I picked up The Fire is Upon Us from the library primarily because it was written by a professor at my Alma Mater, Linfield College. Not because I had an empty image of either of the two men at the center of the book.
Because the focus is narrowed to race, it is really hard to muster any sort of feeling for William Buckley. He was a prolific writer and as opposed to many politicians held convictions firm but he was also a man that time has passed by at a rapid pace whilst Baldwin becomes more and more important with each passing year.
Couple that with the fact that the debate isn’t arrived at until literally late in the last quarter of the book and you have the problem of having to leaf through backstory more than you experience the debate. Personally, I would have opted for a smaller book that really dug into everything around the debate as well as extended notes on how re-constructing a debate where only snippets of video exist, would have packed a more powerful punch. Heck, the fact that Buckley had severe time constraints due to an injury to his wife that he admirably did not want to leave alone, would have merited more attention.
Indeed the transcript of the debate makes for fascinating reading and reveals debate and oratorical skills as well as a grasp of socio and political ideas that I found fascinating.
As far as beers to taste while reading this book, I would tongue in cheek pick two breweries and give a representative sampling of their core beers of both to some friends (as well as yourself) and have them write down which beers struck their fancy and which brewery they think “won” this drinking debate. Perhaps get beers from a pair of New York breweries to make it closer to Baldwin’s home turf, since he (spoiler) won this debate.