Posted on 05/01/2022 8:57:53 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Steven F. Hayward has published a biography of M. Stanton Evans, a major figure in American conservatism. Today, with the passage of generations, he is not very well known., Hayward hopes to change that.
Born in 1934 in Kingsville, Texas, His father, taught English literature at the Texas College of Arts and Industry (now Texas A&M)..
Recalling those days in a New York Times interview shortly before his passing in 2015, Evans said he first became a conservative when he read, as a high school student in 1949, George Orwell's 1984. "It was about communism," said Evans. "Well, I'm against communism. What am I for?"
At Yale, Evans came across a periodical edited by Frank Chodorov, a graduate of Columbia University. The Freeman was its name, and staffers included conservatives. Evans was 22 when Chodorov hired him as an assistant editor. Stan moved to New York, where The Freeman was edited.
In those early years as a journalist, he also contributed pieces to National Review and then Human Events. In 1961, he was hired by the Indianapolis News as its editor. Evans spent 16 years in the job, from 1961 to 1977.
For Evans, having "a point of view is fine so long as the reporting is based on an objective and honest account of the facts." This distinction needs to be borne in mind especially by opinion journalists, which Evans counted himself as. "You can tell how good a reporter any columnist is when you read the column not so much to get the columnist’s opinion, but because you know you'll learn something you did not know."
"By degrees," Hayward explains, "Evans was branching out beyond journalism." He started giving speeches on campus to conservative groups.
In September 1960, Evans was among the 90 conservative activists who assembled at Bill Buckley's estate at Great Elm in Sharon, Connecticut, to create a permanent organization of conservative students. Evans wrote the founding document for the Young Americans for Freedom. It was known as the Sharon Statement, and it was an important turn in the conservative movement.
Evans wrote eight books, including two in which he defended Senator Joseph McCarthy who charged that Soviet spies and communist sympathizers had infiltrated the government, universities, and Hollywood.
It was Dies committee, HUAC, that charged that Hollywood and the universities had been infiltrated by communists.
McCarthy made a similar charge about the executive branch, especially the State Department, and armed forces leadership.
Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies Paperback
by M. Stanton Evans
https://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068
McCarthy was right.
Right.
Who is Steven F. Hayward?
And paid the price for being a fervent and effective anti-Communist.
As was the case with Richard Nixon and others.
Show me someone who is alive.
Not sure if VDH compares to these old dogs, but he’s good to have anyhow.
No James Burnham around nowadays.
bump
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