Right Time, Right Place

My first read of the new year is Richard Brookhiser’s Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement (2009). It provides a surprisingly candid account of life in the National Review bubble. I recommend it to conservatives, intellectuals, aspiring writers, history buffs and political junkies who will appreciate its breezy summary of Buckley’s professional life and influence on world events over the past four or five decades. Brookhiser weaves Buckley’s biography with his own, framing both with the major political and world events of recent history. Unfortunately he dwells too long on, and returns too often to, his frustration with Buckley for backing off his promise that the magazine would be Brookhiser’s to inherit. Otherwise the account moves along rapidly, revealing a portal into the conservative movement and the major figures who gave it life. Those already familiar with Buckley, National Review, and conservative politicians may glean surprisingly few fresh insights, as he frequently turns to the same statements and anecdotes often quoted by others. We might trace this flaw to Brookhiser’s theory of political analysis, that “the most important things that happen in elections are the things that happen in public,” as developed in his first book, The Outside Story, an analysis of the 1984 campaigns. The theory may be apt, but it shouldn’t be applied to biographies. Perhaps Brookhiser, having written a string of books on the American founders, has come to rely too much on secondary sources, neglecting to offer much of his own account. Either way, he presents a compelling story.