Sam Tanenhaus argues that William F. Buckley Jr. was far more of a performing ideologue than a serious intellectual: a charismatic debater and journalist, not a deep-thinking philosopher. Tanenhaus repeatedly points out that Buckley “did not think long or deeply. He was an intellectual entertainer … a controversialist, not a thinker” (Law & Liberty, Law & Liberty 2, WSJ, New Yorker, Democracy Journal, TLS, Quillette, Washington Post, Guardian, The Atlantic).
He faulted Buckley for failing to produce a sustaining conservative theory—he never wrote that definitive book on conservatism akin to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. His attempted Revolt Against the Masses remained incomplete, and Tanenhaus implies Buckley was “very good at discussing books he hadn’t read,” wielding style over substance (Claremont Review of Books).
Tanenhaus also critiques Buckley’s lack of rigorous research: he bragged about writing columns in twenty minutes and books on vacation, suggesting he disliked the work of research and stitched together political writing that sounded knowledgeable but lacked depth (Niskanen Center, New Yorker, Claremont Review of Books).
- Niskanen Center – “How William Buckley shaped the American right, with Sam Tanenhaus”
- New Yorker – Tanenhaus’s review of Buckley biography
- Claremont Review of Books – “Buckley at 100”
- Washington Post – review of Buckley biography
- WSJ – “Buckley and American Impresario”
- The Guardian – Tanenhaus on Buckley’s persona
- Democracy Journal – critique of Buckley’s style-over-substance
In short: Tanenhaus sees Buckley’s limitations as rooted in his preference for performance over philosophy, his inability to lay out enduring ideas, and a stylistic flair unaccompanied by intellectual seriousness.
Here are other common critques:
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Cribbing and intellectual laziness
Recent reviews highlight instances where Buckley borrowed heavily from writers like Garry Wills—even his own colleagues—leading to accusations of conceptual plagiarism. Critics argue this reflects his selective loyalty and distaste for rigorous authorship
(Democracy Journal). -
Style over substance
Buckley often favored rhetorical flair and quick hot takes over deep research. He boasted of writing columns in 20 minutes and entire books on vacation, a habit that critics argue prioritized theatrical performance over intellectual weight
(The New Yorker). -
Lack of coherent conservative theory
Though influential, Buckley never produced a definitive ideological work comparable to Burke’s or Rawls’. Critics say he lacked a comprehensive, durable conservative philosophy and leaned instead on polemics and personality-driven discourse
(The UnPopulist). -
Elitist and sometimes incoherent worldview
Buckley’s prose, while witty, sometimes included “inappropriate metaphors and inelegant syntax,” and he earned criticism for folding personal prejudices—racial or classist—into his conservative lens, undermining the clarity and moral grounding of his arguments
(Wikipedia). -
Superficial engagement with civil‑rights issues
Though he shifted over time, Buckley’s early opposition to federal civil rights legislation and his paternalistic framing of race issues have been viewed as snobbish rather than principled. Critics suggest his later regret lacked full accountability for earlier positions
(William Hogeland).
Bill Buckley’s Limitations as a Writer Reflected Bill Buckley’s Limitations as a Thinker
William F. Buckley Jr. is often remembered as the founding father of modern American conservatism, but his legacy as a thinker is inseparable from his limitations as a writer. In both form and substance, Buckley frequently chose performance over philosophy, flourish over depth. As Sam Tanenhaus argues in The New Yorker, Buckley was “an intellectual entertainer … a controversialist, not a thinker.”
Rather than producing a comprehensive conservative philosophy, Buckley preferred to react—through columns, debates, and editorials. He never wrote the conservative equivalent of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice or Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. His attempt at a big theoretical book, tentatively titled Revolt Against the Masses, was left unfinished (Claremont Review of Books).
His writing style mirrored this superficiality. Buckley famously boasted of writing columns in under 30 minutes and entire books while on vacation—an approach that prioritized cleverness and speed over research and rigor (Niskanen Center). Tanenhaus points out that Buckley often sounded authoritative on topics he hadn’t actually studied in depth, making him, in effect, “very good at discussing books he hadn’t read.”
At the core of Buckley’s approach was an elite sensibility, expressed through ornate vocabulary, elevated tone, and a clubby insiderism that appealed more to aesthetic than intellectual clarity. Critics noted that he used language not always to illuminate but to signal superiority—what Wikipedia calls “inappropriate metaphors and inelegant syntax.”
In substance, this same elitism colored his political views. His early defense of segregation, rejection of civil rights legislation, and slow evolution on race weren’t just moral blind spots—they were ideological evasions. As William Hogeland documents, Buckley never fully reckoned with the implications of his earlier stances. His prose evaded, rather than confronted, the hard moral reckonings at the center of 20th-century American politics.
