This week marks ten years since the death of William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of the post-World War II conservative movement. Buckley entered into the public consciousness when he published God and Man at Yale, which excoriated his alma mater for infecting its students with collectivist and atheist ideologies. Four years later, Buckley founded National Review to unite traditionalists and libertarians by their shared anti-communism within a conservative coalition that would “stand athwart history yelling stop.” He weeded out the kooks, bigots, and obsessive atheists—really, are there any other kind?—and his efforts lent intellectual heft as well as wit, grace, and charm to the American Right. His television show Firing Line aired for 33 years and became the longest-running public affairs program in history.
Ten years on, here are ten quintessential WFB moments for Buckley’s lapidary if not eristic intellectual progeny.
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