Live Online Book Forum 

# *Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America*

Published By Random House • 2025 

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Date and Time 

November 17, 2025 12 - 1 PM EST 

Location 

Live Online 

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##### Featuring 

![Sam Tannenaus portrait](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-10/sam-tannenhaus-circle.jpeg?itok=sBb6Vx8u) 

Sam Tanenhaus 

Author, *Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America*

[![Walter Olson](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Walter%20Olson.jpg?itok=yhYxyT_7)](/people/walter-olson) 

[Walter Olson](/people/walter-olson)

Senior Fellow, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

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](mailto:wolson@cato.org) 

[![Steelman-cropped-4](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-06/Steelman-cropped-4.jpg?itok=L9eiw98p)](/people/aaron-steelman) 

[Aaron Steelman](/people/aaron-steelman)

Senior Fellow and Policy Advisor, Cato Institute

Few people exerted as profound an influence on the postwar conservative movement and the “fusionist” project of attempting to align libertarians with traditional conservatives on issues of shared interest as William F. Buckley Jr. The founder and longtime editor of *National Review*, Buckley hosted the weekly PBS program *Firing Line*, wrote a syndicated column, and authored roughly 50 books. He also found time to run for mayor of New York City in 1965. He had no real intention of winning but rather hoped to influence the terms of the debate over how the city was governed.

Buckley commissioned Sam Tanenhaus to write his biography. The result is the comprehensive *Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America.* Please join us on Monday, November 17, a week before what would have been Buckley’s 100th birthday, for an online discussion of the book and a man who helped shape public discussion for more than five decades.

![Buckley book cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2025-10/Buckley-book-cover.jpg?itok=W-oPWiyj) 

##### Featured Book 

### *[Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America](https://www.amazon.com/Buckley-Life-Revolution-Changed-America/dp/0375502343?tag=catoinstitute-20)*

In 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, twenty-five-year-old William F. Buckley, Jr., seized the public stage—and commanded it for the next half century as he led a new generation of conservative activists and ideologues to the peak of political power and cultural influence.

[Purchase Book](https://www.amazon.com/Buckley-Life-Revolution-Changed-America/dp/0375502343?tag=catoinstitute-20) 

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