Daniel J. Flynn, a senior editor at the American Spectator whose past books have sweepingly portrayed recent American political history, marshals considerable skill in service of a daring thesis in The Man Who Invented Conservatism. Flynn elevates Meyer to something like the level of William F. Buckley Jr. by contending that Meyer, an apostate from communism, “became the man who invented conservatism.” The success of Flynn’s book depends on whether he accomplishes the ambitious task of persuading the reader that Meyer belongs at that level.
It is far easier to assess whether Flynn has succeeded in the biographer’s basic task of conveying the life of his subject. He has. Flynn believes that Meyer’s life story managed to largely “disappear” from the conservative movement. So he has brought it back, fully and honestly, through prodigious research, particularly his examination of Meyer’s papers, rediscovered by Flynn in a warehouse in Altoona, Pa. Frank Meyer, as Flynn shows, tends to be viewed as inseparable from his ideas. But there was a man behind those ideas.
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