In short, Buckley’s writing was not only flashy and fast—it was ideologically thin. His strengths as a polemicist masked his weaknesses as a philosopher. What made him effective in debate—wit, charisma, agility—left his intellectual legacy lighter than it first appears. As Democracy Journal notes, Buckley was less a builder of ideas than a broker of personalities and institutions. His writing and thinking, alike, were shaped more by posture than principle.
Comparing Buckley, Tanenhaus & Caldwell on Civil Rights and Writing
1. Buckley’s Early Views in the 1950s
In 1957, Buckley wrote in National Review that white Southerners were “entitled” to segregation until Black Americans attained sufficient cultural development—a position rooted in racial paternalism and denial of structural inequality (Wikipedia – Buckley on segregation). He argued in the famed 1965 Baldwin–Buckley Cambridge debate that racial inequality reflected cultural failings, not systemic injustice (Baldwin–Buckley debate – Wikipedia). His ideology favored individual responsibility and cultural explanations.
2. Buckley’s Superficial Shift in the 1960s–70s
After the Birmingham church bombing of 1963, Buckley softened his views: he condemned segregation publicly, endorsed affirmative action, and even commented that a Black president would be a “welcome tonic for the American soul” (Guardian review, Washington Post). Tanenhaus sees this shift not as moral courage but as pragmatic repositioning to protect Buckley’s conservative brand (Washington Post review, WSJ review).
3. Buckley’s Writing Mirrors Ideological Thinness
Buckley once bragged he could pen a magazine column in under 20 minutes and entire books while on vacation. Tanenhaus notes he was “good at discussing books he hadn’t read” and that he avoided deep research in favor of rhetorical flair. He describes Buckley as “an intellectual entertainer … a controversialist, not a thinker” (New Yorker review, WSJ review).
4. Tanenhaus’s View of Civil Rights and His Writing Style
Tanenhaus treats Buckley’s early segregationism and later evolution as emblematic of an ideological style rooted in aesthetic over analysis. He emphasizes that Buckley never fully confronted the moral failure of his earlier positions. As a writer, Tanenhaus is widely praised for scholarly rigor, archival depth, and narrative clarity. Critics in Claremont Review of Books and Quillette call him “gifted,” conscientious, and disciplined in sourcing (Claremont Review of Books, Quillette review).
5. Caldwell’s Thesis on Civil Rights
Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement argues that the 1964 Civil Rights Act effectively created a second, conflicting constitution—a “rival constitution” emphasizing identity-based rights enforced by courts and bureaucracy (“a second constitution … frequently incompatible” with the original) (Wikipedia – Caldwell’s constitutional thesis, Claremont Review of Books, Washington Post).
6. Caldwell’s Writing Style & Critique
Caldwell is known for wide-ranging, essayistic prose: conceptually bold, provocative, and highly quotable. American Affairs praises his intellectual punch, while Dissent cautions that he often frames sweeping polemics with selectivity and emotional resonance, rather than extensive documentation (American Affairs, Dissent).
7. Direct Contrast: Tanenhaus vs. Caldwell on Civil Rights
- Tanenhaus argues that Buckley’s civil rights evolution lacked philosophical depth, motivated by optics rather than moral clarity, and mirrored his superficial prose.
- Caldwell positions civil rights legislation itself as the catalyst for a new constitutional order—balancing moral intent against unintended political consequences.
- Tanenhaus critiques Buckley’s style‑first approach, while Caldwell’s argument is matched by his own essayistic, polemical style—provocative and analytical but sometimes lightly sourced.
- In effect: Buckley’s ideological and literary superficiality is unpacked by Tanenhaus’s scholarly prose; Caldwell critiques civil rights as structural shift with prose to match his historical-theoretical ambition.
Stephen Turner on Buckley, Tanenhaus, Caldwell, and Civil Rights as Claims to Expertise
1. Buckley: Performance as Authority
Stephen Turner, a leading scholar of expertise and the sociology of knowledge (Wikipedia – Stephen P. Turner), would likely interpret William F. Buckley Jr. as someone who accrued authority through performance, rather than epistemic rigor. Buckley’s quick-witted style, theatrical debate skills, and institutional power at National Review gave him the cultural capital of a public intellectual without the methodological or empirical depth typically associated with expertise (New Yorker – Tanenhaus on Buckley).
Turner might frame Buckley’s charisma as a form of symbolic capital—not rooted in scholarly production, but in his ability to define which views counted as intellectually “serious.” He helped shape the expert field of conservative thought while actively resisting its institutionalization through traditional means (e.g., peer review, theoretical rigor).
