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M. Stanton Evans

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M. Stanton Evans
Born(1934-07-20)July 20, 1934
Kingsville, Texas, US
DiedMarch 3, 2015(2015-03-03) (aged 80)
Leesburg, Virginia, US
OccupationWriter
Alma materYale University
Period1951–2015
GenreNonfiction
SubjectPolitics, History
Literary movementConservative
Notable worksBlacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies
Notable awardsHonorary doctorates: Syracuse University, John Marshall Law School, Grove City College, Francisco Marroquín University; two Freedom Foundation awards: editorial writing; National Headliners Club Award: "consistently outstanding editorial pages"; William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence (Media Research Center); Reed Irvine award for excellence in journalism (Accuracy in Media); Barbara Olson Award for Excellence & Independence in Journalism (American Spectator); John M. Ashbrook Award (Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs); Regnery Award for Distinguished Institutional Service (Intercollegiate Studies Institute); four George Washington medals (Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania)
Spouse
Sue Ellen Moore
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1974)​
RelativesMedford Bryan and Josephine Stanton Evans (parents)

Medford Stanton Evans (July 20, 1934 – March 3, 2015), better known as M. Stanton Evans, was an American writer, commentator and leader in the conservative movement.[1] He was the author of eight books, including Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies (2007).[2]

A theorist of the right, he was a leader in a number of conservative organizations, including chairman of the American Conservative Union from 1971 to 1977 and founder and leader of the National Journalism Center from 1997 to 2002.[1] He died of cancer on March 3, 2015, in Virginia at age 80.

Early life and education

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Evans was born in Kingsville in Kleberg County in South Texas, the son of Medford Bryan Evans, an author, college professor at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and official of the United States Atomic Energy Commission,[3] and the classics scholar Josephine Stanton Evans.[4] He grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.[3]

Evans graduated in 1955 magna cum laude from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa,[5] with a Bachelor of Arts in English, followed by graduate work in Economics at New York University under Ludwig von Mises.[6]

Journalism

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As an undergraduate, Evans was an editor for the Yale Daily News.[7] It was at Yale that he read One Is a Crowd by Frank Chodorov. In The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, George H. Nash writes:

It was the first libertarian book he [Evans] had ever read, and [he said] it 'opened up more intellectual perspectives to me than did the whole Yale curriculum.' Evans came to believe that Chodorov 'probably had more to do with the conscious shaping of my political philosophy than any other person'.[8]

Upon graduation, Evans became assistant editor of The Freeman, where Chodorov was editor.[9] The following year, he joined the staff of William F. Buckley's fledgling National Review (where he served as associate editor from 1960 to 1973),[10] and became managing editor of Human Events, where he remained a contributing editor until his death.[11]

Evans became a proponent of National Review co-editor Frank Meyer's "fusionism", a political philosophy reconciling the traditionalist and libertarian tendencies of the conservative movement.[12] He argued that freedom and virtue are not antagonistic, but complementary:

The idea that there is some sort of huge conflict between religious values and liberty is a misstatement of the whole problem. The two are inseparable. ... [I]f there are no moral axioms, why should there be any freedom?[13] The conservative believes that ours is a God-centered, and therefore an ordered, universe; that man's purpose is to shape his life to the patterns of order proceeding from the Divine center of life; and that, in seeking this objective, man is hampered by a fallible intellect and vagrant will. Properly construed, this view is not only compatible with a due regard for human freedom, but demands it.[14]

In 1959, Evans became head editorial writer of The Indianapolis News,[10] rising to editor the following year—at 26, the nation's youngest editor of a metropolitan daily newspaper[5]—a position he held until 1974.[10] In 1971, Evans became a commentator for the CBS Television and Radio Networks, and in 1980 became a commentator for National Public Radio, the Voice of America, Radio America and WGMS in Washington, D.C.[15]

In 1974, he became a nationally syndicated columnist for The Los Angeles Times syndicate.[10] Barry Goldwater wrote that Evans "writes with the strength and conviction and authority of experience."[16] In a 1975 radio address, Ronald Reagan cited Evans as "a very fine journalist."[17] In 1977, he founded the National Journalism Center, of which he served as director until 2002. The center sponsors young journalists getting established in the nation's capital. Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media was among those who began their careers through Evans' auspices.[18] In 1980, Evans became an adjunct professor of journalism at Troy University in Troy, Alabama,[19] where he held the Buchanan Chair of Journalism.[20]

From 1981 to 2002, he was publisher of Consumers' Research magazine. Evans expressed his journalistic philosophy as follows:

I don't think that the way to correct a spin from the left is to try to impart a spin from the right. ... [A]n information flow distorted from the right would be just as much a disservice as distortion from the left. What we really should be after ... is accurate information. And I don't see what any conservative or anybody else for that matter has to fear from accurate information.[21]

