My Friend, Bill Buckley
Sam Tanenhaus on William F. Buckley Jr., his legacy, and his impact on the modern American conservative movement. Plus: David on the end of DOGE and the novel Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington.
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Show Notes
On this episode of “The David Frum Show,” The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on the unceremonious end of the Department of Government Efficiency. He examines the legacy DOGE leaves behind, why it failed, and how it became yet another example of the Trump administration’s drive to make America’s government weaker and smaller.
David is then joined by the historian and biographer Sam Tanenhaus to discuss his sweeping new biography of William F. Buckley Jr., “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America.” Frum and Tanenhaus reflect on the Buckley they both knew, exploring his strengths, his flaws, and his influence on the American conservative movement from the 1960s onward.
Finally, David closes with a discussion of Booth Tarkington’s novel “Alice Adams” and the lessons we can still take from a once-celebrated, now often-derided work of American literature.
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