Tag: Cold War

Topics

Books

Flying off the Broomstick

– "Flying off the Broomstick," Commentary, April 1951. (A review of Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy by Carey McWilliams.)
Excerpt: Perhaps the most important premise is that which sets up a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane—the East and the West. The former is beyond human… More

“Civil Liberties,” 1952 – A Study in Confusion

– "'Civil Liberties,' 1952 – A Study in Confusion," Commentary, March 1952.
Excerpt: Is it conceivable that the line was incorrectly drawn in the first place? The liberals are loath to weigh the possibility lest it give comfort to the enemy; Senator McCarthy for… More

Two Varieties of Democracy

– "Two Varieties of Democracy," Commentary, September 1952.  (A review of The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy by J. L. Talmon.)
Excerpt: An essential defect of Mr. Talmon’s analysis is that he takes the ideology of “totalitarian democracy” as corresponding to an actual fact. In a sense he is deceived by the… More

Ordeal by Mendacity

– “Ordeal by Mendacity,” Twentieth Century, October 1952. (A review of Ordeal by Slander by Owen Lattimore.)

The Web of Realism

– "The Web of Realism," Commentary, June 1954.  (A review of The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the United States Government by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: In The Web of Subversion, Mr. Burnham presents a terse and lucid summary of what has been discovered by various investigating committees about Communist espionage networks in the… More

The New Forsyte Saga

– “The New Forsyte Saga,” Encounter, December 1956. (A review of How the Soviet System Works by Raymond A. Bauer, et al and  Russia without Stalin by Edward Crankshaw.)

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

– “Vox Populi, Vox Dei?” Encounter, March 1957.  (A review of Torment of Secrecy by Edward Shils and Freedom or Secrecy by James Russell Wiggins.)

The Question of the Bomb

– "The Question of the Bomb," Spectator, April 18, 1958.
Excerpt: The choice for Europe is not between servitude and survival on the one hand and catastrophe on the other. That choice is out of its hands. The real European choice is between a… More

Toward Pre-Emptive War?

– “Toward Pre-Emptive War?,” Reporter, May 14, 1959.  (A review of War and the Soviet Union by Herbert S. Dinerstein.)

A Matter of Fundamentals

– “A Matter of Fundamentals,” Encounter, April 1960.  (A review of America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes and  Beyond Survival by Max Ways.)

Deterrence

– "Deterrence" (a discussion with H. Stuart Hughes), Commentary, July 1961.
Excerpt: I have stated my own position, which is that the United States should unilaterally renounce the first use of atomic or nuclear weapons. And I mean that renunciation to be… More

The Last Hundred Days

– "The Last Hundred Days," The New Republic, November 20, 1961.
Excerpt: These last hundred days have been so dizzying, so astonishing, and to some of us so dismaying a reversal of what we all took to be the inevitable course of history, that one can… More

Mythraking

– “Mythraking,” The New Leader, May 11, 1964. (A review of The End of Alliance by Ronald Steel.)

A Talk-In on Vietnam

– “A Talk-In on Vietnam” (A Symposium), New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1966.

The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange

– “The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange” (with Irving Howe), Commentary, January 1969.
Excerpt: Behind Mr. Howe’s perspective there lies an unexamined premise: that there is something unnatural in an intellectual being anything but politically radical, a man of the… More

Secrets of State

– “Secrets of State,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1974.

Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer

– Peter Steinfels, "Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer," a chapter in The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979).

“No First Use” Requires a Conventional Build-Up

– “'No First Use' Requires a Conventional Build-Up,” in The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated, ed. Ernest W. Lefever and E. Stephen Hunt (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Committee, 1982).

What’s Wrong with NATO?

– "What's Wrong with NATO?" New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1983.
Excerpt: If we have learned anything from the NATO experience of the last 30 years, it is the rediscovery of an old truth: Dependency corrupts and absolute dependency corrupts absolutely.… More

What’s Going On Out There?

– ''What's Going On Out There?" (Proceedings of a conference held May 11-13, 1984 in Washington, D.C.), The State of the Nation: A Conference of the Committee for the Free World, ed. Steven C. Munson (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1985).

