Tribute to Leo Ribuffo (Guest Post by Allan Lichtman)

Leo Ribuffo changed my life before I ever met him. His path-breaking work The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right From the Great Depression to the Cold War, published in 1983 was an inspiration for my 2008 book, White Protestant America: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement. Ribuffo’s book was much more than one of the few studies at the time of right-wing politics in the United States. It took conservatism seriously as a force of significance in its own regard and not just as a oppositional movement to the rise of the liberal state. He recognized that even far-right leaders participated in the mainstream of American politics and that some of their ideas broadly resonated among white Protestants in the United States. He stressed the importance of taking religion seriously as a formative influence on conservatives above and beyond their protection of business interests.

Despite my admiration for his work, I learned to my surprise from a colleague that Ribuffo didn’t seem to like me at all, although we had never met. “That Lichtman,” Ribuffo supposedly said, “always pontificating about his liberal ideas on television with that helmet of hair,” I do have a lot of hair, I am a liberal, and I do pontificate on television, but I still thought I was getting a bad rap from someone I admired, so I arranged finally to meet Ribuffo.

Remarkably, Leo and I instantly bonded and became close friends. Leo realized that I couldn’t do anything about my hair or my politics and although I might pontificate, I wasn’t pompous. And he appreciated my unsolicited admiration for his book and our common interests in probing issues beyond the conventional wisdom, despite our contrasting styles.

I have to say that during the past 10 years Leo was one of my closest friends. He was an everlasting source of insightful commentary and obscure facts. My wife Karyn and I regularly went to his annual Christmas parties and loved the conversation and the late-night cigars. I served on the committee for one of his doctoral students, and came to appreciate why he attracted so many students during the past several decades. Even though he couldn’t drive, Leo came to my book parties, to our twenty-fifth anniversary party, and even to a showing of my son’s film.

Karyn and I deeply miss Leo. He was truly one of a kind.