03/09/2015
University of Illinois historian Schultz’s social history unfolds as Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley—heroes of the left and right, respectively—get to know one another in 1962 and become “near-allies in the battle to overturn the Liberal Establishment.” The book is not a dual biography, nor does it span entire careers: it ends in 1969, with Mailer’s entry into the New York City mayoral race when he was 46 and Buckley was 41. Mailer emerges as the adored protagonist, an all-around mensch, and the political prophet of the radical left. Buckley is treated more formally and critically. The book’s central premise—that Mailer and Buckley were trusted confidants—is a stretch. Schultz also dwells fondly on cafe intellectuals and glamorous literary celebrities—such as Truman Capote, whose exploits are amply covered elsewhere—at some expense to the book’s seriousness. Nevertheless, this “difficult friendship,” as Mailer called it, illuminates the decade’s larger cultural context. Mailer and Buckley were bright, magnetic intellectual leaders and publicity hounds with superhuman energy; both loved America but in different ways. Schultz navigates the 1960s through these two larger-than-life men, offering plentiful anecdotes in an informed, entertaining style. (June)

"Deliciously entertaining and insightful, Buckley and Mailer uses the strange yet meaningful friendship between its combustible protagonists to illuminate its real subject: America’s most tumultuous decade."

"Riveting. In this superbly written account of two of the most fascinating and important 20th-century American intellectuals, Kevin M. Schultz not only brings the spirits of William Buckley and Norman Mailer back to life, he endows us with a subtle yet profound analytical framework for understanding the massive social changes set off during the Sixties. Anyone who wants to understand contemporary American political culture needs to read this book."

"Schultz brings a good-natured, entertaining and, rare in academe, highly readable style to his treatment of two 20th century America patriots whose lives enriched us all."

"Brings alive two talented, tireless characters…Schultz weave[s] their contrasting public lives together in a way that helps to make sense of an era."

"A largely respectful portrait, but Schultz doesn’t sugarcoat his subjects’ failings…Flawed these men were for sure. But…it’s good to remember pundits who thought big, fought big, had something to say and said it with hellacious verve."

"[A] provocative and thorough…social and political history of the sixties, among the very best we have had."

"Illuminate[s], often entertainingly, the cultural and political upheaval of the sixties."

"Buckley and Mailer brings alive two talented, tireless characters…. Schultz weave[s] their contrasting public lives together in a way that helps to make sense of an era."

"Judging by this ardently researched book, [Buckley and Mailer] seem to have saved every letter they wrote or received, and their lively epistolary relationship forms the core of this perceptive dual portrait."

"One might think that Bill Buckley and Norman Mailer were not at all alike, but Kevin M. Schultz, in his very entertaining book, reminds us to think again. In fact, despite their complicated political differences, these two American originals liked each other, tried to understand each other, and discovered that that they had much in common: a passion for engagement, for literate expression, and perhaps above all the pleasure they took in playing their outsize selves."

04/15/2015
No one would love more, other than the subjects themselves, the level of import Shultz lavishes on his premise that William F. Buckley Jr. (1925–2008), a conservative author and commentator who founded the conservative magazine National Review, and Norman Mailer (1923–2007), a successful novelist, essayist, playwright, and cultural critic had great societal impact through the public discourse of their friendship. Despite the concept getting little traction here, Schultz (history, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) engages the reader with his writing style. Unlike the author's first title, Tri-Faith America, with its broad approach—the faith-based analysis of a generation's impact—this latest work attempts to extrapolate the changing social norms of the 1960s through the lives of two accomplished yet different men. Schultz's examination of the times, both public and private, that fostered Buckley and Mailer's complex friendship illuminates each individual's impact on the era, but unfortunately less is revealed about how they, as a collective, shaped anything except their own inflated self-regard. It's much easier to see their relationship having had marginal effect on the decade in question; modernity has relegated their tiffs to lesser annals. Can't they stay there? VERDICT Recommended, with misgivings, for scholars and students of modern American history.—Jewell Anderson, Savannah Country Day Sch. Lib., GA

Norman Mailer on the left and William F. Buckley on the right—lauded literary, political, and intellectual titans of their time—battled each other in public and admired each other in private. Here the private papers and libraries of these colorful public figures are thoroughly mined by author Shultz to create an entertaining, deeply intertwined sketch of two lives and the cataclysmic, heated era of the 1960s. Narrator Peter Berkrot’s astringent East Coast timbre is direct, unadorned, and engaging. Well suited to the material, his clear, raspy tones express immediacy and urgency. This immersive and appealing audio presentation will emphatically inform listeners, including those who consider themselves apolitical. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

★ 2015-03-01
A perceptive analysis of the evolution of political cultures that infuses a dissection of the contradictions within liberal and conservative thought with revealing character studies. At the core of this account of rivalry and friendship between William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) and Norman Mailer (1923-2007) is the political excitement of an era gone by, when the radical Mailer and conservative Buckley could spar without allowing substance to be overwhelmed by theater. Schultz (20th Century American History/Univ. of Illinois at Chicago; Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise, 2011) demonstrates how the two men lived remarkably parallel lives as writers and public intellectuals of the 1960s, a confluence begun in 1955, with the birth of Buckley's National Review and Mailer's Village Voice. What they shared above all was an abiding love of America and a nagging fear of its imminent decay. Both abhorred the hollowness of postwar America, with its devotion to consumerism, corporate capitalism, and stultifying rules of social behavior, though they addressed this malaise quite differently. Schultz exhibits a sense of irony and a knack for telling details. He neither glamorizes nor excuses, exposing the best and worst traits of his subjects, their brilliance and their limitations. As political theorists and activists, they could be vague and they were trenchant. Both feared a totalitarianism of the mind, though Buckley (the salesman), unlike Mailer (the philosopher), had no willingness to shift views if he could be convinced that "his understanding of human nature was wrong." Where Mailer sought authenticity, Buckley required fealty to the virtues of tradition. From their first public debate in 1962, the loquacious darling of the right and the pugnacious bulldog of the left found they delighted in challenging each other. From that grew a regard that, despite their differences, endured for decades. In a book rich in anecdote and insight, Schultz assays their relationship splendidly.