Let Europe Be Europe

– “Let Europe Be Europe,” New York Times Book Review, June 10, 1984. (A review of Antipolitics by George Konrad.)

The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry

– “The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry” (remarks originally delivered as part of a conference in May 1985), in Scorpions in a Bottle: Dangerous Ideas About the United States and the Soviet Union, ed. Lissa Roche (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 1986).

What Every Soviet Leader Wants

– "What Every Soviet Leader Wants," Fortune, September 1, 1986. (A review of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline by Seweryn Bialer.)
Excerpt: What should American policy toward the Soviet Union be? Nobody can answer that question without confronting another: What are Soviet intentions? I am not referring to short-term,… More

Don’t Count Out Conservatism

– “Don't Count Out Conservatism,” New York Times Magazine, June 14, 1987.
Excerpt: WHAT THE REAGAN Administration has not been able to do is articulate any kind of comprehensive conservative viewpoint. This is an Administration that from the beginning has been a… More

Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan

– "Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan," (Remarks for a symposium), American Enterprise Institute, December 7, 1988.
Excerpt: As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has… More

This Is the Place to Be

– “This Is the Place to Be” (Interview with Ken Adelman), Washingtonian, July 1989.

My Cold War

– “My Cold War,” The National Interest, Spring 1993.
Excerpt: The truth is that, by the time I came to Encounter, anticommunism or anti-Marxism or anti-Marxist-Leninism or anti-totalitarianism had pretty much ceased to interest me as an… More

Irving Kristol in London

– Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, "Irving Kristol in London," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

The Australian Connection

– Owen Harries, "The Australian Connection," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Following Irving

– Norman Podhoretz, "Following Irving," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple

– Mark Gerson, "Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

– New York: Free Press, 1995.
SECTION I 1. An Autobiographical Memoir   SECTION II: RACE, SEX, AND FAMILY 2. Welfare: The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results 3. The Tragedy of “Multiculturalism” 4.… More

An Autobiographical Memoir

– “An Autobiographical Memoir” from Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1995).
Excerpt: Is there such a thing as a “neo” gene? I ask that question because, looking back over a lifetime of my opinions, I am struck by the fact that they all quality as “neo.” I… More

The Family Way

– Jacob Weisberg, "The Family Way," The New Yorker, October 21 & 28, 1996.
Excerpt: Someone imperfectly versed in the idiosyncrasies of American political life might have found Irving Kristol’s seventy-fifth-birthday party a bit peculiar. Gathered to… More

Arguing the World

– "Arguing the World" (A documentary), written and directed by Joseph Dorman, January 7, 1998.

It Wasn’t Inevitable

– "It Wasn't Inevitable," The Weekly Standard, June 21, 2004.
Excerpt: It is generally conceded–even by Senator Kennedy!–that Reagan’s Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that’s a… More

Farewell to the Godfather

– Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Godfather," Slate, September 20, 2009.
Excerpt: The neoconservative faction, or should we say movement, is generally secular and often associated with the name of Leo Strauss. Kristol was one of those who never minded saying… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

– David Brooks, "Three Cheers for Irving," The New York Times, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: Kristol championed capitalism and wrote brilliantly about Adam Smith. But like Smith, he could only give two cheers for capitalism, because the system of creative destruction has… More

Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?

– Justin Vaïsse, "Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?" Foreign Policy, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Although a few other neoconservatives followed Kristol’s realist line (Glazer and, to some extent, Jeane Kirkpatrick), for most of the others the idea of retrenching and… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

– Amy Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Irwin Stelzer, Leon Kass, and William Kristol, "The Neoconservative Persuasion" (A panel discussion), February 2, 2011.

