Writing Books, Opening Minds: The Influence of Young America’s Foundation’s Alumni Authors

Writing Books, Opening Minds:

The Influence of Young America’s Foundation’s Alumni Authors

By Raj Kannappan, Editor

In his 1993 address to Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference, President Ronald Reagan told the audience,

Young America’s Foundation has been a refuge for students seeking an alternative to the politically correct environment enforced on many campuses. I know the conference will send you back to your campuses better informed, motivated, and trained. Your work is vital to the future of the nation.

Indeed, since the founding of Young Americans for Freedom in 1960—and the establishment of its successor organization, Young America’s Foundation, in 1969—YAF has exposed generations of students to the “alternative” ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. For decades, young people have come through YAF’s doors at student conferences; campus lectures; premier Presidential sites like the Reagan Ranch, Reagan Ranch Center, and Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home; and programs offered by the National Journalism Center and Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise. Here, they’ve learned and gained inspiration from the most articulate advocates of freedom, including public officials, faculty members, intellectuals, journalists, and authors, among others. Even the New York Times in 2017 declared YAF “the conservative force” behind the spread of freedom’s principles on college campuses, highlighting the Foundation’s mission of developing “future conservative leaders.” Yet, one might ask, what impact does all of this have? To answer this question, one simply needs to look at the accomplishments of YAF alumni. While Foundation graduates can be found making contributions in virtually all areas of Prolific author William F. Buckley Jr., at whose home Young Americans for Freedom was founded, the Conservative Movement and beyond— signs copies of his books following his YAF lecture at Wabash College in 1993. from government to business and journalism

A Selection of YAF’s Alumni Authors

to entertainment—a review of YAF’s alumni authors demonstrates the organization’s track record of developing future leaders.

As seven-time New York Times bestselling author Peter Schweizer— who also serves on YAF’s Board of Directors—recalls about his 1982 experience attending the National Conservative Student Conference,

We were given a stack of books by Milton Friedman, Bill

Buckley, and other leading thinkers of the time. I had read National Review, but the conference was my first exposure to conservative books. I discovered then and there that, unlike articles or lectures, books can really influence a person over the long term. That’s why I turned to writing books after college.

Not only has Schweizer influenced millions of readers with his own books, but he has also made a tangible impact on public policymaking.

In 2011, for instance, CBS’s 60 Minutes featured Schweizer and his book, Throw Them All Out—an investigation into the corrupt behavior of public officials. Schweizer’s findings spurred the passage of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which prohibits members and employees of Congress from using non-public information for private gain (i.e., insider trading).

The National Conservative Student Conference inspired another future author in 1992—this time Stanford University undergraduate David Sacks. Sacks subsequently co-wrote the book, The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus, with fellow Stanford student Peter Thiel. The book offered a timely behind-the-scenes look at the speech codes, racial preferences, and anti-American curricula being passed off as education and scholarship at the nation’s leading universities.

During the Foundation’s 1996 National Conservative Student Conference, legendary spy novelist Tom Clancy (front row, center) encourages students to read and write widely. Sacks went on to become a successful technology executive and an early investor in Uber, SpaceX, and Palantir Technologies. He was also recently reported to have been involved with Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and in advising the new owner of this social media platform. But it’s not just the National Conservative Student Conference that has shaped the minds of future authors. In 1995, Wynton Hall attended a regional Foundation conference in Atlanta after learning about YAF from a fellow University of Florida student. He states about his career trajectory, Now having ghostwritten 21 books and seven New York Times bestsellers, I have been blessed along my journey with influential mentors who invested time and sagacity into honing the craft of writing… That first YAF conference in Atlanta left an indelible and lasting mark on my intellectual and career development…It was intellectually liberating and a harbinger of things to come. Like Schweizer, Hall today helps develop the next generation of conservative leaders through his role as a Foundation director.

Future economist and author Todd Buchholz (front row, third from left) attends YAF’s 1980 National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C. YAF alumnus and now-director Wynton Hall (right) works with Dick Wirthlin, President Ronald Reagan’s chief strategist and pollster, on Wirthlin’s book, The Greatest Communicator.

A few years after the conference Hall attended, YAF would acquire the Reagan Ranch and build the Reagan Ranch Center in downtown Santa Barbara, where, in 2007, a young conservative named Alex Marlow from the University of California, Berkeley, would attend a YAF seminar. There, Marlow was inspired by the legendary Andrew Breitbart, who shared his experience of growing up in liberal Los Angeles and becoming editor of The Drudge Report.

By the end of the weekend, Marlow had secured a job offer from Breitbart himself. He hasn’t looked back since, becoming editor-in-chief of Breitbart News and writing the New York Times bestseller, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption.

