- Frank Meyer
Frank Straus Meyer (1909 – 1972) was a
libertarian political philosopher and co-founding editor of the "National Review " magazine.Frank S. Meyer was born to a prominent Jewish business family in
Newark, New Jersey . He attendedPrinceton University for one year but was displeased by theantisemitism and snobbery he found there. He then transferred toBalliol College atOxford University . He later studied at theLondon School of Economics .Meyer was an active
communist early in life before his conversion to conservatism and his joining of "National Review ". As a conservative, Meyer---like many of the magazine's founding senior editors an ex-Communist---was a close adviser to and confidant of founder/editor William F. Buckley, Jr..In the late 1960's, Meyer engaged in a debate over the role of
Abraham Lincoln with conservativeHarry V. Jaffa . Meyer argued that Lincoln's abuses ofcivil liberties and expansion of government power should make him anathema to conservatives, while Jaffa defended Lincoln as a continuation of the Founding Fathers. [http://www.lincolnmyth.com/without_rhetoric.html]Meyer is best known for his theory of "fusionism" - a political philosophy that unites elements of
libertarianism and conservatism. (Murray Rothbard argued, however, that Meyer's fusionism was actually the natural law-natural rights branch of libertarian thought that Rothbard and others followed.) Meyer's philosophy was presented in two books, "In Defense of Freedom" and a collection of his essays, "The Conservative Affirmation." It was reviewed affirmatively by journalist Ryan Sager in 2007's "The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party", in which Sager called for a principled revival of Meyer's fusionism to save the embattled party following its 2006 electoral defeats.Known in conservative and libertarian circles for his nocturnal lifestyle---Buckley among others has recalled (in "Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography") that Meyer would sleep by day and be on the phone by night on behalf of his journalism and activism---Meyer married the former Elsie Bown. They had two sons, John and Eugene. The latter is president of the
Federalist Society .Frank Meyer died of lung cancer in 1972.
Works
*"The Moulding of Communists: the training of the Communist cadre" (1961)
*"In Defense of Freedom" (1962)
*"Left, Right and Center: Essays on Liberalism and Conservatism in the United States" (1965)ee also
*http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2751.html
*http://www.nrbookservice.com/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=C6010
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_11_54/ai_86481304 Book Review on 'Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement']
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