Morton's review:

Those who came of age politically in the 1980s or later can hardly comprehend the influence Bill Buckley had on the modern conservative movement.

He was, by far, the most attractive and thrilling conservative intellect for decades, and more than equal in debate to any liberal intellectual, as we learned on many occasions. 

Conservative students of my generation, confronted with an overwhelmingly liberal (and often unbearably smug) faculty, were greatly reassured by the knowledge that Buckley could smash the arguments of anyone on the liberal side.

Though Up from Liberalism concerns itself largely with issues that date back to the 1960s, the combination of humor and erudition Buckley uses to skewer the liberal establishment gives the book a timeless appeal.