Political activism

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Evans was present at Great Elm, the family home of William F. Buckley in Sharon, Connecticut, at the founding of Young Americans for Freedom,[22] where, on September 11, 1960, he drafted YAF's charter, the Sharon Statement.[23] Some conservatives still revere this document as a concise statement of their principles.[24]

From 1971 to 1977, Evans served as chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU).[25] He was one of the first conservatives to denounce U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, just a year into his first term, co-writing a January 1970 ACU report condemning his record.[why?] Under Evans' leadership, the ACU issued a July 1971 statement concluding, "the American Conservative Union has resolved to suspend our support of the Administration." Evans often joked that he "never liked Nixon until Watergate."[26]

In June 1975, the ACU called upon Ronald Reagan of California to challenge incumbent Gerald R. Ford Jr., for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination.[27] In June 1982, Evans and others met with now-president Reagan[28] to warn him that the White House staff was undermining Reagan by making a deal with the Democratic Congress. (Reagan subsequently made such a deal in which for each $1 in higher taxes Congress promised $3 in spending cuts; Reagan delivered the tax hike, but Congress broke its promise and actually increased spending.)[29]

In 1974, upon leaving the now-defunct The Indianapolis News after 15 years, he taught journalism at Troy University in Troy, Alabama for more than thirty years. From 1977 to 2002, he led the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C., which was established with financial help from the conservative movement and brought promising beginning journalists to the nation's capital.[2] He founded the Education and Research Institute. He was the president of the Philadelphia Society,[30] a member of the Council for National Policy, sat on the advisory board of Young Americans for Freedom, and was a trustee of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).[31] He was an advisor to the National Tax Limitation Committee.[32]

Honors

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Evans was awarded honorary doctorates from Syracuse University, John Marshall Law School, Grove City College and Francisco Marroquín University.[33] He is a past winner of two Freedom Foundation awards for editorial writing and the National Headliners Club Award for "consistently outstanding editorial pages."[34] Evans was also awarded the Heartland Institute's Heartland Freedom Prize,[35] Accuracy in Media's Reed Irvine award for excellence in journalism,[36] the American Spectator's Barbara Olson Award for Excellence & Independence in Journalism,[37] the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs' John M. Ashbrook Award,[38] the ISI's Regnery Award for Distinguished Institutional Service[39] and four Freedoms Foundation George Washington medals.[40] Troy University's Hall School of Journalism hosts an annual M. Stanton Evans symposium named in his honor. There is also the M. Stanton Evans Alumni Award.[41]

Publications

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Books

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External videos
video icon Booknotes interview with Evans on The Theme Is Freedom, February 5, 1995, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Evans on Blacklisted by History (Nov. 8, 2007), C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Evans on Stalin's Secret Agents, July 19, 2013, C-SPAN

