cover image Right from the Beginning

Right from the Beginning

Patrick J. Buchanan. Little Brown and Company, $18.95 (392pp) ISBN 978-0-316-11408-0

Syndicated columnist Buchanan begins this memoir by explaining why he refused to be enlisted as the conservative Republicans' choice to succeed Reagan as president. As he discusses his Irish Catholic roots, growing up in Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, Md., and attending that ""citadel of liberalism,'' Columbia's journalism school, he looks back with nostalgic affection to the 1950s. His eight years working for Nixon are covered in one short chapter, and about Reagan, this White House insider says even less. In a book that is part autobiography, part political agenda, Buchanan advocates prayer in the schools, the death penalty, support for the government of South Africa, laser-based nuclear weaponry and repeal of the amendment that limits a president to two terms. He defends Oliver North, morally condemns AIDS victims and thunders against the liberal ``milquetoast'' Catholic Church of the 1980s. Conservative Book Club selection. (May)