Gemini:
Sam Tanenhaus, in his recent biography, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, delves into how civil rights played a pivotal role in shaping and reorienting the basis of American life, especially within the conservative movement led by William F. Buckley Jr. Tanenhaus’s work, including his meticulous research and access to previously unknown archives, reveals that while Buckley Jr. presented himself as an elite intellectual, he also actively participated in and mobilized the “White backlash” vote against the Civil Rights Movement. This, according to Tanenhaus, involved secretly funding segregationist newspapers and White Citizen’s Councils in the South through his family. Tanenhaus highlights that Buckley’s public and private stances on civil rights demonstrate a foundational contradiction that continues to impact American politics today. The Civil Rights Movement, as described by Tanenhaus, was a movement of “deconsolidation”, aiming to dismantle the social and legal segregation prevalent in the country at the time, particularly in the South. This, he argues, forced a re-examination and eventual reorientation of the very fabric of American life and society, revealing a “ghost in the machine” of the conservative movement that continues to haunt American politics.
Grok:
Sam Tanenhaus’s Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America serves as a mirror image to Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, particularly in their treatments of the Civil Rights Movement and its impact on American conservatism. Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement argues that the Civil Rights Movement, while aimed at justice, created a new constitutional framework that prioritized race, gender, and sexuality, leading to a sense of alienation among many Americans and fueling a conservative backlash. He sees the movement as a source of division, replacing older constitutional norms with a system that bred resentment and paved the way for figures like Trump. Caldwell frames this as a top-down imposition of reforms that disrupted social stability, emphasizing the costs of these changes over their moral imperatives.
In contrast, Tanenhaus’s biography of William F. Buckley Jr. examines the Civil Rights Movement through the lens of Buckley’s personal and political evolution, portraying it as a force of “deconsolidation” that dismantled segregationist structures, particularly in the South. Tanenhaus highlights Buckley’s early opposition to civil rights, including his 1957 National Review editorial “Why the South Must Prevail”, where he defended white supremacy on cultural grounds, arguing that the “advanced race” should maintain control. Tanenhaus reveals Buckley’s covert support for segregationist causes, such as funding White Citizens’ Councils, which reflects a strategic alignment with the “White backlash” vote. Yet, Tanenhaus also notes Buckley’s later regret for these stances, acknowledging the federal government’s role in enforcing anti-discrimination laws. This shift underscores a tension within Buckley’s conservatism—a “ghost in the machine”—that mirrors the broader conservative movement’s struggle with civil rights.
The “mirror image” lies in their contrasting perspectives: Caldwell critiques the Civil Rights Movement as a disruptive force that birthed a new, divisive order, while Tanenhaus sees it as a necessary upheaval that exposed contradictions in Buckley’s conservatism, forcing a reorientation of American society. Caldwell focuses on the movement’s unintended consequences for national cohesion, while Tanenhaus emphasizes its role in revealing the moral and intellectual inconsistencies within the conservative movement, particularly Buckley’s initial resistance and eventual partial reconciliation. Both narratives address the movement’s profound impact, but Caldwell’s is a broader societal critique, while Tanenhaus’s is grounded in Buckley’s personal and ideological journey, with civil rights as a pivotal influence.
