Know Your Enemy - A Complicated Man: William F. Buckley, Jr. (w/ Sam Tanenhaus)

Matt and Sam talk to Sam Tanenhaus about his long-awaited biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.

Duration: 1h 52m
Broadcast on: 04 Jul 2025
Audio Format: other

This episode is one that Matt and Sam have been anticipating for years: after two-and-a-half decades of research and writing, Sam Tanehaus's authoritative biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.—youthful booster of America First, enfant terrible at Yale, CIA agent, founder of National Review, best-selling author, brilliant television host, and more—has blessedly arrived. Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America stretches to just under 900 pages of text, before you get to the endnotes and index, an appropriately epic biography of an overstuffed, consequential life, containing far more than could be covered in a single episode. This conversation focuses on the challenges of writing a biography of a man whose archives rivaled those found in presidential libraries; Tanenhaus's discovery of a newspaper the Buckley's owned in South Carolina that essentially was a mouthpiece for the White Citizens' Council, and the Southern roots of Buckley's "northern segregationist" politics; the influence of his oilman father, who fled the revolution in Mexico and instilled anti-communist politics, as well as the Catholic faith, in his children; Buckley's role in forging the post-war conservative movement, through National Review and his frenetic endeavors as a columnist and speaker; the controversies, disappointments, failures, and triumphs of his decades-long career; and more.

Sources:

Sam Tanenhaus, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America (2025)

— Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1997)

John Judis, William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives (1988)

Sam Adler-Bell, "A Practical Fanatic," The Idea Letters, June 26, 2025

Alexander Chee, "Mr. and Mrs. B.," Longreads, June 18, 2025

Christopher Owen, Heaven Can Indeed Fall: The Life of Willmoore Kendall, (2022)

Listen again to these Know Your Enemy episodes for background on:

Brent Bozell: "Keeping up with the Bozells," Feb 26, 2021

Willmoore Kendall: "The Long Farewell to Majority Rule? (w/ Joshua Tait)," May 17, 2021

Frank Meyer: "Frank Meyer, the Father of Fusionism," Nov 10, 2021

Joan Didion: "Joan Didion, Conservative (w/ Sam Tanenhaus)," Jan 13, 2022

William F. Buckley, Jr.: "Buckley for Mayor (w/ Sam Tanenhaus)," Aug 23, 2021

— "The Conservative and the Convict (w/ Sarah Weinman)," May 9, 2022

— "Consider the Cranks (w/ David Austin Walsh)," May 21, 2024

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

all right welcome listeners to episode 116 of Know Your Enemy I'm Matt Sippen your podcast co-host and I'm here as always with my great friend Sam of the Bell hey Samuel hi Matt this is gonna be a quick intro because listeners the way you've endured and suffered is over this is at long last our episode with Sam Tannenhouse about his new biography of William Buckley Jr. that's just out came out first week of June it's titled Buckley the man and the revolution that changed America yeah the book doesn't disappoint and Sam does not disappoint in this episode that's right one of the great racon tours of our time I could listen to Sam Tannenhouse talk forever which makes it a challenge as the podcast host I know I just want to kick back and listen to Tannenhouse spin as yarns but we have to keep them on track yes exactly I don't think we need to say too much more about the episode itself it's a long one we really appreciate how generous Sam Tannenhouse was with his time yeah an expertise and the book for those of you who don't have it I know many know your enemy listeners have it and have tweeted at us emailed about it that kind of thing it really is worth picking up it comes in at around 800 pages before you get to the footnotes and notes index that kind of thing so it is a doorstop of a book it's a tome but it's a brisk 800 pages I know that sounds like a joke but I felt that way for sure and this will come through in the conversation but Buckley I felt this way when I was writing my review of it Matt has a review of it too and there was something strange about it and you know something strange about talking about him too is that he's everywhere in this podcast he's the image for the podcast he comes up all the time he's obviously the convener of so many important moments in the intellectual history and the political history of the right but Buckley himself you know there's some amount of opacity about him it's kind of hard to nail him down it's hard to nail down what was so important about him was he really important was he a serious thinker was he a good writer like who was he and what is his importance to this history I feel like one thing you can certainly say that Sam's book accomplishes is to really identify what it is that Bill Buckley did and what it was that he did that maybe nobody else could have done well I don't think we need to elaborate on that Sam shall we get some housekeeping items yeah as always we're grateful to our partners at Descent one thing they do is they sponsor the podcast and that means when you subscribe if you subscribe to know your enemy on our patreon at patreon.com slash know your enemy for ten dollars a month or more not only do you get access to all of our bonus episodes you also get a free digital subscription to Descent and at that ten dollar or more amount a month you also can join the new your enemy discord server and of course for five dollars a month you get access to all of our bonus episodes of which there are many and will continue to be many good ones yeah for listeners who are hoping we'll do some zoron mom Donnie talk we're gonna do that next week of course it's like the best news that has happened in years frankly in terms of how it swelled my heart and made me hopeful in a way that makes me are nervous but hopeful yes a bunch of younger people I know who's you know this is the first really hopeful thing if they're on the left you know that's happened politically for a while they said Matt what's this feeling and I was like the last time I felt it was probably oh after the Nevada caucuses in like February 2020 hopefully it goes slightly better from this point forward than that trajectory did but in this season of politics you know we're so much is going on if you want our punditry most of it where we really let it all hang out

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam talk to Sam Tanenhaus about his long-awaited biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.