"Buccola is less interested in who won the debate (according to the audience, Baldwin trounced Buckley by a three-to-one margin) than in what the event signified politically and culturally. Each man had 'reached the height of their prominence at nearly the same moment,' Buccola says, and both had a major impact shaping popular attitudes about the civil rights movement. By studying how the two men got to share a stage, we can learn something more profound about the struggle for black equality and the origins of the modern conservative movement—two legacies that remain with us today."
Robert L. Tsai at Boston Review reviews Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America.
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