Posted on 03/27/2023 7:00:14 AM PDT by Wuli
Reflecting on the Revolution in France in his classic 1790 treatise, the Anglo-Irish politician and philosopher Edmund Burke wrote that “whenever our neighbor’s house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.” More than a century later, William F. Buckley Sr.—father and namesake of the conservative American icon—took a similar view of the Mexican Revolution (1911-20), sharing Burke’s pragmatic approach to government as well as his concerns about liberal contagion. But unlike Burke, who observed the happenings in France from the safety of England, Buckley was a participant in the drama that unfolded in Mexico, where he had moved in 1908. This is the subject of “William F. Buckley Sr.: Witness to the Mexican Revolution, 1908-1922,” a fascinating if uneven book by the independent historian John A. Adams Jr.
Considering the Buckley family’s indelible association with New York City and its leafy environs, it may come as a surprise that Buckley père was raised in South Texas, where he was born in 1881. Will and his siblings grew up poor, “blessed with neither electricity, gas, telephone, running water, nor refrigeration,” as one of the children later recalled. But they were bilingual, perhaps of necessity, given that 90% of the 2,000 residents of San Diego, Texas, their hometown, were of Mexican descent. Despite his straitened circumstances, Will earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas, and shortly thereafter opened a legal practice in Mexico City, quickly expanding into oil and real estate, assisted by his brothers Claude and Edmund. The business climate in Mexico was promising for foreigners like the Buckleys, thanks to the pro-development policies of its autocratic president, Porfirio Díaz, who would rule the country for more than three decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
If Buckley Sr had lived to see degenerate grandson Chris endorsing Obama and Biden and fathering a kid out of wedlock, he’d likely have been quite ashamed.
Indeed and removed from the family tree.
Hiw can I read this in its entirety?
WSJ says the type of link they provided me allows non-subscribers to link to the whole article. Is that not true??
Continue reading your article with
a WSJ subscription, it says.
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