“Politics always exceeds economics,” is an insight that Burns derived from his extensive reading on both subjects. By this aphoristic axiom, he seems to have meant that political values are ultimately more powerful drivers of human behavior than economic forces.

Burns followed and read closely conservative political commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008). Born in New York to Texan father and mother from New Orleans, Buckley spent his childhood years in Mexico before attending boarding schools in France and England. These varied influences shaped the distinct character of his transatlantic accent as well as his thought. After World War II, Buckley studied political science, history, and economics at Yale, where he excelled as a debater. In 1955, he founded National Review magazine, and in 1966 launched Firing Line, which became the longest running public affairs show on television with a single host, with more than 1,500 episodes over 33 years.

Buckley also wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column and several spy novels under the pseudonym Blackford Oakes, as well as other fiction under his own. He occasionally anthologized his columns and essays. Richard Brookhiser, who succeed Buckley for a time as editor of the National Review, brought out Right Reason in 1985. In 2000, a collection of Buckley’s public speeches was published under the title Let Us Talk of Many Things.

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