Thank you. I appreciate the introduction. I just want to start by saying how special it is for me to be here in this space with all of you. I lived in pasadena about three blocks from here when i was in graduate school and i would come every wednesday with my mom, kathy was sitting right here and my cousin catherine. We would go see a movie and then come out and hang out here. Its special for me to be here with you tonight. Tonight i am going to talk with you about something that happened in this space february 18, 1965. Can you hear me in the back of . This space was filled with over 700 people. Every spot on the bench was taken. There were people sitting on the floor. It was in deep violation of the fire code. There were 500 more who wanted to get into this space but they couldnt because it was packed. They went to other rooms on the premise. This is the worlds oldest debating society. This student that wanted to get into the space but it was so full that they could not. Why were they all their . They were there to see James Baldwin, the poet, profit of the civil rights revolution. He was at that time one of the most famous writers of the world and these students were excited to see the poet in the flesh. They were also intrigued by the prospect of sharing the platform with william f. Buckley junior. 1965, buckley was the second most prominent conservative in the United States second only to Barry Goldwater did he wasnt quite done yet. The students heard about buckley and they knew he was a rightwing polemicist and a critic of the civil rights revolution and so they were intrigued by the prospect of an intellectual battle before their eyes. So the space filled, it got harder and harder. The bbc was there to record the event for an International Television audience. Buckley and baldwin wer baldwine two embodiments of two movements. Baldwin, the civil rights revolution and buckley, the american conservative movement. This book fires upon us is about the debate that its about more than that. It constitutes as you can see it is a thick book. It could be used as a door stop or 11. [laughter] you could do some crows with it. Its 2 pounds. Its the two chapters about the debate on about 250 pages into the book because buckley and baldwin are almost exact contemporaries. Buckley 41925, both in 1924, and they lived these parallel lives that are so radically different. Different life experiences. What i do in the book as they weave their biographies against the backdrop of the rise of the civil rights and conservative movement but they did respectively so much to shape. What i want to do tonight is give you a sense of some of the story leading up to the debate and we will probably end with the debate itself. We will see if we can get the audio to work or you can watch it on youtube later. I want to give you a sense of the books i want to get enough to intrigue but not satisfy you. This questions and we will have time for conversation at the end and i look forward to answering questions. Let me tell you a little bit about young James Baldwin born in august, 1924 in harlem. Hes the oldest of nine children born to his brother, married a man named David Baldwin when he was a toddler so he was the only father james ever knew. Baldwin described his life in harlem as being one marked for domination. He says that the experience of growing up in harlem in those days in the 20s and 30s he felt dominated by all sorts of individual people who were trying to limit his opportunities. He describes in the cambridge debate what he called a catalog of disaster. The policemen, taxi drivers, waiters, landlady, landlords, banks, insurance companies, millions of details of everyday that spilled ou spelled out to i was a worthless human being. Baldwin also describes the ways in which he felt oppressed and dominated by a kind of force that didnt have a human face. The vast merciless bottomless lake rule structures of power that limited his freedom and opportunities as a young man. Baldwin watched the system of domination consumed his father. David baldwin, james says, was one of the most sad human beings he ever witnessed. He said David Baldwin, father of nine children, james says he cannot remember a single time when many of davids nine children were happy to see him come home. As a father myself, when i read that, in his autobiographical writings i found it to be heartbreaking. As he grows up with a folder that is a devoutly religious man that is very cool to all of the human beings around, baldwin wonders if hes growing up, why is my father this way. As he gets older he realizes his father is this way because hes come to believe that white people say about him. He sees his father eaten alive by despair, he dies in 1943 in a mental institution. Baldwin as far as he can tell his father is literally dying of despair. So, he sets up a goal for himself i am not going to become my father. I am not going to be consumed by despair. How can i fight back against this and baldwin finds what he calls his leverage, his handle, something to hang onto is not saying his language. Its the power of words. Hes a young man and is obsessed with the. He is taken by the power of books to connect human beings across time and space. He reads Charles Dickens and he can feel a connection. Baldwin begins to write and he never stops writing until the day he dies and he tries to make sense of his experience through language. Baldwin ends up following his father in an important way. He becomes a creature. His father is a late pentecostal preacher in the storefront and James Baldwin at the age of 14 he comes a young minister. Although baldwin only state in the church for three years, he remained a preacher until the day he died and you will see the cambridge speech is a sermon more than anything else. Baldwin says theres something about that experience in the church, the sense of connection that he felt to his congregation that really captured the sense of community that was very powerful and never left him. Its as he says when the church begins to rock and theres nothing quite like that. William f. Buckley junior