''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is

Rich Lowry Richard Lowry (; born August 22, 1968) is an American writer who is the former editor and now editor-in-chief of '' National Review'', an American conservative news and opinion magazine. Lowry became editor of ''National Review'' in 1997 when sel ...

, while the editor is

Ramesh Ponnuru Ramesh Ponnuru (; born August 16, 1974) is an American conservative thinker, political pundit, and journalist. He has been a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 2012. He is the editor of ''National Review'' magazine, a col ...

. Since its founding, the magazine has played a significant role in the development of conservatism in the United States, helping to define its boundaries and promoting fusionism while establishing itself as a leading voice on the American right. The online version, ''National Review Online'', is edited by Philip Klein and includes free content and articles separate from the print edition. The free content is limited, but National Review Plus allows ad-free and unlimited access to both online and print articles.

History

Background

Before ''National Review''s founding in 1955, the American right was a largely unorganized collection of people who shared intertwining philosophies but had little opportunity for a united public voice. They wanted to marginalize the

antiwar An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to p ...

, noninterventionistic views of the Old Right. In 1953, moderate Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, and many major magazines such as the '' Saturday Evening Post'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', and '' Reader's Digest'' were strongly conservative and anticommunist, as were many newspapers including the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' and '' St. Louis Globe-Democrat''. A few small-circulation conservative magazines, such as '' Human Events'' and ''

The Freeman ''The Freeman'' (formerly published as ''The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty'' or ''Ideas on Liberty'') was an American libertarian magazine, formerly published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). It was founded in 1950 by John Chamberla ...

'', preceded ''National Review'' in developing

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

Conservatism in the 1950s.

Early years

In 1953, Russell Kirk published ''The Conservative Mind'', which traced an intellectual bloodline from

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

Frohnen, Bruce, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson (2006) ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia''. ISI Books, Wilmington, DE, pp. 186–188 to the Old Right in the early 1950s. This challenged the notion among intellectuals that no coherent conservative tradition existed in the United States. A young William F. Buckley Jr. was greatly influenced by Kirk's concepts. Buckley had money; his father grew rich from oil fields in Mexico. He first tried to purchase '' Human Events'', but was turned down. He then met

Willi Schlamm William S. (Willi) Schlamm (originally Wilhelm Siegmund Schlamm, June 10, 1904 – September 1, 1978) was an Austrian-American journalist. Biography Schlamm was born into an upper middle class Jewish family in Przemyśl, Galicia, in the Austrian ...

, the experienced editor of ''

''; they would spend the next two years raising the $300,000 necessary to start their own weekly magazine, originally to be called ''National Weekly''. (A magazine holding the trademark to the name prompted the change to ''National Review''.) The statement of intentions read:

Middle-of-the-Road, qua Middle of the Road, is politically, intellectually, and morally repugnant. We shall recommend policies for the simple reason that we consider them right (rather than “non-controversial”); and we consider them right because they are based on principles we deem right (rather than on popularity polls)... The
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
revolution, for instance, could hardly have happened save for the cumulative impact of ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'' and ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', and a few other publications, on several American college generations during the twenties and thirties.

Contributors

On November 19, 1955, Buckley's magazine began to take shape. Buckley assembled an eclectic group of writers: traditionalists, Catholic intellectuals, libertarians and ex-Communists. The group included:

Revilo P. Oliver Revilo Pendleton Oliver (July 7, 1908 – August 20, 1994) was an American professor of Classical philology, Spanish, and Italian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was one of the founders of ''National Review'' in 1955, an ...

, Russell Kirk, James Burnham, Frank Meyer, and

Willmoore Kendall Willmoore Bohnert Kendall Jr. (March 5, 1909 – June 30, 1967) was an American conservative writer and a professor of political philosophy. Early life and education Kendall was born March 5, 1909 in Konawa, Oklahoma. His father, who was blind, w ...

, Catholics L. Brent Bozell and

Garry Wills Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...

. The former ''

'' editor

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...

