Lee Edwards (1) (1932–2024)

In 1964, Lee Edwards was a young man working in the "Draft Goldwater" operation, a group of conservatives who were trying to persuade the Republican Party to nominate Barry Goldwater for president that year. (Goldwater hadn't announced a candidacy, or campaigned in the primaries.) Those were the days when "the kids" were supposed to be reliably liberal and Democratic. But it wasn't so, and Edwards knew it. He knew that hundreds of thousands of students were far more moderate in their views show more than the ones rioting and burning things down, and he wrote this book for them. It's basically a very practical manual for grassroots participatory politics: organizing, writing press releases, public speaking, etc. And, to those of us who were becoming politically active, it was a big help. The book has become utterly archaic in the Internet age, but it was useful for its time.

Since then, Edwards has gone on to be a mainstay of the "traditional" conservative movement: the Goldwater-Buckley-Reagan bunch, not the Trump-DeSantis bunch. He's written several presidential biographies, and is a senior fellow at the Heritage Institute. show less

A thoroughly disappointing biography from several angles. True, it gets the point across, it tells the story fairly well: the Catholic, conservative, wordsmith gave American conservatism an intellectual panache and foundation it lacked in the 1950s, when, in the wake of FDR, it had lost its way. It's true: without Goldwater, no Reagan; without Buckley, no Goldwater. Still, this book was little better than a well-written Wikipedia entry. There is no flair and no depth in this book. Instead of show more long expositions on the issues of the day, or his books, or his seminal articles, there is very little. Three skimpy paragraphs explain the Vidal incident. Books like Up From Liberalism are mentioned in passing. There no real exposition of anything. Instead of explaining John Lindsay, or Nelson Rockefeller, or what was going on at the time, you get a superficial view of what Buckley was doing to counter these straw men, because Lee Edwards, the author, gave these straw men no real flesh. This book could have used a hundred more pages, or, better, one hundred fifty. And pictures? Where are they? There are four small portraits that are strewn across just the first 62 pages, and they aren't even of the biography's subject. Instead there are these four dull pics of Nock, Kendall, Burnham, and Chambers. Why have pictures at all?

As I gave Buckley's witty "autobiography" Miles Gone By four stars, this gets half of that: two, I'll add a half to be nice.

Because of this book, I will not buy anything else by Lee Edwards. show less

03/11/2024 - A decent book which I did not finish - the early chapters were interesting and concerned the history of the Goldwater family - real pioneers (as businessmen) in the Old West - also, the initial descriptions of Barry Goldwater as a person and as a younger man were of interest - but - once the book got into Goldwater's life as a U.S. Senator, and otherwise as a politician, it was boring - extended discussions of the political issues and elections of the 1950s/60s were tedious and show more are no longer relevant - on and on the book went in that mode - Nixon, Kennedy, Johnson - who cares anymore about their political squabbling - however, I liked Barry Goldwater the man - a true conservative - a mensch who understood the value of history and experience and who staunchly opposed expedient ideas advanced for the sole purpose of sustaining someone's political career and status - God rest his soul. show less

To Ed Feulner, with warmest regards.