WILL, GEORGE F. Encyclopedia of American Journalism

George F. Will (May 4, 1941– ) is a syndicated newspaper columnist, book author, and television commentator.
Known for his erudition and lofty prose style, he staked
out for himself the high Tory position in postwar American
conservatism.
Born in 1941, Will grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, the son of a philosophy professor at the University of
Illinois. After graduating from Trinity University in Connecticut, he studied at Oxford University in England. He
has said that his steady support for a strong American military posture stems from a visit to the Berlin Wall during
that period in the early 1960s when it had just been built.
Following Oxford, he earned a PhD in political philosophy
from Princeton University.
His academic career was short-lived, and included stints
at Michigan State and the University of Toronto. He then
took a position with Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado
in 1970. Once in Washington, he set up shop as an opinion journalist, serving as Washington correspondent first
for the American Spectator and then National Review, for
which he was Washington editor from 1973 to 1976. In
1974 he began writing a syndicated column for the Washington Post Writers Group, an effort that reaped a Pulitzer
Prize for commentary in 1977. In 1976 be began writing a
bi-weekly column for Newsweek magazine. His television
commentary began with Agronsky & Company in the mid-
1970s, and continued on to the ABC show This Week with
David Brinkley, launched in 1981.
Will has published several collections of his columns,
along with works of political philosophy and two books
on baseball. His high-brow enthusiasm for the sport, and
for the hapless Chicago Cubs became part of popular lore,
prompting a skit on the popular television comedy, Saturday Night Live.
Always a self-proclaimed conservative, Will encountered controversy during the 1980 election when he helped
Republican candidate Ronald Reagan prepare for a debate,
and afterwards commented on television that Reagan had
done splendidly. There was, however, often tension between
Will and “movement conservatives,” some of whom believed
that he had ingratiated himself with the Washington establishment by trampling on the carcass of Richard Nixon.
Will occasionally exacerbated these tensions by attempting to distinguish himself from “soi dissant” conservatives,
generally of the libertarian variety, whom he deemed insufficiently attuned to the proper purposes of government.
Will counts himself a part of the Tory tradition, which
seeks to cultivate a virtuous citizenry, and is willing to use
the good offices of government toward that end. As a practical matter, however, the shortcomings of Americans rather
than their virtues are what elicited his keenest thought. He
was perhaps strongest as a cultural critic, in which capacity he capably defended Victorian traditions of literacy
and high culture from the barbarian incursions of modern
times. His erudition—some have commented that the baton
was handed from Walter Lippmann—gave him an air of
intellectual authority on such matters unique in mainstream
American commentary.
The principal use he found for American government,
however, was national defense pursued aggressively. Ultimately, his legacy may be joined to that of the neoconservatives: both came to prominence as social critics defending
tradition, but found their true passion in the encouragement
of American military adventures abroad.
Further Reading
Will, George F. Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. New York:
Macmillan, 1990.
——. The Pursuit of Happiness, and Other Sobering Thoughts.
New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
——. The Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions. New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1982.
——. Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home, 1986–
1990. New York: Free Press, 1990.
Gordon Jackson

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