James Burnham is having a moment — but if the man William F. Buckley once called National Review’s “No. 1 intellectual influence” could see who was mainstreaming him, he might stand athwart them, yelling Stop.
A motley crew of intellectuals — from influential bloggers to edgy podcasters all the way up to mainstream policy wonks and think-tankers — have suddenly discovered Burnham’s genius. The strangest part: These factions don’t have much in common. The “monarchist” Substack writer Curtis Yarvin (far-right by most standards), the hosts of the Red Scare podcast (recovering progressives), and an assemblage of booster publications for what is now called the “New Right” (a hazily defined offshoot of conservatism looking to capture leftover populism from the Trump years) all have Burnham on the brain.
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