2. Tanenhaus: The Archivist of Authority
Sam Tanenhaus would likely be seen by Turner as a practitioner of archival expertise. His critical biography of Buckley is grounded in deep documentation, institutional memory, and narrative framing. Tanenhaus discredits Buckley not simply by pointing out where he was wrong—but by showing how shallow and stylistic his ideological commitments were (Washington Post – Book Review, WSJ – “Intellectual Entertainer”).
In Turner’s terms, Tanenhaus is performing second-order expertise: critiquing how Buckley’s authority was manufactured and legitimized through performance rather than substance. His own authority emerges from his thoroughness, his use of archives, and his moral seriousness in evaluating political legacies.
3. Caldwell: Authority by Theoretical Boldness
Christopher Caldwell’s argument in The Age of Entitlement would likely strike Turner as a classic case of assertive conceptual expertise. Caldwell proposes that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created a “rival constitution,” fundamentally altering American political order. It’s not a legal argument in the scholarly sense—it’s a bold interpretive thesis aimed at reconfiguring how readers understand American governance (Claremont Review of Books, Washington Post – Critique of Caldwell).
Turner might say Caldwell’s expertise rests on narrative confidence rather than methodological consensus. His writing is clear, forceful, and structured, but often selective in engagement. It draws its authority from rhetorical design and theoretical ambition, not from consensus-building among legal scholars or historians.
4. Civil Rights as a Contest Over Expert Authority
Turner would likely view the civil rights debate here not simply as moral or political—but as a clash over who gets to define social reality. Buckley used elite positioning and prose to justify segregation under the guise of cultural hierarchy. Tanenhaus challenges that authority through documented moral critique. Caldwell reclaims authority by reframing the legal aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement as a constitutional rupture.
5. Summary Table: How Expertise Operates
| Thinker | Mode of Authority | Expertise Style |
|---|---|---|
| William F. Buckley Jr. | Charisma, institutional control, stylistic dominance | Performative and polemical |
| Sam Tanenhaus | Archival mastery, biographical excavation | Sober, moral-historical, source-rich |
| Christopher Caldwell | Theoretical redefinition, cultural narrative | Bold, structured, polemical |
| Stephen Turner (meta-view) | Sociologist of how all the above construct legitimacy | Analyzes how rhetorical and institutional forces shape what counts as “expertise” |
Carl Schmitt’s Take on the Buckley–Tanenhaus–Caldwell Debate
1. Authority as Decision—not Research
Carl Schmitt, known for defining sovereignty as the power to decide in moments of crisis (“the sovereign is he who decides on the exception”), would see William F. Buckley Jr.’s authority as built on rhetorical theater and ideological positioning rather than substantive expertise (Stanford Encyclopedia – Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political – Wikipedia).
2. Buckley as Performative Expert
Schmitt would likely interpret Buckley’s rapid, stylish columns and persona-driven commentary as akin to “symbolic decisionism”: authority through performance, not through epistemic deliberation. Buckley makes declarative political judgments, not scholarly ones.
3. Tanenhaus: Institutional Critic as Counter‑Sovereign
Tanenhaus, providing archival critique and moral judgment, would attract Schmitt’s suspicion. Schmitt believed political legitimacy comes from decision, not moral historiography. He might see Tanenhaus’s archival depth as a challenge to performative sovereignty—a kind of critique that lacks its own decisional center.
4. Caldwell: Thesis as Political Intervention
Caldwell’s “rival constitution” argument in The Age of Entitlement aligns metaphorically with Schmitt’s idea of political order redefined by decisions. Caldwell isn’t proposing emergency powers—but he is redefining constitutional legitimacy through polemical narrative. Schmitt would appreciate the decisional quality: a strong theoretical claim meant to reshape the political imagination.
5. Civil Rights & Political Conflict
Under Schmitt’s lens, the civil‑rights debate becomes less about morality and more about who defines friend/enemy categories and claims legitimacy. Buckley defined segregationists as a substantive cultural “other.” Tanenhaus argues back via moral-historical depth—but lacks decisive closure. Caldwell reframes rights legislation as a constitutional rupture, redefining the boundaries themselves.
6. Summary Table: Schmitt’s Grand View
| Figure | Mode of Authority | Schmitt’s Likely Judgment |
|---|---|---|
| Buckley | Rhetorical persona, public decisionism | Real authority without depth—style over scholarly substance |
| Tanenhaus | Archival moral critique, historical method | Cultural authority, but lacks the decisive act—more historian than sovereign |
| Caldwell | Theoretical reinterpretation of rights | Forms new intellectual order—fitting Schmittian decisionist logic |
What Would Rony Guldmann Say About Buckley, Tanenhaus, and Caldwell?
