In his book, One Man's Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle Over an American Ideal, Nicholas Buccola, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, illustrates how one of the most consequential attempts to save American freedom was, in large part, a battle over advertising; indeed, a battle over language—language that remains in use for both the modern American political right and left. From the launching of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that thrust King (and briefly Goldwater) into public life, until Goldwater’s landslide loss in the 1964 presidential election at the hands of the Democratic coalition King helped build, Buccola digs beneath the surface of each man’s position, offers the logic behind his point of view, and clearly exposes the gulf between them. Buccola wrestles with what we learn about ourselves by considering how these men were at odds with each other; what conditions are necessary for their different ideas of freedom to be realized in the world, and why different conceptions of freedom lead people to view each other with such great suspicion. All along the way, it will prove impossible not to hear echoes of the current zeitgeist.
The Dr. Jules K. Whitehill Professor of Humanism & Ethics and professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, Nicholas Buccola specializes in American political thought. His previous books include The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2019) and The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (New York University Press, 2012). He is the editor of The Essential Douglass: Writings and Speeches (Hackett, 2016) and Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy (University Press of Kansas, 2016).
His essays have appeared in scholarly journals including The Review of Politics and American Political Thought as well as popular outlets such as The New York Times, Salon, The Baltimore Sun, and Dissent.