, who had been a Communist spy in the 1930s and was now intensely anti-Communist, became a senior editor. In the magazine's founding statement Buckley wrote:

The launching of a conservative weekly journal of opinion in a country widely assumed to be a bastion of conservatism at first glance looks like a work of supererogation, rather like publishing a royalist weekly within the walls of Buckingham Palace. It is not that of course; if ''National Review'' is superfluous, it is so for very different reasons: It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no other is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

As editors and contributors, Buckley especially sought out intellectuals who were ex-Communists or had once worked on the far Left, including Whittaker Chambers, William Schlamm, John Dos Passos, Frank Meyer and James Burnham. When James Burnham became one of the original senior editors, he urged the adoption of a more pragmatic editorial position that would extend the influence of the magazine toward the political center. Smant (1991) finds that Burnham overcame sometimes heated opposition from other members of the editorial board (including Meyer, Schlamm, William Rickenbacker, and the magazine's publisher

William A. Rusher William Allen Rusher (July 19, 1923 – April 16, 2011) was an American lawyer, author, activist, and conservative columnist. He was one of the founders of the conservative movement and was one of its most prominent spokesmen for thirty years as ...

), and had a significant effect on both the editorial policy of the magazine and on the thinking of Buckley himself.

Mission to conservatives

''National Review'' aimed to make conservative ideas respectable, in an age when the dominant view of conservative thought was, as expressed by Columbia professor

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

beralism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition. For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation... the conservative impulse and the reactionary impulse do not... express themselves in ideas but only... in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.

William Buckley Jr. said of the purpose of ''National Review'':

'National Review''stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it… it is out of place because, in its maturity, literate America rejected conservatism in favor of radical social experimentation…since ideas rule the world, the ideologues, having won over the intellectual class, simply walked in and started to…run just about everything. There never was an age of conformity quite like this one, or a camaraderie quite like the Liberals’.

''National Review'' promoted Barry Goldwater heavily during the early 1960s. Buckley and others involved with the magazine took a major role in the "Draft Goldwater" movement in 1960 and the 1964 presidential campaign. ''National Review'' spread his vision of conservatism throughout the country. The early ''National Review'' faced occasional defections from both left and right.

broke with ''National Review'' and became a liberal commentator. Buckley's brother-in-law, L. Brent Bozell Jr. left and started the short-lived traditionalist Catholic magazine, '' Triumph'' in 1966.

Defining the boundaries of conservatism

Buckley and Meyer promoted the idea of enlarging the boundaries of conservatism through fusionism, whereby different schools of conservatives, including libertarians, would work together to combat what were seen as their common opponents. Buckley and his editors used his magazine to define the boundaries of conservatism—and to exclude people or ideas or groups they considered unworthy of the conservative title. Therefore, they attacked the

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. T ...

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist a ...

, and anti-Semites. Buckley's goal was to increase the respectability of the conservative movement; as

noted: "Mr. Buckley's first great achievement was to purge the American right of its kooks. He marginalized the anti-Semites, the John Birchers, the

nativists Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native or indigenous inhabitants over those of immigrants, including the support of immigration-restriction measures. In scholarly studies, ''nativism'' is a standa ...

and their sort." In 1957, ''National Review'' editorialized in favor of white leadership in the South, arguing that "the central question that emerges... is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes – the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race." By the 1970s ''National Review'' advocated colorblind policies and the end of affirmative action. In the late 1960s, the magazine denounced segregationist

, who ran in Democratic primaries in 1964 and 1972 and made an independent run for president in 1968. During the 1950s, Buckley had worked to remove anti-Semitism from the conservative movement and barred holders of those views from working for ''National Review''. In 1962 Buckley denounced Robert W. Welch Jr. and the

as "far removed from common sense" and urged the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

to purge itself of Welch's influence.

After Goldwater

After Goldwater was defeated by

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1964, Buckley and ''National Review'' continued to champion the idea of a conservative movement, which was increasingly embodied in

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. Reagan, a longtime subscriber to ''National Review'', first became politically prominent during Goldwater's campaign. ''National Review'' supported his challenge to President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

in 1976 and his successful 1980 campaign. During the 1980s ''National Review'' called for tax cuts,

supply-side economics Supply-side economics is a Macroeconomics, macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by Tax cuts, lowering taxes, Deregulation, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-sid ...