Ideas Rule the World

– Franklin Foer, "Ideas Rule the World," The New Republic, March 17, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: We are still living in the world of total ideological combat that Irving Kristol created (or re-created, since it was also the world into which he was born) in the course of… More

The Enduring Irving Kristol

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Enduring Irving Kristol," First Things, August/September 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: In any event, one must remember that it was in the shadow of events eerily similar in many ways to those of our own times that neoconservatism took shape, both in Irving… More

Essays

Flying off the Broomstick

– "Flying off the Broomstick," Commentary, April 1951. (A review of Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy by Carey McWilliams.)
Excerpt: Perhaps the most important premise is that which sets up a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane—the East and the West. The former is beyond human… More

“Civil Liberties,” 1952 – A Study in Confusion

– "'Civil Liberties,' 1952 – A Study in Confusion," Commentary, March 1952.
Excerpt: Is it conceivable that the line was incorrectly drawn in the first place? The liberals are loath to weigh the possibility lest it give comfort to the enemy; Senator McCarthy for… More

Two Varieties of Democracy

– "Two Varieties of Democracy," Commentary, September 1952.  (A review of The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy by J. L. Talmon.)
Excerpt: An essential defect of Mr. Talmon’s analysis is that he takes the ideology of “totalitarian democracy” as corresponding to an actual fact. In a sense he is deceived by the… More

Ordeal by Mendacity

– “Ordeal by Mendacity,” Twentieth Century, October 1952. (A review of Ordeal by Slander by Owen Lattimore.)

The Web of Realism

– "The Web of Realism," Commentary, June 1954.  (A review of The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the United States Government by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: In The Web of Subversion, Mr. Burnham presents a terse and lucid summary of what has been discovered by various investigating committees about Communist espionage networks in the… More

The New Forsyte Saga

– “The New Forsyte Saga,” Encounter, December 1956. (A review of How the Soviet System Works by Raymond A. Bauer, et al and  Russia without Stalin by Edward Crankshaw.)

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

– “Vox Populi, Vox Dei?” Encounter, March 1957.  (A review of Torment of Secrecy by Edward Shils and Freedom or Secrecy by James Russell Wiggins.)

The Question of the Bomb

– "The Question of the Bomb," Spectator, April 18, 1958.
Excerpt: The choice for Europe is not between servitude and survival on the one hand and catastrophe on the other. That choice is out of its hands. The real European choice is between a… More

Toward Pre-Emptive War?

– “Toward Pre-Emptive War?,” Reporter, May 14, 1959.  (A review of War and the Soviet Union by Herbert S. Dinerstein.)

A Matter of Fundamentals

– “A Matter of Fundamentals,” Encounter, April 1960.  (A review of America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes and  Beyond Survival by Max Ways.)

Deterrence

– "Deterrence" (a discussion with H. Stuart Hughes), Commentary, July 1961.
Excerpt: I have stated my own position, which is that the United States should unilaterally renounce the first use of atomic or nuclear weapons. And I mean that renunciation to be… More

The Last Hundred Days

– "The Last Hundred Days," The New Republic, November 20, 1961.
Excerpt: These last hundred days have been so dizzying, so astonishing, and to some of us so dismaying a reversal of what we all took to be the inevitable course of history, that one can… More

Mythraking

– “Mythraking,” The New Leader, May 11, 1964. (A review of The End of Alliance by Ronald Steel.)

A Talk-In on Vietnam

– “A Talk-In on Vietnam” (A Symposium), New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1966.

The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange

– “The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange” (with Irving Howe), Commentary, January 1969.
Excerpt: Behind Mr. Howe’s perspective there lies an unexamined premise: that there is something unnatural in an intellectual being anything but politically radical, a man of the… More

Secrets of State

– “Secrets of State,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1974.

Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer

– Peter Steinfels, "Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer," a chapter in The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979).

“No First Use” Requires a Conventional Build-Up

– “'No First Use' Requires a Conventional Build-Up,” in The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated, ed. Ernest W. Lefever and E. Stephen Hunt (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Committee, 1982).

What’s Wrong with NATO?

– "What's Wrong with NATO?" New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1983.
Excerpt: If we have learned anything from the NATO experience of the last 30 years, it is the rediscovery of an old truth: Dependency corrupts and absolute dependency corrupts absolutely.… More

What’s Going On Out There?

– ''What's Going On Out There?" (Proceedings of a conference held May 11-13, 1984 in Washington, D.C.), The State of the Nation: A Conference of the Committee for the Free World, ed. Steven C. Munson (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1985).

Let Europe Be Europe

– “Let Europe Be Europe,” New York Times Book Review, June 10, 1984. (A review of Antipolitics by George Konrad.)

