Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Book Overview

If any two people can be called indispensable in launching the conservative movement in American politics, they are William F. Buckley Jr. and Barry Goldwater. Buckley's National Review was at the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465008364
• ISBN13: 9780465008360
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Another well written masterpiece from W F Buckley, Jr.

Very well written account of Buckley's days as a Goldwater friend and supporter. Oh what could have been. This is a great trip back to the fifties through the seventies. Great inside accounts of a great friendship and the inside look into the dirty politics of liberal agendas. Read this book. And more importantly, have your children read it.

Flies High

I read this entire book within 12 hours, and I am no speed reader. There were times I could not put the book down. Buckley, as usual, had me scrambling for a dictionary a few times, but these stories he puts together are unforgettable. There was so much here I had never known, for instance the fact that Buckley played no role at all in the 1964 campaign (well, officially anyway). While I had heard the stories about Bozell writing Conscience of a Conservative, the way that book was revered in this book is also fascinating. The story about the 1964 Reagan speech on Goldwater's behalf was interesting, all the way from how it was funded to Goldwater's reaction to it to Reagan's reaction when Goldwater called him about it. My only complaint about the book; It wasn't longer. It would have liked to have known a little more about what appeared to be the final meeting between Buckley and Goldwater. If you've read Buckley's The Reagan I Knew, you know he talks in more details of their final meeting. If you're a fan of the '64 campaign, a fan of the movement, or a fan of either Buckley or Goldwater, you've got to give this book a try. If you give it 30 minutes, you can get a decent way into it and judge the rest.

Flying in the eye of the storm

I have enjoyed reading William Buckley through the years, whether it was his fiction with Blackford Oakes as the protagonist or his somewhat self-indulgent mini-autobiographies. His writing style is absolutely captivating. Flying High is a great read if you have any interest at all in the emergence of the modern day conservative movement. In light of the current political season and two candidates that are essentially trying to claim that they are moderate, or at the very least not on the extreme ends of the continuum as a liberal or a conservative, the story of conservatives not ashamed to identify themselves as such is somewhat refreshing. I am struck by the sheer force of character and the price that is paid to be a person of character, particularly in the world of rough and tumble politics. If you have never read anything about Goldwater, this would be a good start and you will no doubt want to read The Conscience of a Conservative, actually ghost written by Brent Bozell, though released under Goldwater's name.

Probably the perfect Goldwater Revolution book

The year was 1964 - President Kennedy had been martyred, and now-President Johnson looked unassailable. However, there was one man on the Conservative side who seemed willing to carry the flag, and seek to turn back the tide of Liberalism that was flowing out of Washington DC - Barry Goldwater, Au H2O. And there was one man who was always there, even if he wasn't the man the cameras were pointed at, Conservative author and thinker, William F. Buckley, Jr. This is a "what I saw at the revolution" type book. In a short, but informative narrative, Mr. Buckley takes us behind the scenes, showing who did what, and when, and why. I must admit to being largely ignorant of Barry Goldwater, but I found this book to be intriguing and informative, keeping me turning the pages and watching those heady days unfold. Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. It is short and easy to read, and yet packs quite a wallop - there is no unnecessary detail or wasted verbiage here! If you are interested in Barry Goldwater and/or where the modern Conservative movement came from, then you should get this book. I think that it is probably the perfect Goldwater Revolution book, and I give it my highest recommendations.

Snapshots of a Pivotal Moment in Time

Taking small snapshots, William F. Buckley, Jr., delivers a wonderful portrait of a pivotal time in American politics and journalism. From the 100 student activists who were part of the foundation to the modern conservative movement, to the oftentimes hilarious controversies caused by (wannabe) political insiders and adding new twists to key moments which may have faded from the pages of history, the 208 pages prove that richness is not only found in thick volumes. The friendship of Senator Barry Goldwater and Buckley, Jr., are found on each page, but this is a story of two extraordinary personalities who pushed away the clouds and reached to the blue sky, due to the realization that a revolution in political culture could be had over time by flying high.