, the

Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons ( intercontinental ballist ...

, and support for President Reagan's foreign policy against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The magazine criticized the

Welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equita ...

and would support the Welfare reform proposals of the 1990s. The magazine also regularly criticized President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

. It first embraced, then rejected,

Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, ...

in his political campaigns. A lengthy 1996 ''National Review'' editorial called for a "movement toward" drug legalization. In 1985, ''National Review'' and Buckley were represented by attorney

J. Daniel Mahoney John Daniel Mahoney (September 7, 1931 – October 23, 1996) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Education and career Born in Orange, New Jersey, Mahoney received a Bachelor of Arts de ...

during the magazine's $16 million libel suit against '' The Spotlight''.

Political views and content

Victor Davis Hanson, a regular contributor since 2001, sees a broad spectrum of conservative and anti- liberal contributors: The magazine has been described as "the bible of American conservatism".Hari, Johann, "Titanic: Reshuffling the Deck Chairs on the National Review Cruise", in ''The New Republic'', vol. 237, issue 1, July 2, 2007 (in ''MasterFile Premier'' (EbscoHost) (PDF) (subscription may be required)), p. 31

Donald Trump

In 2015, the magazine published an editorial entitled "Against Trump," calling him a "philosophically unmoored political opportunist" and announcing its opposition to his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. Since Trump's election to the presidency, the ''National Review'' editorial board has continued to criticize him. However, contributors to ''National Review'' and ''National Review Online'' take a variety of positions on Trump. Lowry and Hanson support him, while ''National Review'' contributors such as Ramesh Ponnuru and Jonah Goldberg have remained critical of Trump. In a ''Washington Post'' feature on conservative magazines, T.A. Frank noted: "From the perspective of a reader, these tensions make National Review as lively as it has been in a long time."

''National Review Online''

A popular feature of ''National Review'' is the web version of the magazine, ''National Review Online'' ("N.R.O."), which includes a digital version of the magazine, with articles updated daily by ''National Review'' writers, and conservative blogs. The on-line version is called ''N.R.O.'' to distinguish it from the paper magazine. It also features free articles, though these deviate in content from its print magazine. The site's editor is Phillip Klein, who replaced

Charles C. W. Cooke Charles Christopher William Cooke (born 4 November 1984), professionally known simply as Charles C. W. Cooke, is a British-born American journalist and a senior writer at National Review Online. Early life and education Cooke and his sister gre ...

. Each day, the site posts new content consisting of conservative, libertarian, and neoconservative opinion articles, including some syndicated columns, and news features. It also features two

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

: * The Corner – postings from a select group of the site's editors and affiliated writers discussing the issues of the day * Bench Memos – legal and judicial news and commentary Markos Moulitsas, who runs the liberal '' Daily Kos'' web-site, told reporters in August 2007 that he does not read conservative blogs, with the exception of those on N.R.O.: "I do like the blogs at the ''National Review''—I do think their writers are the best in the onservativeblogosphere," he said.

National Review Institute

The N.R.I. works in policy development and helping establish new advocates in the conservative movement. National Review Institute was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1991 to engage in policy development, public education, and advocacy that would advance the conservative principles he championed. In 2019, the

family had NRI stop an award in Chambers' name following award to people whom the family found objectionable.

Finances

As with most political opinion magazines in the United States, ''National Review'' carries little corporate advertising. The magazine stays afloat from subscription fees, donations, and black-tie fundraisers around the country. The magazine also sponsors cruises featuring ''National Review'' editors and contributors as lecturers. Buckley said in 2005 that the magazine had lost about $25,000,000 over 50 years.

Presidential primary endorsements

''National Review'' sometimes endorses a candidate during the primary election season. Editors at ''National Review'' have said, "Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate." This statement echoes what has come to be called "The Buckley Rule". In a 1967 interview, in which he was asked about the choice of presidential candidate, Buckley said, "The wisest choice would be the one who would win... I'd be for the most right, viable candidate who could win." The following candidates were officially endorsed by ''National Review'': * 1956: Dwight Eisenhower * 1960: ''No endorsement'' * 1964: Barry Goldwater * 1968:

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

* 1972:

John M. Ashbrook John Milan Ashbrook (September 21, 1928 – April 24, 1982) was an American politician and newspaper publisher. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from Ohio from 1961 until his death.