The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry

– “The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry” (remarks originally delivered as part of a conference in May 1985), in Scorpions in a Bottle: Dangerous Ideas About the United States and the Soviet Union, ed. Lissa Roche (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 1986).

What Every Soviet Leader Wants

– "What Every Soviet Leader Wants," Fortune, September 1, 1986. (A review of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline by Seweryn Bialer.)
Excerpt: What should American policy toward the Soviet Union be? Nobody can answer that question without confronting another: What are Soviet intentions? I am not referring to short-term,… More

Don’t Count Out Conservatism

– “Don't Count Out Conservatism,” New York Times Magazine, June 14, 1987.
Excerpt: WHAT THE REAGAN Administration has not been able to do is articulate any kind of comprehensive conservative viewpoint. This is an Administration that from the beginning has been a… More

Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan

– "Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan," (Remarks for a symposium), American Enterprise Institute, December 7, 1988.
Excerpt: As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has… More

This Is the Place to Be

– “This Is the Place to Be” (Interview with Ken Adelman), Washingtonian, July 1989.

My Cold War

– “My Cold War,” The National Interest, Spring 1993.
Excerpt: The truth is that, by the time I came to Encounter, anticommunism or anti-Marxism or anti-Marxist-Leninism or anti-totalitarianism had pretty much ceased to interest me as an… More

Irving Kristol in London

– Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, "Irving Kristol in London," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

The Australian Connection

– Owen Harries, "The Australian Connection," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Following Irving

– Norman Podhoretz, "Following Irving," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple

– Mark Gerson, "Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

– New York: Free Press, 1995.
SECTION I 1. An Autobiographical Memoir   SECTION II: RACE, SEX, AND FAMILY 2. Welfare: The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results 3. The Tragedy of “Multiculturalism” 4.… More

An Autobiographical Memoir

– “An Autobiographical Memoir” from Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1995).
Excerpt: Is there such a thing as a “neo” gene? I ask that question because, looking back over a lifetime of my opinions, I am struck by the fact that they all quality as “neo.” I… More

The Family Way

– Jacob Weisberg, "The Family Way," The New Yorker, October 21 & 28, 1996.
Excerpt: Someone imperfectly versed in the idiosyncrasies of American political life might have found Irving Kristol’s seventy-fifth-birthday party a bit peculiar. Gathered to… More

Arguing the World

– "Arguing the World" (A documentary), written and directed by Joseph Dorman, January 7, 1998.

It Wasn’t Inevitable

– "It Wasn't Inevitable," The Weekly Standard, June 21, 2004.
Excerpt: It is generally conceded–even by Senator Kennedy!–that Reagan’s Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that’s a… More

Farewell to the Godfather

– Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Godfather," Slate, September 20, 2009.
Excerpt: The neoconservative faction, or should we say movement, is generally secular and often associated with the name of Leo Strauss. Kristol was one of those who never minded saying… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

– David Brooks, "Three Cheers for Irving," The New York Times, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: Kristol championed capitalism and wrote brilliantly about Adam Smith. But like Smith, he could only give two cheers for capitalism, because the system of creative destruction has… More

Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?

– Justin Vaïsse, "Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?" Foreign Policy, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Although a few other neoconservatives followed Kristol’s realist line (Glazer and, to some extent, Jeane Kirkpatrick), for most of the others the idea of retrenching and… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

– Amy Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Irwin Stelzer, Leon Kass, and William Kristol, "The Neoconservative Persuasion" (A panel discussion), February 2, 2011.

Ideas Rule the World

– Franklin Foer, "Ideas Rule the World," The New Republic, March 17, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: We are still living in the world of total ideological combat that Irving Kristol created (or re-created, since it was also the world into which he was born) in the course of… More

The Enduring Irving Kristol

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Enduring Irving Kristol," First Things, August/September 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: In any event, one must remember that it was in the shadow of events eerily similar in many ways to those of our own times that neoconservatism took shape, both in Irving… More

Commentary

Flying off the Broomstick

– "Flying off the Broomstick," Commentary, April 1951. (A review of Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy by Carey McWilliams.)
Excerpt: Perhaps the most important premise is that which sets up a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane—the East and the West. The former is beyond human… More

