Watch On The Right: Conservative Intellectuals In The Reagan Era

347 Pages·1991·5.758 MB·English

by  J. David Hoeveler

HISTORY OF AMERICAN THOUGHT AND CULTURE
Paul S. Boyer, General Editor

W atch
o n th e
R igh t
CONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUALS
IN THE REAGAN ERA
J. David Hoeveler, Jr.
The University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press
114 North Murray Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53715
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 1991
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hoeveler, J. David, 1943-
Watch on the right: conservative intellectuals in
the Reagan era / J. David Hoeveler, Jr.
348 pp. cm. — (History of American thought and culture)
Includes index.
1. Conservatism—United States—History—20th century. 2. United
States—Intellectual life—20th century. I. Title. II. Series.
JA84.U5H63 1990
320.52W73-dc20 90-13021
ISBN 0-299-12810-5 CIP
This book is for John

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
CHAPTER 1
The Lay of the Land 3
chapter 2
William F. Buckley, Jr.: Paterfamilias 23
c h a p t e r 3
George Will: American Whig 53
c h a p t e r 4
Irving Kristol: Bourgeois Gentilhomme 81
c h a p t e r 5
Hilton Kramer: On the Battlefield of Modernism 115
chapter 6
Jeane Kirkpatrick: America and the World 143
CHAPTER 7
Robert Nisbet: Resisting Leviathan 177
chapter 8
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.: H. L. Mencken à la Mode 207
vii
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER 9
Michael Novak: Capitalism and Catholicism 233
Afterword 271
Notes 287
Index 323
Acknowledgments
F or valuable assistance in writing this book I am greatly in­
debted to the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, whose
support enabled me to travel for interviews with the principals of this study.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee provided me a sabbatical leave that
also liberated time from other academic commitments. I also benefitted from
a fellowship appointment at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee during the last stages of work on the
book. Professor Ronald Lora of the University of Toledo gave the manuscript
a thorough and helpful review. Paul Boyer was all that I could ask for in
an editor, demanding but always encouraging. I learned a lot about the New
York intellectuals and Jewish writings when Mark Krupnick, then of the En­
glish department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and I offered
a seminar on these subjects in 1986. Of the several individuals who took
an interest in this book I am especially thankful to Franklin Buchta. Kari
Frederickson gave valuable assistance in helping me with reading page proofs.
And I want to express thanks to several individuals associated with the Univer­
sity of Wisconsin Press—Barbara Hanrahan, Elizabeth Steinberg, Carol Ol­
sen, Raphael Kadushin, Jim Sanford, and Angela Ray. I hope that my efforts
have been worthy of theirs.
I wish to thank Elliott Banfield for permission to reproduce his drawing
of Irving Kristol, which first appeared on the cover of the March 1979 issue
of The American Spectator, Vint Lawrence for permission to reproduce his
drawings of William F. Buckley, Jr., George Will, Hilton Kramer, and Jean
Kirkpatrick, which first appeared in The New Republic, and Shelly Fischman,
for his drawings of Robert Nisbet, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., and Michael Novak.
To my wife. Professor Diane Long Hoeveler, I am again appreciative of
her love and encouragement. This book is dedicated to our firstborn, John,
now ten years old. He and the book contested during the last several years
for his father’s time. But for all the pleasure it has been to write this book,
he has provided me the richer memories.
IX