Only a year later, a University of Arizona student would attend another YAF conference at the Reagan Ranch, meeting like-minded young people from across the country and taking an unforgettable tour of Ronald Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo. As Katie Pavlich tells it,

I was one of those college kids who had no idea what field I should have gone into until I went to my first YAF conference…I immediately knew I wanted to do something that made a difference.

Pavlich began a career in media, rising quickly through the journalism ranks to become editor of Townhall and rotating cohost on Fox News’ The Five. At the age of just 24, she wrote the New York Times bestseller, Fast and Furious, which broke open the Obama administration’s anti-Second Amendment scandal in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

More recently, in 2021, Foundation alumnus Kenny Xu— who founded the Davidson College YAF chapter—wrote An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American

Quick Facts About YAF’s Alumni Authors and Their Books

• More than 150 alumni have authored or co-authored books • 15 alumni have appeared on the

New York Times bestseller list multiple times • In 1986, alumni William

F. Buckley Jr. and his son,

Christopher Buckley, became the only father and son to appear simultaneously on the Times bestseller list for their books

High Jinx (William F. Buckley

Jr.) and The White House Mess (Christopher Buckley) • Three of Christopher Buckley’s novels were adapted into films:

Thank You for Smoking, Little

Green Men, and Boomsday • Alumnus and YAF Director

Peter Schweizer’s seven Times bestsellers include the #1 bestsellers Red-Handed, Secret

Empires, Profiles in Corruption, and Clinton Cash

• At just 24 years of age, alumna

Katie Pavlich became a Times bestselling author—the youngest YAF alum to make the list—for her book, Fast and Furious

• Alumnus and YAF Director

Wynton Hall has ghostwritten seven Times bestsellers, including

President Donald Trump’s book,

Time to Get Tough • Economist and alumnus

Todd Buchholz’s books have been translated into a dozen languages and are used at universities worldwide

Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy. As the U.S. Supreme Court currently takes a more critical look at American universities’ race-based admissions policies, Xu’s work serves as a timely exposé of the dumbing down of education in the name of racial equality.

Altogether, YAF’s alumni have written more than 600 books on a wide range of topics.

For example, alumni books on education include God and Man at Yale by YAF founder William F. Buckley Jr., How to Raise a Conservative Daughter by Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women President Michelle Easton, and Freedom’s College: The History of Grove City College by Heritage Foundation Distinguished Fellow Lee Edwards.

YAF alumni have also written numerous historical works, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War by H.W. Crocker III, A Generation Awakes by former YAF Executive Director Wayne Thorburn, The Theme is Freedom by National Journalism Center founder M. Stanton Evans, and Funding Fathers by former YAF President Ron Robinson and current YAF Director Nicole Hoplin.

Foundation alumni have naturally produced several influential books on public policy, including Liberty & Tyranny by talk radio host Mark Levin, The Price of Prosperity

Davidson College YAF alumnus Kenny Xu meets with guests following remarks on his book, An Inconvenient Minority, in 2021 at YAF’s national headquarters.

Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center and a YAF alumnus, signs copies of his book, Weapons of Mass Distortion, during the Foundation’s 2006 National Conservative Student Conference. by economist Todd Buchholz, Popular Economics by FreedomWorks Vice President John Tamny, Losing Bin Laden by Richard Miniter, Divider-in-Chief by YAF Director Kate Obenshain, and Let Trump Be Trump by Citizens United President David Bossie.

Not to be outdone, alumni—including William F. Buckley Jr., who wrote dozens of novels throughout his life, and his son, Christopher Buckley—have even been prolific fiction writers. One of the younger Buckley’s novels, Thank You for Smoking, was produced into a Golden Globe-winning film in 2005 by fellow YAF alumnus David Sacks. The book and film serve as politically incorrect satires about the behavior of elected officials, lobbyists, and society writ large.

The breadth and depth of the books produced by YAF’s alumni authors reflect the impact of the Foundation over the course of six decades. These alumni are the leaders educating and inspiring today’s YAF students, who are in position to accomplish over the next 60 years even greater things for the Conservative Movement and the country.

As Ronald Reagan said to another audience of students— this time at Westminster College in 1990—“So long as books are kept open, then minds can never be closed.” What a fitting message for today’s young people.

In 2012, YAF alumna Katie Pavlich discusses her New York Times bestselling book, Fast and Furious, during an interview on Fox News.

Former YAF President Ron Robinson (right) congratulates Foundation alumnus Jerome Hudson during a booksigning event in 2019 for Hudson’s book, 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know.