Book Review: God & Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, Jr.

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Williams F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008), God rest his soul. Not many in the twentieth century could match his combination of wit, charm, eloquence and sagacity. I loved to hear him speak. I happen to learn auditorily, so for me Buckley was like a rare vocal pool of Bethesda. I would have asked to learn to ride a bicycle over had he offered to teach me.

If you get to read him, I encourage you to listen to him first. Then, when you read this book or any other, you will hear Buckley in all his judicious decrescendo splendor. God and Man at Yale was the first book in his illustrious and prolific career. Here's my review:

"All the force of Firing Line is present in God & Man at Yale, Buckley's first volley across the line of the liberal academic hegemony. An eager young student at Yale, Buckley finds that the elite of his university treated intellectual dissent, particularly of the conservative or classical kind, like a descent into mimetic, clamorous barbarism. Buckley reminds us that truth doesn't always win, it must be defended, and rather the history of humanity is marked by the concomitant path of novelty and demise. Buckley prophetically looks into the future of society by looking at the present state of his university. A worthy read for any Buckley 'fan' or interested historian in the history of education and how the 60's was no revolution but rather the fruit of an intentional pedagogical programme."