185 – Inventing Conservatism with Daniel J. Flynn

Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values

Few forerunners of the modern conservative movement are as important, little known, and underappreciated as Frank Meyer. Meyer possessed the IT factor that made women want him and men want to be associated with him. He used that in his early years to advance Marxism in England—building an impressive Marxist organization that had the attention of UK’s government, dating the Prime Minister’s daughter while calling for the violent overthrow of the Prime Minister’s government, and becoming a national celebrity as the nation debated whether he should be exiled. But later in life, when he turned to the Right, that same charisma was used to help William F. Buckley build a fledgling conservative movement that ultimately changed the politics of the nation.

Joining Josh to discuss this most remarkable life is Daniel J. Flynn, author of his latest book: The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer.

About Daniel J. Flynn

From spectator.org

Daniel J. Flynn, a senior editor of The American Spectator, serves as a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution for the 2024-2025 academic year. His books include Cult City: Harvey Milk, Jim Jones, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco (ISI Books, 2018), Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America (ISI Books, 2011), A Conservative History of the American Left (Crown Forum, 2008), and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (Crown Forum, 2004). In 2025, he releases his magnum opus, The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer. He splits time between city Massachusetts and cabin Vermont.

About The Book

Frank Meyer devised the blueprint for American conservatism—fusionism—championed by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and so many to this day. Yet long before and far away, Communists in London chanted “Free Frank Meyer!” to block the deportation of a comrade who was their cause célèbre. Those fervent Marxists could never have predicted that their hero would one day provide the intellectual energy necessary to propel conservatives to political power.

The Man Who Invented Conservatism unveils one of the twentieth century’s great untold stories: a Communist turned conservative, an antiwar activist turned soldier, and a free-love enthusiast turned family man whose big idea captured the American Right. This intellectual migration coincided with a clandestine affair inside 10 Downing Street, service as a lieutenant to the man who later constructed the Berlin Wall, and neighborly chats with the pop-star and poet celebrity next door. Present at the creation of National Review, Meyer helped launch Joan Didion’s writing career. From H. G. Wells to Henry Kissinger to Milton Friedman, he rubbed shoulders with everyone who mattered.

Having discovered Meyer’s previously unexamined correspondence in an old soda warehouse, Daniel J. Flynn documents this saga in The Man Who Invented Conservatism, exposing the rivalries, jealousies, friendships, and fights that shaped the movement and what it means to be a conservative today.