By Alfred S. Regnery - Editorial Reviews

"Al Regnery, present at the creation of the modern conservative movement as a young boy, has been at its center as a leading book and magazine publisher. His masterful account blends ideological and political development, while vividly portraying the movement's thinkers and activists." -- Robert D. Novak

"The rise of conservatism in the United States over the past half-century has been one of the most important political developments of the age -- not only for America, but for the world. Much has been written about it, most of it under-researched and inaccurate. Alfred S. Regnery has now performed the invaluable task of writing a first-class and fully documented history of the movement. He describes its political and intellectual origins, its inventors, its leaders, its high and low points, and its achievements. He has a lot to say about the books and journals, the columnists and media commentators who drove it forward, and not least about the wealthy people and the foundations that supplied the financial means. In all, this is a valuable addition to our understanding of modern politics." -- Paul Johnson

"Conservatism's long swim upstream into the mainstream has been wonderfully chronicled by Alfred Regnery, whose family has helped every stroke of the way. This is a book about, among many other things, the books that helped change how Americans think, vote, and live." -- George F. Will

Product Description
Alfred S. Regnery, the publisher of The American Spectator, has been a part of the American conservative movement since childhood, when his father founded The Henry Regnery Company, which subsequently became Regnery Publishing -- the preeminent conservative publishing house that, among other notable achievements, published William F. Buckley's first book, God and Man at Yale. Including many uniquely personal anecdotes and stories, Regnery himself now boldly chronicles the development of the conservative movement from 1945 to the present.
The outpouring of grief at the funeral of Ronald Reagan in 2004 -- and the acknowledgment that Reagan has come to be considered one of the greatest presidents of the twentieth century -- is Regnery's opening for a fascinating insider story. Beginning at the start of the twentieth century, he shows how in the years prior to and just post World War II, expanding government power at home and the expanding Communist empire abroad inspired conservatives to band together to fight these threats. The founding of the National Review, the drive to nominate Barry Goldwater first as vice-president and later as president, the apparent defeat of the conservative movement at the hands of Lyndon Johnson, and the triumphant rise of Ronald Reagan from the ashes are all chronicled in vivid prose that shows a uniquely intimate knowledge of the key figures. Regnery shares his views on the opposition that formed in response to Earl Warren's Supreme Court rulings, the role of faith (both Roman Catholic and Evangelical) in the renewed vigor of conservatism, and the contributing role of American businessmen who attempted to oppose big government.

Upstream ultimately gives perspective to how the most vibrant political and cultural force of our time has influenced American culture, politics, economics, foreign policy, and all institutions and sectors of American life.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

The Passing of a Conservative

Thirty-five years before he died, when he announced that he would seek the presidency, the scorn was almost universal. The wise men of Washington, joined by the media elite and the inhabitants of the colleges and universities, were condescending in their scorn. B-movie actor, they said. Amateur cowboy. Simple-minded fool. Amiable dunce. Besides, he was an unabashed conservative. Remember what happened to another conservative, who had run for president in 1964? This was a liberal country, and the presidency belonged to the liberals. No conservative could ever hope to get elected president, they said. Republicans in the White House were acceptable, from time to time, they said, as long as they were not too different from the Democrats. But conservatives did not belong there.

But today, Ronald Reagan is considered another Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a transforming president who changed politics, changed the country, changed everything. Ted Kennedy, the exhausted leftist icon who was expending whatever energy he still had to keep the old liberalism together and who had earlier called Reagan's foreign policy "unilateral, militaristic, reckless, and divisive" now joined the chorus. "On foreign policy he will be honored as the president who won the Cold War," said the senior senator from Massachusetts, "and his 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall' will be linked forever with President Kennedy's 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' "

They were all there, the wise men of Washington, the media elites, and the intellectuals, to pay tribute to a departed president who had not only succeeded in what he set out to do, but succeeded beyond anybody's wildest dreams. And he did so without abandoning his conservative principles. As he left the White House in January 1989, he had mentioned that he had come to Washington to change the country, and he left having changed the world.

First and foremost, the Soviet Union was gone. Out of business. Communism had been placed on the ash heap of history. And the economy? It had been nothing short of a disaster when this amateur cowboy entered the White House in 1981, and now was in the midst of the longest expansion in history. And the faith that the people had in the United States? When he was sworn in as president, fifty-two American diplomats had been held hostage by Iran for more than a year, utterly humiliating the United States. The hostages had been freed on the day he was sworn in, and by the time he left office citizens' faith in the United States had never been higher.

And what were the critics saying now? Among presidential historians, the consensus was that Reagan was, along with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the most important president of the twentieth century. James MacGregor Burns, noted historian and a liberal icon, said, "I put him at a relatively high level among all American presidents...even if you are a liberal like me, you have to take your hat off to a man who stuck to his conservatism and won." Alonzo Hamby, a sympathetic student of American liberalism, wrote in 1997: "When passions cool after a generation or so, Ronald Reagan will be widely accepted by historians as a near-great chief executive....He may not end up on Mt. Rushmore, but more than any other president since Truman, he will be a contender."

Now that he was dead, they all came to pay their respects.

It was America's finest hour.