* 1976:

* 1980:

* 1984:

* 1988: George H. W. Bush * 1992: ''No endorsement'' * 1996: ''No endorsement'' * 2000: George W. Bush * 2004: ''No endorsement'' * 2008:

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts ...

* 2012: ''No endorsement'' * 2016:

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas fro ...

* 2020: ''No endorsement''

Editors and contributors

The magazine's current editor-in-chief is

. Many of the magazine's commentators are affiliated with think-tanks such as

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presi ...

and American Enterprise Institute. Prominent guest authors have included Newt Gingrich,

, Peter Thiel, and

in the on-line and paper edition.

Notable current contributors

Current and past contributors to ''National Review'' (''N.R.'') magazine, ''National Review Online'' (''N.R.O.''), or both: *

Elliott Abrams Elliott Abrams (born January 24, 1948) is an American politician and lawyer, who has served in foreign policy positions for presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Abrams is considered to be a neoconservative. He is curren ...

* Michael D. Aeschliman * Richard Brookhiser, senior editor * Mona Charen *

, editor of ''N.R.O.''. *

* Frederick H. Fleitz * John Fund, ''N.R.O.'' national-affairs columnist * Jim Geraghty * Victor Davis Hanson * Paul Johnson * Roger Kimball * Larry Kudlow * Stanley Kurtz * Yuval Levin *

James Lileks James Lileks is an American journalist, columnist, author, and blogger living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the creator of The Gallery of Regrettable Foods website. Career Columnist Lileks began his writing career as a columnist for the ...

* Rob Long, ''N.R.'' contributing editor * Kathryn Jean Lopez *

, ''N.R.'' editor *

Andrew C. McCarthy Andrew C. McCarthy III (born 1959) is an American columnist for ''National Review''. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar ...

* John McCormack, ''N.R.'' Washington, D.C. correspondent * John J. Miller, ''N.R.'' national political reporter * Stephen Moore, financial columnist *

Deroy Murdock Deroy Murdock (born 1963) is an American political commentator and a contributing editor with ''National Review Online''. A native of Los Angeles, Murdock lives in New York City. A first-generation American, his parents were born in Costa Rica. ...

Jay Nordlinger Jay Nordlinger (born November 21, 1963) is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of ''National Review'', and a book fellow of the National Review Institute. He is also a music critic for ''The New Criterion'' and '' The Conservative''. I ...

Michael Novak Michael John Novak Jr. (September 9, 1933 – February 17, 2017) was an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than forty books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known ...

* John O'Sullivan, ''N.R.'' editor-at-large *

* David Pryce-Jones * Tom Rogan * Reihan Salam * Ben Shapiro *

Katherine Timpf Katherine Clare Timpf (; born October 29, 1988), known professionally as Kat Timpf, is a libertarian columnist, television personality, reporter, and comedian. She has frequently appeared on Fox News Channel's ''The Greg Gutfeld Show'' (now kno ...

Armond White Armond White (born ) is an American film and music critic who writes for ''National Review'' and '' Out''. He was previously the editor of '' CityArts'' (2011–2014), the lead film critic for the alternative weekly ''New York Press'' (1997–20 ...

* George F. Will * Kevin D. Williamson, correspondent at ''N.R.''

Notable past contributors

* Jonah Goldberg * David French * Renata Adler * Steve Allen * Wick Allison * W. H. Auden *

Edward C. Banfield Edward Christie Banfield (November 19, 1916 – September 30, 1999) was an American political scientist, best known as the author of ''The Moral Basis of a Backward Society'' (1958), and ''The Unheavenly City'' (1970). His work was foundational to ...

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...

* Peter L. Berger * Allan Bloom * George Borjas * Robert Bork * L. Brent Bozell Jr. *

Peter Brimelow Peter Brimelow (born 13 October 1947) is a British-born American white nationalist and white supremacist writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy, white nationalism, and the alt-rig ...

