II. Activist, Strategist

Of all the representatives of post-World War II conservative thought, James Burnham was probably the least appreciated by his contemporaries on the intellectual Right. Those who knew him personally—as I did not—never failed to affirm his brilliance, but the disciple- ships and even personality cults that centered on others of his generation in the conservative intellectual movement —von Mises, Hayek, Kendall, Meyer, Weaver, Strauss, Voegelin—never circled around him. A James Burnham T-shirt is unimaginable, and there seem to be few anecdotes about him in the rank and file of the conservative movement. Despite President Reagan’s award to Burnham of the Medal of Freedom in 1983, there was no Burnham revival, as there was a Whittaker Chambers revival, and even afterward a national review editorial could accurately speak of him as having become a “non-person.”

It is the irony of James Burnham’s achievement that his genius has been more amply recognized by the Left than by the Right. As a dissident Marxist, he engaged the polemical attention of Leon Trotsky and helped shatter his international movement. The Managerial Revolution was the subject of a lengthy critique by C. Wright Mills, whose later works seem to have borrowed heavily from it without attribution. The Machiavellians and The Managerial Revolution were major influences on George Orwell, who also criticized them but seemed not quite to know what to say in refutation. Raymond Aron wrote a lengthy rejoinder to Containment or Liberation? in its French translation.

SF

About the Author

Samuel T. Francis

Of all the representatives of post-World War II conservative thought, James Burnham was probably the least appreciated by his contemporaries on the intellectual Right. Those who knew him personally—as I did not—never failed to affirm his brilliance, but the disciple- ships and even personality cults that centered on others of his generation in the conservative intellectual movement —von Mises, Hayek, Kendall, Meyer, Weaver, Strauss, Voegelin—never circled around him. A James Burnham T-shirt is unimaginable, and there seem to be few anecdotes about him in the rank and file of the conservative movement. Despite President Reagan’s award to Burnham of the Medal of Freedom in 1983, there was no Burnham revival, as there was a Whittaker Chambers revival, and even afterward a national review editorial could accurately speak of him as having become a “non-person.”

It is the irony of James Burnham’s achievement that his genius has been more amply recognized by the Left than by the Right. As a dissident Marxist, he engaged the polemical attention of Leon Trotsky and helped shatter his international movement. The Managerial Revolution was the subject of a lengthy critique by C. Wright Mills, whose later works seem to have borrowed heavily from it without attribution. The Machiavellians and The Managerial Revolution were major influences on George Orwell, who also criticized them but seemed not quite to know what to say in refutation. Raymond Aron wrote a lengthy rejoinder to Containment or Liberation? in its French translation.