The week in which Americans bid farewell to their beloved fortieth president displayed the best of everything American. In his last trip, from the Pacific coast to the nation's capital and back to the Pacific coast, the week belonged to Ronald Reagan. But then Ronald Reagan deserved nothing but the best from his fellow citizens.

Ronald Reagan was an American and a conservative, a pure, unapologetic conservative who had come to his beliefs by experience. In his younger years, he had been a liberal and a Democrat, but that had changed, little by little, as he saw his liberal principles put into practice, and fail. He recognized the values that conservatives held, and he read their books and their journals, tried out their principles in his speeches, and became a true believer.

Ronald Reagan was the conservative movement's president, but he was also America's president, one of America's great presidents, perhaps the greatest of the twentieth century. What he stood for and what he accomplished were more than conservatives could have ever wished for in a president, and put America back on track, after some difficult times.

The Reagan years had been both a conclusion and a beginning for conservatives. As we shall see, his administration was based on conservative principles that had been formulated over the previous thirty years, and thousands of conservatives had worked for years to elect a conservative president who would do more than pay lip service to conservative principles and then, after his election, implement liberal policies. For that reason it was a conclusion. It was a beginning because it meant that, for the first time, conservative principles could be turned into policy, and because conservative ideals could be articulated by a president, because the conservative movement would be able to move forward, after the administration was over, to expand and feel its influence grow for years to come. As we shall also see, that is exactly what happened as the movement, in the twenty-five years following Reagan's election in 1980, grew and gained infl uence previously unimagined by the founders.

When Reagan was laid to rest, more than thirty years had elapsed since the last state funeral. For many Americans, a state funeral was a new experience.

When his body was brought to his library, on the misty shore of the Pacific Ocean, shortly after he died on June 6, 2004, more than one hundred thousand people came to pay their last respects to Ronald Reagan. They came carrying flowers, which they dropped at the base of a statue of their beloved president, dressed as a cowboy from his days in Hollywood. They brought little American flags, and they took pictures that would no doubt adorn mantels and pianos for years to come. "When I think of him," said one mourner, "I think of America. What is that saying -- American like Mom and apple pie? He should be in that, too. Because he represented what this country is all about."

Tremendous crowds, often waiting for eight or nine hours, came to the library in buses, to the top of a hill just outside Los Angeles, to pay tribute to him. "It has been really almost flawless, considering that we are bringing 100,000 people up to a mountaintop with almost no parking," said a volunteer press offi cer at the library.

The next morning his body was taken to Point Magu Naval Air Station, twenty-five miles away and past tens of thousands who stood on the roadside, waving American flags, saluting the president they loved and already missed. An honor guard stood by, soldiers, sailors, marines, as the first of the day's three twenty-one-gun salutes was fired. Nancy Reagan, dressed in black, slowly climbed the long stairway, turned to wave, and disappeared into the huge air force plane that would bring Ronald Reagan, for the last time, to Washington.

Tens of thousands of his old friends and admirers lined the streets as the motorcade made its way slowly from Andrews Air Force Base, past Reagan National Airport, across the Memorial Bridge and past the Lincoln Memorial to Constitution Avenue. There, in direct sight of the White House, where Ronald Reagan and his dear Nancy had lived for eight years, the motorcade stopped. It was just six o'clock in the evening. Right on schedule.

A beautiful black standardbred named Sergeant York stood waiting, looking as if he were standing at attention, his saddle shining in the late afternoon Washington summer sun. The saddle was empty; the leader would never ride again. The tradition of the riderless horse dated back to the time of Genghis Khan, when a horse was sacrificed in order to serve its master in the next life. The stirrups held a pair of well-worn and still-scuffed high brown riding boots. They faced backward, symbolizing a fallen warrior, a custom dating back to the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. They were Ronald Reagan's favorite boots. Nancy Reagan got out of the car to applause, and someone yelled, "God bless you, Mrs. Reagan!" The crowd cheered, and the greeter later explained to a reporter: "They put the red, white, and blue back in our flag. I know that sounds corny, but it's true. "

The honor guard represents America's best, and it looked it. Every crease was perfectly straight, every piece of brass perfectly shined, every shoe without a blemish. They removed the casket from the hearse and placed it on a caisson, originally built to carry a cannon. Six immaculate horses, perfectly trained and perfectly groomed, slowly began to pull the caisson, bearing its precious cargo, up Constitution Avenue toward the Capitol. Ronald Reagan had made the trip hundreds of times, but this would be the last. In all the others, never had tens of thousands of somber people lined the streets, paying their respects to their leader, never had the trips been the subject of such ritual, not even during his inaugurations. Twenty one of America's finest jets roared overhead, one veering off to symbolize a missing man. Sergeant York, still without rider, walked slowly behind the caisson, the boots still facing backward. When the procession reached the west front of the Capitol, the place where Ronald Reagan had been sworn in as the fortieth president nearly a quarter century earlier, another twenty-one-gun salute sounded and six strong servicemen slowly carried the seven-hundred-pound casket up the ninety-nine steps to the Capitol. Each step was perfectly timed, perfectly coordinated.

The casket was placed in the Capitol Rotunda, perhaps the most ceremonial and dignified space in all of the United States. It rested on a pine bier constructed for the casket of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and dignitaries and honored guests gathered to