“Civil Liberties,” 1952 – A Study in Confusion

– "'Civil Liberties,' 1952 – A Study in Confusion," Commentary, March 1952.
Excerpt: Is it conceivable that the line was incorrectly drawn in the first place? The liberals are loath to weigh the possibility lest it give comfort to the enemy; Senator McCarthy for… More

Two Varieties of Democracy

– "Two Varieties of Democracy," Commentary, September 1952.  (A review of The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy by J. L. Talmon.)
Excerpt: An essential defect of Mr. Talmon’s analysis is that he takes the ideology of “totalitarian democracy” as corresponding to an actual fact. In a sense he is deceived by the… More

Ordeal by Mendacity

– “Ordeal by Mendacity,” Twentieth Century, October 1952. (A review of Ordeal by Slander by Owen Lattimore.)

The Web of Realism

– "The Web of Realism," Commentary, June 1954.  (A review of The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the United States Government by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: In The Web of Subversion, Mr. Burnham presents a terse and lucid summary of what has been discovered by various investigating committees about Communist espionage networks in the… More

The New Forsyte Saga

– “The New Forsyte Saga,” Encounter, December 1956. (A review of How the Soviet System Works by Raymond A. Bauer, et al and  Russia without Stalin by Edward Crankshaw.)

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

– “Vox Populi, Vox Dei?” Encounter, March 1957.  (A review of Torment of Secrecy by Edward Shils and Freedom or Secrecy by James Russell Wiggins.)

The Question of the Bomb

– "The Question of the Bomb," Spectator, April 18, 1958.
Excerpt: The choice for Europe is not between servitude and survival on the one hand and catastrophe on the other. That choice is out of its hands. The real European choice is between a… More

Toward Pre-Emptive War?

– “Toward Pre-Emptive War?,” Reporter, May 14, 1959.  (A review of War and the Soviet Union by Herbert S. Dinerstein.)

A Matter of Fundamentals

– “A Matter of Fundamentals,” Encounter, April 1960.  (A review of America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes and  Beyond Survival by Max Ways.)

Deterrence

– "Deterrence" (a discussion with H. Stuart Hughes), Commentary, July 1961.
Excerpt: I have stated my own position, which is that the United States should unilaterally renounce the first use of atomic or nuclear weapons. And I mean that renunciation to be… More

The Last Hundred Days

– "The Last Hundred Days," The New Republic, November 20, 1961.
Excerpt: These last hundred days have been so dizzying, so astonishing, and to some of us so dismaying a reversal of what we all took to be the inevitable course of history, that one can… More

Mythraking

– “Mythraking,” The New Leader, May 11, 1964. (A review of The End of Alliance by Ronald Steel.)

A Talk-In on Vietnam

– “A Talk-In on Vietnam” (A Symposium), New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1966.

The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange

– “The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange” (with Irving Howe), Commentary, January 1969.
Excerpt: Behind Mr. Howe’s perspective there lies an unexamined premise: that there is something unnatural in an intellectual being anything but politically radical, a man of the… More

Secrets of State

– “Secrets of State,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1974.

Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer

– Peter Steinfels, "Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer," a chapter in The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979).

“No First Use” Requires a Conventional Build-Up

– “'No First Use' Requires a Conventional Build-Up,” in The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated, ed. Ernest W. Lefever and E. Stephen Hunt (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Committee, 1982).

What’s Wrong with NATO?

– "What's Wrong with NATO?" New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1983.
Excerpt: If we have learned anything from the NATO experience of the last 30 years, it is the rediscovery of an old truth: Dependency corrupts and absolute dependency corrupts absolutely.… More

What’s Going On Out There?

– ''What's Going On Out There?" (Proceedings of a conference held May 11-13, 1984 in Washington, D.C.), The State of the Nation: A Conference of the Committee for the Free World, ed. Steven C. Munson (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1985).

Let Europe Be Europe

– “Let Europe Be Europe,” New York Times Book Review, June 10, 1984. (A review of Antipolitics by George Konrad.)

The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry

– “The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry” (remarks originally delivered as part of a conference in May 1985), in Scorpions in a Bottle: Dangerous Ideas About the United States and the Soviet Union, ed. Lissa Roche (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 1986).

