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What They're Saying...

"You have never read a book like this. A first-class litigator and brilliant interviewer, Wendy White, probes and keeps probing one of the quietest of the most interesting people of our time, Jim Buckley, Senator, President of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe during a key period in the liberation of Europe from Soviet Communism, Federal Judge, and all-around good man. Judge Buckley adds informative and entertaining notes throughout, explaining parts of the hidden background that readers might want to know. A warm, often wryly funny, wonderfully illuminating tale about one of the most remarkable families of the last century."
— Michael Novak, George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute

"A truly splendid memoir. Buckley is, in turn, candid, reflective, and revealing-as well as humorous. Having served in all three branches of the federal government (as rare these days as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker), Buckley calls his career ‘an unplanned life’. But ‘character is destiny,’ as the ancient Greeks told us, and character determined his life course. Once can understand why his brother, Bill, refers to the model American as ‘sainted.'"
— James Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense during the Nixon Administration and Secretary of Energy during the Carter Administration

"What a pleasure it is to savor the work product of an interrogator who asks probative questions and a respondent who provides thoughtful answers! In these interviews Wendy White and Judge Buckley worked like very dry vermouth and very good gin. The result: a very good read. We get a good look at un homme serieux who doesn’t take himself too damn seriously. His reflections on the judicial process struck me as especially wise."
— James J. Kilpatrick, Columnist and author of A Conservative View

"The book is lively with newspaper clips, photographs, excerpts of one sort or another. But its backbone is the five interviews in which the lively lady examiner gets from the diffident public servant a narrative text disclosing his views on public matters. Buckley, in a distinctive way, tells his story and keeps alive the family tradition for introducing wit in one's narrative, and for acknowledging, with extraordinary gentility, the views of others who come to different conclusions."
— Jaime Sneider, National Review