The inside story.(Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement)(Book review)

Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement, by Linda Bridges and John R. Coyne Jr. (Wiley, 358 pp., $27.95)

IN recent years books about National Review have become a cottage industry. In 2004 came William F. Buckley Jr.'s literary autobiography, Miles Gone By. In 2005, his sister Priscilla's Living It Up at National Review. In 2006, Jeffrey Hart's volume The Making of the American Conservative Mind. This wave is no effusion of nostalgia. National Review is now regarded as the most influential political magazine of the past half-century.…