Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. dies at 82

(Video: Mr. Buck­ley debat­ing U.S. for­eign pol­icy with Noam Chom­sky on Fir­ing Line in 1969.)

William F. Buck­ley Jr., a major force in shap­ing mod­ern Amer­i­can con­ser­vatism and a critic of aca­d­e­mic cul­ture, at his home, at the age of 82.

Mr. Buckley’s 1951 book, God and Man at Yale: The Super­sti­tions of “Aca­d­e­mic Free­dom,” con­demned his alma mater for aban­don­ing free-market and reli­gious ortho­dox­ies. He called on his fel­low Yale alumni to agi­tate for a return to the university’s core prin­ci­ples, which (in his account) were Chris­t­ian and individualist.

God and Man at Yale brought Mr. Buck­ley fame at the age of 26 and set a tem­plate for many sub­se­quent right-wing cri­tiques of acad­eme, includ­ing Allan Bloom’s The Clos­ing of the Amer­i­can Mind (1987) and Ross Douthat’s Priv­i­lege: Har­vard and the Edu­ca­tion of the Rul­ing Class (2005).

Mr. Buckley’s long career included the cre­ation of National Review, in 1955; many years as host of the talk show Fir­ing Line; and dozens of books, includ­ing 11 spy novels.

Mr. Buck­ley had recently endorsed Carl Middleton’s forth­com­ing book Great Quo­ta­tions that Shaped West­ern Civ­i­liza­tion pub­lished by Paragon House.