Book contributions

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References

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  1. ^ a b Schudel, Matt (March 5, 2015). "M. Stanton Evans, guiding force in modern conservatism, dies at 80". The Washington Post.
  2. ^ a b Adam Clymer (March 4, 2015). "M. Stanton Evans, Who Helped Shape Conservative Movement, Is Dead at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  3. ^ a b The Theme is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition by M. Stanton Evans Archived November 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Booknotes, C-SPAN, February 5, 1995
  4. ^ "Josephine Evans, 97, former teacher," The Washington Times, June 3, 2005; cf. James B. Lloyd, ed., Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967 (University Press of Mississippi, 2009) ISBN 1604734116, pp. 157–158
  5. ^ a b "End of a Search", Time October 10, 1960
  6. ^ M. Stanton Evans, "Government Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (June 1975)", hillsdale.edu; accessed March 3, 2015.
  7. ^ Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook – Class of 1954, Yale University, 1954, p. 132 (e-yearbook.com)
  8. ^ George H. Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, ISI Books, 2006, p. 39. ISBN 1933859121.
  9. ^ Archive for Frank Chodorov, The Freeman
  10. ^ a b c d Sam G. Riley, Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995), p. 84; ISBN 0313291926
  11. ^ M. Stanton Evans profile Archived December 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, humanevents.com; accessed March 3, 2015.
  12. ^ William F. Meehan, III (Apr. 17, 2008). "M. Stanton Evans" (profile). firstprinciplesjournal.com. Accessed Mar. 3, 2015.
  13. ^ Gregory L. Schneider, Cadres for conservatism: young Americans for freedom and the rise of the contemporary right (NYU Press, 1999), p. 35; ISBN 081478108X
  14. ^ L. Brent Bozell, "Freedom or Virtue?", Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate, George Wescott Carey, ed. (Wilmington, Del: ISI Books, 1998), p. 22[ISBN missing]
  15. ^ Eugene G. Schwartz, American Students Organize: Founding the National Student Association after World War II: An Anthology and Sourcebook (American Council on Educators/Praeger Publishers, 2006), p. 804; ISBN 0275991008
  16. ^ Fulton Lewis Jr., "Washington Report", Reading Eagle, November 17, 1961, p. 10
  17. ^ Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson and Martin Anderson (eds), Reagan, in His Own Hand (Simon and Schuster, 2001), p. 364; ISBN 0743219384
  18. ^ "Cliff Kincaid's Biography". usasurvival.org. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  19. ^ Troy University Journalism Symposium named in honor of M. Stanton Evans Archived May 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, troy.edu; accessed March 3, 2015.
  20. ^ Professor M. Stanton Evans profile, jschool.troy.edu; accessed March 3, 2015.
  21. ^ M. Stanton Evans, "Can Conservatives Change the Media?[permanent dead link‍]" Heritage Foundation Resource Bank lecture, August 7, 1990.
  22. ^ M. Stanton Evans profile Archived July 31, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, isi.org; accessed March 3, 2015.
  23. ^ Rebecca E. Klatch, A generation divided: the new left, the new right, and the 1960s (University of California Press, 1999) ISBN 0520217144, p. 21
  24. ^ "The Sharon Statement would last as the late 20th century's single most elegant distillation of conservative principles." (K.E. Grubbs Jr., "The Magnificent Legacy of the YAF Archived September 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine," Investors Business Daily, September 9, 2010); "This statement of principles denies the basic premises of Progressivism and liberalism ... the concerns for liberty remain the same over the centuries.," The Sharon Statement, Archived January 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine The Heritage Foundation.
  25. ^ Statement of Principles Archived May 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine: The Sharon Statement, American Conservative Union
  26. ^ James C. Roberts, "CPAC Over 30 Years: Conservatives Have Come a Long Way," Human Events, February 3, 2003. Evans recycled this bit of what Roberts called his "droll, contrarian humor" at another conference two years later, when he objected to a co-panelist, self-proclaimed "unabashed ideological liberal" Rick Perlstein, characterizing Nixon as a "conservative," quipping: "I was never for Nixon until Watergate." Perlstein apparently didn't get the joke (Rick Perlstein, "'I Didn't Like Nixon Until Watergate': The Conservative Movement Now," Huffington Post, December 5, 2005), but the audience laughed. (Video: Barry Goldwater and the Modern Conservative Movement Archived April 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, "The Conservative Movement: Its Past, Present, and Future," The Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, Princeton University, December 2, 2005, 9:00 a.m. "Unabashed ideological liberal" at 28:05; laughter at 42:26) (56K)
  27. ^ Our History Archived September 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, conservative.org; accessed March 3, 2015.
  28. ^ Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson and Martin Anderson (eds), Reagan: A Life in Letters (Simon and Schuster, 2004), p. 595; ISBN 0743276426
  29. ^ Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: An American Life (Simon and Schuster, 1990); ISBN 0671691988, p. 314. Cf. Steven F. Hayward, The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980–1989 (Random House, Inc., 2009) ISBN 1400053579, pp. 210—212
  30. ^ "Presidents of The Philadelphia Society". Phillysoc.org. Archived from the original on February 23, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  31. ^ William F. Meehan, III, Evans profile, firstprinciplesjournal.com, April 17, 2008.
  32. ^ Profile, limittaxes.com; accessed March 3, 2015.
  33. ^ M. Stanton Evans, Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies (Random House, 2007); ISBN 140008105X, "About the Author" (back cover)
  34. ^ "Fact Finders to Hear Young Editor, Today," Palm Beach Daily News, May 4, 1962, p. 5
  35. ^ "M. Stanton Evans to be honored at Heartland Institute's anniversary dinner", illinoisreview.typepad.com; accessed March 3, 2015.
  36. ^ Alanna Hultz, AIM Honors Stan Evans, March 25, 2009
  37. ^ M. Stanton Evans (The American Spectator, November 1, 2011) on YouTube
  38. ^ John Gizzi, Matthew Robinson, Joseph A. D'Agostino, David Freddoso and Matthew A. Rarey, "29th Conservative Political Action Conference sets attendance record", Human Events, February 11, 2002.
  39. ^ M. Stanton Evans Archived March 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
  40. ^ M. Stanton Evans, "Unlearning the Liberal History Lesson: Some Thoughts Concerning Conservatism and Freedom" (March 1980), hillsdale.edu; accessed March 3, 2015.
  41. ^ M. Stanton Evans Alumni Award Archived October 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, isi.org; accessed March 3, 2015.
  42. ^ Miller, Marcella. Review of Revolt on the Campus, by M. Stanton Evans. Western Political Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3 (Sep. 1962), pp. 549–551. doi:10.2307/445053. JSTOR 445053.
  43. ^ Holtzoff, Alexander. Review of The Lawbreakers: America's Number One Domestic Problem, by M. Stanton Evans & Margaret Moore. American Bar Association Journal, vol. 54, no. 11 (Nov. 1968), p. 1106. JSTOR 25724595
  44. ^ Smith, Ruth L. Review of The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics and the American Tradition, by M. Stanton Evans. Journal of Church and State, vol. 38, no. 3 (Summer 1996), pp. 654–655. JSTOR 23920098
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