The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer

by Daniel J. Flynn

Overview

Frank Meyer devised the blueprint for American conservatism—fusionism—championed by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and so many to this day. Yet long before and far away, Communists in London chanted “Free Frank Meyer!” to block the deportation of a comrade who was their cause célèbre. Those fervent Marxists could never have predicted that their hero would one day provide the intellectual energy necessary to propel conservatives to political power.

The Man Who Invented Conservatism unveils one of the twentieth century’s great untold stories: a Communist turned conservative, an antiwar activist turned soldier, and a free-love enthusiast turned family man whose big idea captured the American Right. This intellectual migration coincided with a clandestine affair inside 10 Downing Street, service as a lieutenant to the man who later constructed the Berlin Wall, and neighborly chats with the pop-star and poet celebrity next door. Present at the creation of National Review, Meyer helped launch Joan Didion’s writing career. From H. G. Wells to Henry Kissinger to Milton Friedman, he rubbed shoulders with everyone who mattered.

Having discovered Meyer’s previously unexamined correspondence in an old soda warehouse, Daniel J. Flynn documents this saga in The Man Who Invented Conservatism, exposing the rivalries, jealousies, friendships, and fights that shaped the movement and what it means to be a conservative today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641774499
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel J. Flynn is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has authored seven books, including Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America; A Conservative History of the American Left; and Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

Frank Meyer’s long march across the political spectrum, from left to right, culminated with him creating ‘fusionism,’ a history-making contribution to the triumph of postwar conservatism. Daniel Flynn tells this story with the verve it deserves.”

—George F. Will, syndicated columnist and author of The Conservative Sensibility

 

“I knew Frank Meyer. Dan Flynn captures him in this exhaustively researched biography. The trove of documents he found rewrites the story of the American Right. This book tells that amazing story.”

—R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., founder of The American Spectator

 

“Daniel Flynn has exceeded all expectations by producing a genuine page-turner that unearths fascinating anecdotes and insights into Frank S. Meyer’s influence on every page. The Man Who Invented Conservatism is a work of intellectual history of the highest order.”

—Mollie Hemingway, Fox News contributor and editor-in-chief of The Federalist

 

“Frank S. Meyer led a turbulent American life. A fanatical Communist firebrand in his youth, and a tenacious libertarian by middle age, he became in the 1960s the chief theoretician and advocate of the fusionist conservatism associated with National Review. Daniel J. Flynn has produced a riveting account of Meyer’s journey and an illuminating addition to the historiography of American conservatism.”

—George H. Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

From the Publisher