After reading Mr. Tannenhaus's article twice, looking for a theme, I gave up. The only enlightenment it provides is an explanation of why the NYT fails to review books by conservative authors. Reason: he despises conservatives, at least those who are currently alive. On this weeks list of NYT best sellers is a book that has been on the list for 26 weeks but is still awaiting a review. I read part of it and failed to find any Beckian excess. Instead we find in today's review a breathless account by the clapped out former Timesman, Neil Shehan, of a fifty year-old controversy between SAC commander Curtis LeMay and Brig. Gen. Bernard Schriever who ran the USAF ICBM program; a forty-year old reminiscense of Queer doings in NYC; and two books about long ago baseball games, one where the Red Sox beat the Reds [I think} and another which recounts the little known fact that Don Larsen once pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers—heady stuff indeed.
I infer from this piece and from his recent NR article that Mr. Tannenhaus sees role of conservatives as follows: When progressives have turned the crank of the ratchet to the breaking point, it is the historic task of conservatives to drop the pawl into the teeth of the ratchet in order to prevent a catastrophic winding down of the whole scheme.

It will be objected that Tannenhaus has shown his affection for conservatives by writing a well received biography of Whittaker Chambers and by being the prospective biographer of William F. Buckley Jr. What this pair have in common with other worthies such as Burke and Disraeli is their clubbability, unlike the unspeakable Gingrich and the even more unspeakable Limbaugh, Palin, and Beck. It may be objected that the slovenly Chambers was not so clubbable. It should not be forgotten, however, that he went to Princeton, was once a Communist, and that Alger Hiss liked him. In addition Tannenhaus will assume proprietorship of the entire conservative narrative. This means that when he has retired from his inept editorship of the NYT Book Review, he will be the go-to guy for comment on future books by conservatives.