What Every Soviet Leader Wants

– "What Every Soviet Leader Wants," Fortune, September 1, 1986. (A review of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline by Seweryn Bialer.)
Excerpt: What should American policy toward the Soviet Union be? Nobody can answer that question without confronting another: What are Soviet intentions? I am not referring to short-term,… More

Don’t Count Out Conservatism

– “Don't Count Out Conservatism,” New York Times Magazine, June 14, 1987.
Excerpt: WHAT THE REAGAN Administration has not been able to do is articulate any kind of comprehensive conservative viewpoint. This is an Administration that from the beginning has been a… More

Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan

– "Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan," (Remarks for a symposium), American Enterprise Institute, December 7, 1988.
Excerpt: As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has… More

This Is the Place to Be

– “This Is the Place to Be” (Interview with Ken Adelman), Washingtonian, July 1989.

My Cold War

– “My Cold War,” The National Interest, Spring 1993.
Excerpt: The truth is that, by the time I came to Encounter, anticommunism or anti-Marxism or anti-Marxist-Leninism or anti-totalitarianism had pretty much ceased to interest me as an… More

Irving Kristol in London

– Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, "Irving Kristol in London," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

The Australian Connection

– Owen Harries, "The Australian Connection," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Following Irving

– Norman Podhoretz, "Following Irving," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple

– Mark Gerson, "Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

– New York: Free Press, 1995.
SECTION I 1. An Autobiographical Memoir   SECTION II: RACE, SEX, AND FAMILY 2. Welfare: The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results 3. The Tragedy of “Multiculturalism” 4.… More

An Autobiographical Memoir

– “An Autobiographical Memoir” from Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1995).
Excerpt: Is there such a thing as a “neo” gene? I ask that question because, looking back over a lifetime of my opinions, I am struck by the fact that they all quality as “neo.” I… More

The Family Way

– Jacob Weisberg, "The Family Way," The New Yorker, October 21 & 28, 1996.
Excerpt: Someone imperfectly versed in the idiosyncrasies of American political life might have found Irving Kristol’s seventy-fifth-birthday party a bit peculiar. Gathered to… More

Arguing the World

– "Arguing the World" (A documentary), written and directed by Joseph Dorman, January 7, 1998.

It Wasn’t Inevitable

– "It Wasn't Inevitable," The Weekly Standard, June 21, 2004.
Excerpt: It is generally conceded–even by Senator Kennedy!–that Reagan’s Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that’s a… More

Farewell to the Godfather

– Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Godfather," Slate, September 20, 2009.
Excerpt: The neoconservative faction, or should we say movement, is generally secular and often associated with the name of Leo Strauss. Kristol was one of those who never minded saying… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

– David Brooks, "Three Cheers for Irving," The New York Times, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: Kristol championed capitalism and wrote brilliantly about Adam Smith. But like Smith, he could only give two cheers for capitalism, because the system of creative destruction has… More

Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?

– Justin Vaïsse, "Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?" Foreign Policy, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Although a few other neoconservatives followed Kristol’s realist line (Glazer and, to some extent, Jeane Kirkpatrick), for most of the others the idea of retrenching and… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

– Amy Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Irwin Stelzer, Leon Kass, and William Kristol, "The Neoconservative Persuasion" (A panel discussion), February 2, 2011.

Ideas Rule the World

– Franklin Foer, "Ideas Rule the World," The New Republic, March 17, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: We are still living in the world of total ideological combat that Irving Kristol created (or re-created, since it was also the world into which he was born) in the course of… More

The Enduring Irving Kristol

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Enduring Irving Kristol," First Things, August/September 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: In any event, one must remember that it was in the shadow of events eerily similar in many ways to those of our own times that neoconservatism took shape, both in Irving… More

Multimedia

Flying off the Broomstick

– "Flying off the Broomstick," Commentary, April 1951. (A review of Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy by Carey McWilliams.)
Excerpt: Perhaps the most important premise is that which sets up a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane—the East and the West. The former is beyond human… More