is born in november 1925 just a little over a year after baldwin was born. Hes born in the same city but he may as well have been born on a different planet. Buckley is born into immense wealth and privilege. His father was a real estate and oil man who had made, lost and regained fortunes. He was awash in new money. William f. Buckley juniors mother was a proud father of the confederacy who came from new orleans old money. So you have data, new money, mom, old money, the key word is money. Lots and lots of money. With that money, the buckley is that something you would expect. They purchased 47acr a 47acree in connecticut they called the great elm. But they really devoted a lot of their resources to the education of their children. Buckley and his nine siblings received within their home sort of in homeschooling a very elaborate liberal arts education. One of buckleys sisters describes in this way, i wont read it all because it gets a little bit absurd, but one of his sisters says that the children received instruction in apologetics, art, ballroom dancing, banjo, birdwatching, building codes i boats in bottl, calligraphy, canoeing, she goes on in alphabetical order down to tennis, swimming, typing and wood carving. Now the sort of things they were learning in math we are important but whats more important is the worldview that they were taught. The buckley is, the family was dominated by two particular systems of thought. One was a devout, rigid, hierarchical brand of catholicism coming into the second was a political doctrine that they called individualism. Individualism is a catchall term that was meant to communicate the hostility for any form of collectivism, communism, socialism, the new deal policies of franklin ddelta roosevelt. The buckleys also taught to be suspicious of democracy. The buckley children were taught that there are some people in the world fit to rule and others fit to be ruled into the good news coming you are fit to rule. And so, this belief in hierarchy was central to the upbringing. And its important to note that it was racialized. They have many servants working for them and many of them are people of color. Buckleys parents taught their children that they were biologically, naturally superior to these people of color. But, they have a responsibility as a result of their superiority to treat those under them humanely, especially those who were loyal. You can see where this is going. [laughter] so, buckley spends his childhood in this setting, goes off to prep school and then serves for two years in the u. S. Army. After that, he enrolls as a 21yearold freshman. Then there he expects to find the professors at the lectern while a firm is christian and individual beliefs. He finds some of that. There are some mentors he finds that yale but he also finds a lot of professors who are skeptical of, maybe even hostile to christianity and individualism. So, buckley also taken by the power of language to change the world similar to baldwin in that regard, he decides to use his voice and pen to fight back against the liberals and collectivists who are dominating the faculty at yale from this perspective. So she begins a formal debate and is a master at taking on the other side and criticizing liberals and socialists and others. He also becomes chair man or manager in chief of the daily news and he uses that role to write editorials about National Politics in 1948 election happens when hes there which is a fascinating election, but he also uses the editorial post to write, and i cant imagine this creaky right these critiques of his professors. Those professors who are engaged in this undermining values of these young folks at yale and then he does something even bolder than that after he graduates he sits down to write a book length and indictment of his alma mater in. Can you imagine. In this book, buckley says yale and much of Higher Education in the country is marked by this paradox. Christian individualist and send their kids off to college only to have them converted into atheistic socialists. So, buckley says that we need to do is get rid of this hoax called Academic Freedom and what we need to do is have alumni and boards of trustees control the hiring and curriculum on which campuses. Buckley then if that isnt controversial enough, but what annoys a lothatannoys a lot of t certainly gets peoples of the end. He is arriving on the intellectual scene when he publishes it. The next book is the defense of Joseph Mccarthy. Mccarthy and his enemies as they both buckley coauthors with his brotherinlaw and in this book, buckley says Joseph Mccarthy has his flaws. He is an imperfect instrument. But hes playing a vital role in American Political Culture. Buckley had been taught by one of the professors that the idea of an open society is an insane idea. Any society must be a closed society. A society that enforces a public orthodox there are some things that are okay to be leaving others that ar are not. Clearly communism is not and so were they talkinwhat they taughs the communists of course needed to be excluded from public life and suppressed in various ways. But perhaps more ominously, buckley also came to believe that liberals, one of the accusations against mccarthy is that arent some people getting caught up in the net . Well, buckley says if thats the case, mccarthy is doing a terrible job and they are still dominating the media and academia and then he says even if it was the case, is it true liberals dont deserve to be targeted . Not because they are evil like communists but because they are mistaken in their analysis of political life so it is kind of an ominous thing they leave hanging whether or not they deserve to be targeted. Meanwhile, James Baldwin leaves the United States in 1948 for paris. Hes trying to become as i as as here an honest man and a good writer and hes struggling. He wants to write an autobiographical novel about his experiences in harlem but hes having a hard time doing that and he thinks what he needs us tisto leave the United States in order to reflect so he goes to paris and begins work first as a