Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations : A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnibus

For more than half a century, William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading figure in the conservative movement in America. The magazine he founded in 1955, National Review, brought together writers representing every strand of conservative thought, and refined those ideas over the decades that followed. Buckley’s own writings were a significant part of this development. He was not a theoretician but a popularizer, someone who could bring conservative ideas to a vast audience through brilliant, vivid writing and lively wit.

Culled from millions of published words spanning nearly sixty years, Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuiminations offers Buckley’s commentary on the American and international scenes, in areas ranging from Kremlinology to rock music. The subjects are widely varied, but there are common threads linking them all: a love for the Western tradition and its American manifestation; the belief that human beings thrive best in a free society; the conviction that such a society is worth defending at all costs; and an appreciation for the quirky individuality that free people inevitably develop.

Linda Bridges was hired by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1969 for the editorial department of National Review and has been with NR ever since, including ten years as managing editor. In 2003 she moved to Buckley's personal staff, serving as his literary assistant. Her other books include Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (co-authored with John R. Coyne Jr.).
Roger Kimball is co-editor and publisher of The New Criterion and president and publisher of Encounter Books. He is also an art critic for the London Spectator and National Review and a regular columnist for Pajamas Media. Among his other books are Art's Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity and Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education.