* Jed Babbin * Myrna Blyth * Christopher Buckley * William F. Buckley Jr., founder * James Burnham * John R. Chamberlain *

* Shannen W. Coffin * Robert Conquest * Richard Corliss * Robert Costa * Ann Coulter * Arlene Croce * Guy Davenport * John Derbyshire * Joan Didion * John Dos Passos * Rod Dreher * Dinesh D'Souza * John Gregory Dunne * Max Eastman * Eric Ehrmann * Thomas Fleming * Samuel T. Francis *

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

* David Frum * Francis Fukuyama * Eugene Genovese * Paul Gigot * Nathan Glazer *

Stuart Goldman Stuart Goldman is an American journalist, author and screenwriter. A former critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Daily News'', he later penned a column for the ''Los Angeles Reader''. Career Goldman's early career initia ...

Paul Gottfried Paul Edward Gottfried (born November 21, 1941) is an American paleoconservative political philosopher, historian, and writer. He is a former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is editor-in-chief of the paleoco ...

* Mark M. Goldblatt * Michael Graham *

Ethan Gutmann Ethan Gutmann is an American writer, researcher, author, and a senior research fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation whose work has investigated surveillance and organ harvesting in China. Education Gutmann earne ...

Ernest van den Haag Ernest van den Haag (September 15, 1914 – March 21, 2002) was a Dutch-born American sociologist, social critic, and author. He was John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University. He was best known for his contri ...

* Jeffrey Hart * Henry Hazlitt * Will Herberg * Christopher Hitchens *

Harry V. Jaffa Harry Victor Jaffa (October 7, 1918 – January 10, 2015) was an American political philosopher, historian, columnist, and professor. He was a professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University, and a distinguished ...

* Arthur Jensen * John Keegan *

Hugh Kenner William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. He published widely on Modernist literature with particular emphasis on James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His majo ...

Florence King Florence Virginia King (January 5, 1936 – January 6, 2016) was an American novelist, essayist and columnist. While her early writings focused on the American South and those who live there, much of King's later work was published in ''Natio ...

* Phil Kerpen * Russell Kirk *

Charles Krauthammer Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in '' The Washingt ...

Irving Kristol Irving Kristol (; January 22, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was an American journalist who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism". As a founder, editor, and contributor to various magazines, he played an influential role in the intellectua ...

Dave Kopel David B. Kopel (born January 7, 1960) is an American author, attorney, gun rights advocate, and contributing editor to several publications. As of August 2021, he is research director of the Independence Institute, associate policy analyst a ...

* Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn * Michael Ledeen *

Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert ...

* John Leonard * Mark Levin * John Lukacs * Arnold Lunn * Richard Lynn *

Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (; born 12 January 1929) is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of the mos ...

* Harvey C. Mansfield *

Malachi Martin Malachi Brendan Martin (23 July 1921 – 27 July 1999), also known under the pseudonym of Michael Serafian, was an Irish-born American Traditionalist Catholic priest, biblical archaeologist, exorcist, palaeographer, professor, and prolific ...

* Frank Meyer * Scott McConnell * Forrest McDonald *

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is ...

Alice-Leone Moats Alice-Leone Moats (1908–1989) was an American journalist and author who was born in Mexico to wealthy and socially prominent American parents. She attended convent schools in Mexico City, Rome and Paris, as well as the Brearley School in M ...

* Raymond Moley * Thomas Molnar * Charles Murray *

Richard Neuhaus Richard John Neuhaus (May 14, 1936–January 8, 2009) was a prominent Christian cleric (first in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, then ELCA pastor and later as a Catholic priest) and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United Stat ...

* Robert Nisbet * Robert Novak *

Michael Oakeshott Michael Joseph Oakeshott FBA (; 11 December 1901 – 19 December 1990) was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of ...

Kate O'Beirne Kate Walsh O'Beirne (September 23, 1949 – April 23, 2017) was the President of National Review Institute. She was the Washington editor of ''National Review''. Her column, "Bread and Circuses," covered Congress, politics, and U.S. domesti ...

Conor Cruise O'Brien Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008), often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 ...

Thomas Pangle Thomas Lee Pangle, (born 1944) is an American political scientist. He holds the Joe R. Long Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Government and is Co-Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Core Texts and Ideas at the University ...

Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

* Paul Craig Roberts * Murray Rothbard *

, publisher, 1957–88 * J. Philippe Rushton * Steve Sailer * Pat Sajak * Catherine Seipp *

Daniel Seligman Daniel Seligman (September 25, 1924 – January 31, 2009) was an American newspaper editor and columnist at ''Fortune'' magazine from 1950 to 1997. He also wrote for ''Forbes'', ''Commentary'', ''The American Mercury'', '' Commonweal'', and ''The ...

* John Simon *

Joseph Sobran Michael Joseph Sobran Jr. (; February 23, 1946 – September 30, 2010) was a paleoconservative American journalist. He wrote for the ''National Review'' magazine and was a syndicated columnist. During the 1970s, he frequently used the bylin ...

* Thomas Sowell * Whit Stillman * Theodore Sturgeon * Mark Steyn * Thomas Szasz * Allen Tate * Jared Taylor * Terry Teachout *

Taki Theodoracopulos Panagiotis "Taki" Theodoracopulos (; el, text=Παναγιώτης "Τάκης" Θεοδωρακόπουλος ; born 11 August 1936) is a Greek journalist and writer. He has lived in New York City, London, and Gstaad. Early life and education ...

* Ralph de Toledano * Auberon Waugh * Evelyn Waugh *

Richard M. Weaver Richard Malcolm Weaver, Jr (March 3, 1910 – April 1, 1963) was an American scholar who taught English at the University of Chicago. He is primarily known as an intellectual historian, political philosopher, and a mid-20th century conservative a ...

* Robert Weissberg *

Frederick Wilhelmsen Frederick D. Wilhelmsen (1923 – 21 May 1996) was a distinguished Catholic philosopher, noted, both as a professor and as a writer, for his explication and advancement of the Thomistic tradition. He also was a political commentator, assessing ...

* James Q. Wilson * Tom Wolfe *

Byron York Byron York (born December 5, 1955) is an American conservative correspondent, pundit, columnist, and author. Education York holds a B.A. from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Career York ...

R. V. Young Robert V. Young, Jr. (born 1947) is a professor of Renaissance Literature and Literary Criticism in the English Department of North Carolina State University, co-founder and co-editor (with M. Thomas Hester) of the ''John Donne Journal'', and au ...

Washington editors

* L. Brent Bozell Jr. * Neal B. Freeman * George Will, 1973–76 * Neal B. Freeman, 1978–81 * John McLaughlin, 1981–89 * William McGurn, 1989–1992 *

* Robert Costa, 2012–13 *

Eliana Johnson Eliana Yael Johnson (born c. 1984) is an American journalist and Editor-in-Chief of ''Washington Free Beacon''. Early life and education Johnson is the daughter of Sally (née Zusman) and Scott W. Johnson, one of the three Dartmouth lawyers w ...

, 2014–16

Controversies

Barack Obama

In June 2008, six days after

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

conceded to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

in the Democratic primary, ''National Review'' correspondent Jim Geraghty published an article encouraging the Obama campaign to release the candidate's birth certificate in order "to squash all the conspiracy theories once and for all." Geraghty's column notes that it was unlikely that Obama was born in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Attorney Loren Collins, who has tracked the origins of birther movement for years, says that Geraghty may have "unwittingly shined a national spotlight on a fringe internet theory." Geraghty's article "became fodder for cable television." In a 2009 editorial, the ''National Review'' editorial board called conspiracies about Obama's citizenship "untrue," writing: "Like Bruce Springsteen, he has a lot of bad political ideas; but he was born in the U.S.A." One ''National Review'' article said that Obama's parents could be communists because “for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or ’60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics”. As of 2018, Dinesh D'Souza was on the ''National Review'' masthead, despite stirring controversy for a number of years making inflammatory remarks and promoting conspiracy theories. D'Souza was no longer on the magazine's masthead in 2020. In comments that earned rebukes from ''National Review'' colleagues, D'Souza said that billionaire George Soros was a "collection boy for Hitler and the Nazis," attacked Roy Moore accuser Beverly Young Nelson, said that accusations against Roy Moore were “most likely fabricated,” and described Rosa Parks as an "overrated Democrat".

