Politico’s excerpt from Open To Debate

Politico’s excerpt of Open To Debate features several pages from Chapter Four- Chivalrous Pugilism: How Firing Line tried to KO Women’s Lib

William F. Buckley Was No Feminist, But He Was an (Unintentional) Ally

By inviting female intellectuals onto his TV show and taking their arguments seriously, Buckley showed that their ideas were worth listening to—giving feminists a platform to reach an influential audience.

“William F. Buckley was not a feminist.

This hardly constitutes a shocking revelation. In the 1960s, the women’s liberation movement was not a welcome cultural turn for him. He could, by contrast, more fully understand the pressing concerns of the civil rights movement, and acknowledged that racism was a pernicious problem. Likewise, he understood that countercultural youth—antiwar activists, poets, musicians—were seeking a better world, even as he disagreed about what made the world flawed and what would make it better.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/william-buckley-feminism-intellectuals-firing-line-women-214301#ixzz4LwIxCfhk

Kirkus Reviews

A starred review for Open To Debate

“A generous description and analysis of Firing Line, the weekly TV show hosted for three decades by conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.

Early on, Hendershot (Film and Media/MIT; What’s Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest, 2011, etc.) identifies herself as a liberal, but her work is suffused with a fair and balanced approach to the show that eventually found its home on PBS, where it ran for most of its 33 years (1966-1999). The author’s research is formidable: interviews, major reliance on National Review (the magazine Buckley founded in 1955), and a comprehensive familiarity with the guests and topics on the show, a familiarity clearly acquired by many hours at the video monitor and many hours of reading transcripts.”

Read the review- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/heather-hendershot/open-to-debate/

Publishers Weekly

“In her view, Buckley was the “major conservative public intellectual” of post-WWII America, and Firing Line is “a model for what smart political TV once was,” contrasting with today’s on-air incivility…Using interviews and transcripts, Hendershot does more than tell the history of a uniquely influential show and personality; her thorough, compelling, and very readable book provides a three-decade journey through the center of the nation’s intellectual life.”

Read the review- http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-243045-8

MIT News coverage of Open To Debate

Changing the face of conservatism in the U.S.

New book by professor Heather Hendershot explores impact of William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.”

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office

“We are in a moment when the loudest voices seem to be the most extreme,” Hendershot says.

And as strongly as Buckley held to his conservative views, Hendershot thinks, he promoted on “Firing Line” a very different ethos of public debate than the one we have today.

“You could come to it as a conservative and become a better, smarter conservative, or come to it as a liberal and become a better, smarter liberal,” Hendershot says. “He was willing to accept that people might listen to a liberal and think, ‘That’s a good idea.’ But he thought he would win. That is a kind of model that we can take a lot from.”

Read the article here: http://news.mit.edu/2016/book-changing-face-conservatism-us-firing-line-1004

Open to Debate

How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062430458/open-to-debate

low rez cover“Hendershot lauds Buckley for the intelligence, honesty, wit, civility, and élan with which he developed meaningful dialogues … A cogent reminder of what political broadcasting could be.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Clever…a good introduction not only to Buckley and smart conservative thought but (strange concept) a sadly disappeared politics of civility.”
—Los Angeles Times

“William F. Buckley and his long-running, unique show Firing Line provides a window (if sometimes a curved mirror) through which to see a turbulent and transformative time in American politics. If you want to step into a time machine for a look back, this book is your ticket.”
Ira Glasser, American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director 1978-2001 

“Hendershot does more than tell the history of a uniquely influential show and personality; her thorough, compelling, and very readable book provides a three-decade journey through the center of the nation’s intellectual life.”
Publishers Weekly

“A thoroughly researched work replete with intelligence, admiration, balanced criticism, and even a bit of nostalgia.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A unique and compelling portrait of William F. Buckley as the champion of conservative ideas in an age of liberal dominance, taking on the smartest adversaries he could find while singlehandedly reinventing the role of public intellectual in the network television era.

When Firing Line premiered on American television in 1966, just two years after Barry Goldwater’s devastating defeat, liberalism was ascendant. Though the left seemed to have decisively won the hearts and minds of the electorate, the show’s creator and host, William F. Buckley—relishing his role as a public contrarian—made the case for conservative ideas, believing that his side Continue reading “Open to Debate”