The Forgotten Conservative
A once prominent name has been erased from the history of the American Right after World War II. Readers of National Review in the late 1950s and early ‘60s would have found it difficult to miss the contributions of Revilo P. Oliver, among the most frequent book reviewers for the magazine. Oliver, who taught at the University of Illinois and read 11 languages, including Sanskrit, was a classical philologist of great distinction, and his articles for the magazine displayed his remarkable erudition.
Oliver was a close friend of the founder and editor of National Review, William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley went sailing with him and described him in Cruising Speed as “without exception the single most erudite man” he had ever met. But their friendship faced a difficulty that could not be overcome. Oliver joined the John Birch Society at its inception in 1958 and served on its National Council. After an initial period of wariness, Buckley repudiated the Birch Society, in particular the claim by its founder Robert Welch that President Eisenhower was an agent of the Communist conspiracy.
Oliver after this falling out made American Opinion, a monthly journal sponsored by Welch, his principal outlet for political writing. He continued to review books, on an even more extensive scale than he had done for Buckley. His articles there included learned discussions of Oswald Spengler and Eric Voegelin. He wrote a special issue of the magazine, An Introduction to the Contemporary History of Latin America, which made clear that he had the history of every nation of that region at his command. He also bore primary responsibility for the annual Scoreboard issue, which estimated the extent of Communist influence for each nation in the world. Often, these estimates struck skeptics as absurdly high; the United States, for example, regularly scored over 60 percent!