literary critic reviewing the works of others and then writing his own pieces, essays, short stories individually a novel called go tell it on the mountain, his autobiographical novel. What baldwin tries to do in this novel is to write a novel that doesnt fall into the trap of being purchased fiction. He goes back to his publisher and says i have another novel for you, very prominent publisher in the United States. He looks at it and says what is this and this is roughly a quote. You are a promising young negro writer. Why are you giving me an allwhite novel . For those of you that havent read the book its about a Young American who goes to paris and falls in love with an italian bartender. So, baldwin is you know, 1956 remember if you are taking on the subject in 1956. So, baldwin says t two others tt were skeptical if you think my primary subject is race or if you think my primary subject and giovanni is sex, you are missing the point. My primary subject is the freedom and fulfillment of human beings come and what obstacles are there to the freedom and fulfillment of human beings. Both of these are stories about that. And i will not be constrained by your expectations. Thank you very much. She didnt work with him after that. [laughter] so, baldwin in both his fiction and nonfiction writings in this period is obsessed with the nexis of identity, morality and power. Who do we take ourselves to be and how does that lead us to treat ourselves and other people . And who has power, who doesnt and why. This is what baldwin is thinking about in his writing all the way down to the end of his life. As he reflects on the questions, he says most of us, all of us really are in a state of identity crisis. We dont really want to come to terms with who we are because that is a terrifying thing. And so he says what we do instead is we claim to the solutions that help us feel safe. He says most americans and most human beings really are sort of caught in the peril of what he calls social panic where we are trying to make ourselves feel safe by trying to capture a feeling of superiority to others. So he says if you want to understand race in america or you want to understand any thing we do, you have to reflect on this identity crisis. So, he says if you want to get him upset you ask about the quote on quote negro problem which of course is the terminology of the day and baldwin says there is no negro problem. If anything there is a white problem. But he says what we have to figure out is why was it necessary to invent a negro in the first place. And you can fill in a category from any category of the other enough space. So, in this period he writes that he thinks this idea has been created as he was the antidote to the social panic caused by the constant fear of losing status. When one slips one slips back into chaos and no longer knows who he is. In this reason it suggests to me one of the reasons for the status in this country in a way they tell us where the bottom is. Because he is better and where he is beneath us, we know where the limits are and how far we must not fall. We must not fall beneath him. So, baldwin after he offers this diagnosis he offers the following prescription, which is a politics of love and for James Baldwin isnt a sentimental thing. Its a tough thing. Its confrontation, battle and for. In order to love ourselves we have to engage in a ruthless introspection and look into ourselves and be honest about the sea. He wants us all to ask that question. He says also to love another human being means you have to confront that human being and try to help them liberate themselves from the delusions under which they live, so baldwin prescribes the gospel of love and the philosophy of love that he devotes the rest of his life to. Meanwhile, william f. Buckley junior has a lot of success in the first two books. He is frustrated with the pace of book publishing. I can relate to that. [laughter] buckley recognizes something. He recognizes in the first half of 20t the 20th century magazins played a really Important Role in American Political Culture on the left. So, the magazines like the nation, the new republic did so much to help shape the Progressive Movement the first half of the 20th century. So what he wants is a magazine of his own that can help to do the same thing on the right and the second half of the 20th century. Fortunately, he had a wealthy father and said we really want a magazines with his dad gave him an advance on his inheritance and hes able to start a magazine and also he was a very gifted fundraiser. So, buckley and the first issue of National Review appears in november 1955 minutes, you know, over a year in the making before the first issue appears. What buckley is trying to do is make a movement. We forget the conservative movement didnt exist as a coherent thing at the time he is starting the project and so buckley sets out to get the groups on the right wing who otherwise disagree to unite together. Species libertarians are especially worried about state power in Economic Affairs and they are especially worried about the decline and morality and religion in the west and he says i know you all dont agree on everything but maybe you could agree on forming a coalition coming into the coalition that will hold us together is anticommunism. We might disagree on a lot of things that we agree about that so he has this idea i will bring the groups together, but theres one big question hanging out there which is how will the magazine come down on question of race. 1954 we have brown v. Board of school segregation. We have a backlash against the decision in the south, the southern manifesto from congress or the rise of the white citizens council. The lynching of emmett till, 1955, the arrest of rosa parks, the montgomery bus boycott. All of this is happening at the moment that buckley is starting this magazine. So, how will the magazine come down on the questions of race . Isnt a foregone conclusion and this is important to remember. A rightwing magazine at this time will come down the way that his does. If a conservative politicians thoug