dismantling the Evil Empire	347	(4)
On the end of the Soviet Union
The Simon Persona	351	(2)
A tribute to a critic
A Distinctive Gentility	353	(7)
Recollections of Yale
Time to Go to Bed	360	(4)
A valedictory
Taxation and the Rule of Law	364	(5)
Analyzing Reaganomics
Can Eastern Europe Be Saved?	369	(6)
To the Philadelphia Society
Singularly Humane	375	(3)
Introducing Aileen Mehle
``If He Gives the Blessing...''	378	(2)
A toast to Monsignor Eugene Clark
We Won. What Now?	380	(3)
At the end of the Cold War
The Politics of the Common Man	383	(4)
On modern political manners
``Better Redwoods than Deadwoods''	387	(2)
Encountering Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
The Architectural Splendor of Barry Goldwater	389	(3)
A tribute
From Wm to Wm	392	(5)
Remembering William F. Rickenbacker
O.J. Simpson and Other Ills	397	(7)
Analyzing current concerns
The Drug War Is Not Working	404	(5)
To the New York City Bar Association
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men	409	(7)
To the twelfth International Churchill Conference
The Underperformance of the Press	416	(10)
The Theodore H. White Memorial Lecture
The Mother Hen of Modern Conservatism	426	(3)
Introducing Lady Thatcher
Who Cares If Homer Nodded?	429	(5)
To the graduating class
How to Work, How to Read, How to Love	434	(1)
Remembering Richard Clurman
A Serene Gravity	435	(2)
Acknowledging Walter Cronkite
The Special Responsibility of Conservatives	437	(6)
To the International Conservative Congress
The Personal Grace of J.K. Galbraith	443	(2)
A birthday tribute
A Man Who Looks the Beggar in the Face	445	(2)
Saluting William E. Simon
Forgiving the Unforgivable	447	(10)
On President Clinton's problem
The Animating Indiscretions of Ronald Reagan	457	(7)
A birthday tribute
Preserving the Heritage	464	(15)
On the Heritage Foundation's twenty-fifth anniversary
Index	479