From the beginning of the chapter:
A decade after the first issue of Human Events, conservatives could find quite a few periodicals to represent their views. They could find publishers willing to print books written by American conservative intellectuals, and a few scholarly journals were also in existence. Yet, the conservative movement was still left without a leading national journal of opinion. That situation changed in November of 1955, when the first issue of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review reached the newsstands.
The importance of the journal for the development of the conservative movement can hardly be overestimated. Not only was it a catalyst and a major conservative voice in the ongoing political debate, its role within the movement was even more important due to the people who were brought together and the connections that were established through the journal. As George H. Nash has noted, "To a very substantial degree, the history of reflective conservatism in America after 1955 is the history of the individuals who collaborated in — or were discovered by – the magazine William F. Buckley, Jr. founded".
...