Climate change

According to Philip Bump of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', ''National Review'' "has regularly criticized and rejected the scientific consensus on climate change". In 2015, the magazine published an intentionally deceptive graph that suggested that there was no

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The graph set the lower and upper bounds of the chart at -10 and 110 degree Fahrenheit and zoomed out so as to obscure warming trends. In 2017, ''National Review'' published an article alleging that a top NOAA scientist claimed that the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...

engaged in data manipulation and rushed a study based on faulty data in order to influence the Paris climate negotiations. The article largely repeated allegations made in the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' without independent verification. The scientist in question later rejected the claims made by ''National Review'', noting that he did not accuse NOAA of data manipulation but instead raised concerns about "the way data was handled, documented and stored, raising issues of transparency and availability". In 2014, climate scientist

Michael E. Mann Michael Evan Mann (born 1965) is an American climatologist and geophysicist. He is the director of the Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann has contributed to the scientific understanding of his ...

sued the ''National Review'' after columnist Mark Steyn accused Mann of fraud and referenced a quote from Competitive Enterprise Institute writer Rand Simberg that called Mann "the

Jerry Sandusky Gerald Arthur Sandusky (born January 26, 1944) is an American retired college football coach and convicted serial child molester. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe ...

of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data." Civil liberties organizations such as the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". ...

and the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ...

and several publications such as ''The Washington Post'' expressed support for ''National Review'' in the lawsuit, filing amicus briefs in their defense.

Ann Coulter 9/11 column

Two days after the 9/11 attacks, ''National Review'' published a column by Ann Coulter in which she wrote of Muslims, "This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." ''National Review'' later called the column a "mistake" and fired Coulter as a contributing editor.

Jeffrey Epstein

In 2019, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reported that ''National Review'' was one of three news outlets (along with ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' and ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'') that had published stories written by Jeffrey Epstein's publicists. The ''National Review'' article was written by Christina Galbraith, Epstein's publicist at the time the article was published in 2013. The ''National Review'' bio for Galbraith described her as a science writer. The ''National Review'' retracted the article in July 2019 with apologies and spoke of new methods being used to better filter freelance content.

References

Bibliography

* Allitt, Patrick. ''The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History'' (2010
excerpt and text search
* Bayley, Edwin R. ''Joe McCarthy and the Press'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 1981). * Birzer, Bradley J. ''Russell Kirk: American Conservative'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2015). * Bogus, Carl T. ''Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism'' (2011) * Bridges, Linda and Coyne, John R., Jr. ''Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement'' (John Wiley and Sons, 2007). * Critchlow, Donald T. ''The Conservative Ascendancy: How the Right Made Political History'' (2007) * Del Visco, Stephen. "Yellow peril, red scare: race and communism in National Review." ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 42.4 (2019): 626–644. * Frisk, David B. ''If Not Us, Who?: William Rusher, National Review, and the Conservative Movement'' (2011) * Frohnen, Bruce et al. eds. ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia'' (2006) * Hart, Jeffrey. ''The Making of the American Conservative Mind: The National Review and Its Times'' (2005), a view from the inside * Hemmer, Nicole. ''Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016). * Johnston, Savannah Eccles. "The Rise of Illiberal Conservatism: Immigration and Nationhood at National Review." ''American Political Thought'' 10.2 (2021): 190–216. * Judis, John B. ''William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives'' (2001) * Nash, George. ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945'' (2006; 1st ed. 1978) * Nemeth, Julian. "The Passion of William F. Buckley: Academic Freedom, Conspiratorial Conservatism, and the Rise of the Postwar Right." ''Journal of American Studies'' 54.2 (2020): 323–350. * Owen, Christopher H. ''Heaven Can Indeed Fall: The Life of Willmoore Kendall'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). * Schneider, Gregory. ''The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution'' (2009) * Smant, Kevin J. ''Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement'' (2002) () * Walsh, David Austin
"The Right-Wing Popular Front: The Far Right and American Conservatism in the 1950s."
''Journal of American History'' 107.2 (2020): 411–432.

External links

*
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