1. Buckley: The Self-Installed Aristocrat
Rony Guldmann, in his manuscript Conservative Cultural Oppression, frames William F. Buckley Jr. not just as a charismatic figure but as a cultural gatekeeper—someone who deployed “aristocratic hauteur” to elevate himself above both mass conservatism and democratic egalitarianism. Buckley’s shift on civil rights is read as performative: a rhetorical adjustment to maintain elite respectability without real ideological transformation.
Guldmann argues Buckley’s genteel racism and patrician tone created a form of exclusionary sophistication—a way of justifying elite dominance while claiming moral detachment. His writing, while stylish, functioned more like a brand than a philosophy. This aligns with Tanenhaus’s critique in The New Yorker of Buckley as “an intellectual entertainer.”
2. Tanenhaus: The Liberal Clerk
Guldmann is sharply critical of what he calls the “liberal intellectual priesthood.” In his view, writers like Sam Tanenhaus play the role of cultural clerks—archivists of moral failure who use hindsight to judge prior generations and reinforce current liberal norms. Tanenhaus’s methodical dismantling of Buckley’s inconsistencies is, to Guldmann, less about truth than about institutional discipline: deciding who gets to remain in the canon of acceptable public thought.
In this light, Tanenhaus’s archival rigor and moral tone are tools of what Guldmann calls “respectability enforcement.” He might say that Tanenhaus replaces Buckley’s aristocratic judgment with technocratic-moral judgment—both forms of elite cultural policing.
3. Caldwell: Reaction with Moral Intent
Though Guldmann doesn’t address Christopher Caldwell directly, his critique of “right-wing lamentation” maps neatly onto Caldwell’s thesis in The Age of Entitlement. Caldwell argues that the Civil Rights Act created a “rival constitution,” displacing the Founders’ vision with an identity-based legal regime.
Guldmann would likely see this not as legal theory, but as a cultural grievance: a mourning of lost conservative authority wrapped in constitutional rhetoric. Like Buckley, Caldwell’s style carries the air of elite detachment, but his project is reactionary: to redefine legitimacy by asserting the trauma of liberal victory.
4. The Deeper Conflict: Cultural Sovereignty
Ultimately, Guldmann frames these debates as contests over cultural sovereignty: who defines the terms of moral seriousness, who gets labeled a “serious thinker,” and who polices the boundaries of public discourse. In this framework:
- Buckley claimed sovereignty through class-coded performance and gatekeeping.
- Tanenhaus reclaims that sovereignty through moral documentation and institutional critique.
- Caldwell mourns its loss and seeks restoration via historical narrative and constitutional reframing.
Guldmann’s overarching point is that both sides engage in what he calls conservative cultural oppression: policing dissent through elite norms—whether liberal or traditionalist. It’s not a battle over truth, but over who gets to speak with authority.
What Would Darel E. Paul Say About Buckley, Tanenhaus, and Caldwell?
1. Buckley as Precursor to Elite Progressivism
Darel E. Paul would likely see William F. Buckley Jr. as a transitional figure—an elite conservative who, despite his opposition to liberal cultural trends, ultimately shared in the elite class’s desire for respectability. Paul argues that America’s ruling class shifted from a “bourgeois moral consensus” to a “sacralized egalitarianism” led by professionals and cultural elites.
From this view, Buckley’s rhetorical flair and eventual softening on civil rights would be interpreted not as genuine transformation but as elite adaptation—just enough alignment with the new moral consensus to remain culturally relevant. His embrace of respectability politics would mark him, in Paul’s framework, as a conservative still beholden to elite status games.
2. Tanenhaus as Elite Enforcement Mechanism
Paul would almost certainly place Sam Tanenhaus in the role of cultural enforcer. Tanenhaus’s moral critique of Buckley fits Paul’s model of “elite progressivism” deploying moral universalism to police past and present dissent. Paul sees liberal elites as elevating equality to sacred status and demanding conformity through institutional and cultural pressure.
Thus, Tanenhaus’s critique of Buckley’s racial views wouldn’t just be about civil rights—it would be, in Paul’s terms, a ritual act of purification, aimed at establishing who may be admitted to the pantheon of “serious” intellectuals. Tanenhaus would be a priestly figure in what Paul calls the sacralized regime of diversity and inclusion.
3. Caldwell as Apostate Elite
Christopher Caldwell would likely be read by Paul as an apostate from elite consensus. In The Age of Entitlement, Caldwell argues that civil rights law fundamentally restructured American governance. Paul would agree with this premise, noting how rights-based liberalism replaced older constitutional norms with a managerial regime of identity-based redistribution and moral control.
Where Paul extends Caldwell’s logic is in pointing to elite complicity—that even conservative institutions have been folded into this new moral order. Caldwell sees a legal transformation; Paul sees a cultural hegemony, enforced not just by courts but by HR departments, media, universities, and credentialed gatekeepers like Tanenhaus.
4. Summary: Sacralized Authority and Cultural Policing
- Buckley anticipates modern conservative elites who accommodate progressive values to preserve elite status.
- Tanenhaus represents moral enforcement by the secular priesthood of liberal elites, purging ideological deviation.
- Caldwell critiques the system’s rules—but Paul would say he understates how deeply entrenched this sacralized order has become in every domain of elite life.
Paul would frame the entire discourse as a clash not just of ideologies or writing styles—but of rival priesthoods fighting over cultural legitimacy.
What Would Helen Andrews Say About the Buckley–Tanenhaus–Caldwell Dispute?
1. Buckley: Eloquence Without Resolve
Helen Andrews often critiques conservative elites who fail to translate rhetoric into real-world consequences. From that standpoint, she might regard William F. Buckley Jr. as a talented stylist whose genteel conservatism lacked the force needed to defend social order. Buckley’s eventual shift on civil rights, motivated more by elite consensus than principled reckoning, might strike Andrews as symbolic of the right’s perennial fear of being called names.
Her own analysis of Australian authorities in the grooming gang cases lauds unapologetic action over elite self-regard. By contrast, she might see Buckley’s posturing and equivocation—especially on race and civil rights—as the kind of weakness that allowed progressive hegemony to harden.
2. Tanenhaus: Clerical Scolding Without Responsibility
Andrews would likely place Sam Tanenhaus in the camp of “managerial liberalism,” offering post hoc judgment rather than real-time action. In his critique of Buckley, Tanenhaus emphasizes moral shortcomings, but Andrews might argue that he avoids the harder question of how liberalism itself facilitated social disorder while silencing efforts to name it.
Andrews’s own praise for Australia’s refusal to suppress the ethnic dimension of rape gangs would likely contrast with Tanenhaus’s alignment with liberal taboos. She values uncomfortable truth-telling over retrospective moral clarity.
3. Caldwell: The Realist of Structural Change
Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement argues that civil rights law fundamentally reshaped American sovereignty. Andrews would likely sympathize with Caldwell’s structural view of liberal dominance, especially given her emphasis on how Western societies have sacrificed communal security in the name of multicultural idealism.
She might see Caldwell, not Tanenhaus, as the more serious analyst: someone willing to examine the trade-offs and political disempowerment that resulted from elite liberal norms. If Tanenhaus focuses on personal racism, Caldwell focuses on institutional inversion—a theme that aligns more with Andrews’s warnings about what happens when native norms are displaced without resistance.
4. Helen Andrews’s Frame: Authority, Not Acceptance
In her essay, Andrews writes that “territory is about norms, not laws.” That line could easily double as a critique of both Buckley’s rhetorical conservatism and Tanenhaus’s retrospective liberalism. She champions the assertion of communal will—especially when it comes to defending the vulnerable—over elite respectability or moral nostalgia.
She would argue that Australia succeeded where the UK failed because its leaders were unafraid to name the threat, assert the majority’s moral norms, and act decisively. That instinct is closer to Caldwell’s realism than Tanenhaus’s clerical liberalism or Buckley’s patrician stylings.
What Would an Australian Bogan Say About All This?
“Mate, it’s all just a bunch of wankers arguin’ over who gets to write the rulebook. Buckley was some silver-tongued ponce who talked a lot without doin’ much. Tanenhaus is havin’ a go at him years later like a schoolteacher with a grudge. And that Caldwell bloke? He’s just tellin’ everyone the game was rigged the minute civil rights showed up. Boo hoo.”
“None of ’em have probably walked the rough end of town. They write books, do fancy debates, get published in places with names like The New Yorker and reckon they’re authorities on the people. Meanwhile, the people are out there dealin’ with the mess they pretend to analyze.”
“You know who gets it? That Helen Andrews chick. She at least had the guts to say the quiet part out loud in that grooming gangs essay. She reckons it’s about norms, not just bloody ‘values’ and hand-wringin’. And she’s right. If you want your country not to go to shit, you gotta be willing to say no—and not just in a book club.”
Final take? “Buckley’s too posh, Tanenhaus too smug, Caldwell too doomy. I’ll take someone who calls it like it is, doesn’t care who they offend, and isn’t afraid to act. The rest can keep writin’ their 500-page diaries.”