“Civil Liberties,” 1952 – A Study in Confusion

– "'Civil Liberties,' 1952 – A Study in Confusion," Commentary, March 1952.
Excerpt: Is it conceivable that the line was incorrectly drawn in the first place? The liberals are loath to weigh the possibility lest it give comfort to the enemy; Senator McCarthy for… More

Two Varieties of Democracy

– "Two Varieties of Democracy," Commentary, September 1952.  (A review of The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy by J. L. Talmon.)
Excerpt: An essential defect of Mr. Talmon’s analysis is that he takes the ideology of “totalitarian democracy” as corresponding to an actual fact. In a sense he is deceived by the… More

Ordeal by Mendacity

– “Ordeal by Mendacity,” Twentieth Century, October 1952. (A review of Ordeal by Slander by Owen Lattimore.)

The Web of Realism

– "The Web of Realism," Commentary, June 1954.  (A review of The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the United States Government by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: In The Web of Subversion, Mr. Burnham presents a terse and lucid summary of what has been discovered by various investigating committees about Communist espionage networks in the… More

The New Forsyte Saga

– “The New Forsyte Saga,” Encounter, December 1956. (A review of How the Soviet System Works by Raymond A. Bauer, et al and  Russia without Stalin by Edward Crankshaw.)

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

– “Vox Populi, Vox Dei?” Encounter, March 1957.  (A review of Torment of Secrecy by Edward Shils and Freedom or Secrecy by James Russell Wiggins.)

The Question of the Bomb

– "The Question of the Bomb," Spectator, April 18, 1958.
Excerpt: The choice for Europe is not between servitude and survival on the one hand and catastrophe on the other. That choice is out of its hands. The real European choice is between a… More

Toward Pre-Emptive War?

– “Toward Pre-Emptive War?,” Reporter, May 14, 1959.  (A review of War and the Soviet Union by Herbert S. Dinerstein.)

A Matter of Fundamentals

– “A Matter of Fundamentals,” Encounter, April 1960.  (A review of America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes and  Beyond Survival by Max Ways.)

Deterrence

– "Deterrence" (a discussion with H. Stuart Hughes), Commentary, July 1961.
Excerpt: I have stated my own position, which is that the United States should unilaterally renounce the first use of atomic or nuclear weapons. And I mean that renunciation to be… More

The Last Hundred Days

– "The Last Hundred Days," The New Republic, November 20, 1961.
Excerpt: These last hundred days have been so dizzying, so astonishing, and to some of us so dismaying a reversal of what we all took to be the inevitable course of history, that one can… More

Mythraking

– “Mythraking,” The New Leader, May 11, 1964. (A review of The End of Alliance by Ronald Steel.)

A Talk-In on Vietnam

– “A Talk-In on Vietnam” (A Symposium), New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1966.

The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange

– “The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange” (with Irving Howe), Commentary, January 1969.
Excerpt: Behind Mr. Howe’s perspective there lies an unexamined premise: that there is something unnatural in an intellectual being anything but politically radical, a man of the… More

Secrets of State

– “Secrets of State,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1974.

Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer

– Peter Steinfels, "Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer," a chapter in The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979).

“No First Use” Requires a Conventional Build-Up

– “'No First Use' Requires a Conventional Build-Up,” in The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated, ed. Ernest W. Lefever and E. Stephen Hunt (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Committee, 1982).

What’s Wrong with NATO?

– "What's Wrong with NATO?" New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1983.
Excerpt: If we have learned anything from the NATO experience of the last 30 years, it is the rediscovery of an old truth: Dependency corrupts and absolute dependency corrupts absolutely.… More

What’s Going On Out There?

– ''What's Going On Out There?" (Proceedings of a conference held May 11-13, 1984 in Washington, D.C.), The State of the Nation: A Conference of the Committee for the Free World, ed. Steven C. Munson (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1985).

Let Europe Be Europe

– “Let Europe Be Europe,” New York Times Book Review, June 10, 1984. (A review of Antipolitics by George Konrad.)

The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry

– “The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry” (remarks originally delivered as part of a conference in May 1985), in Scorpions in a Bottle: Dangerous Ideas About the United States and the Soviet Union, ed. Lissa Roche (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 1986).

What Every Soviet Leader Wants

– "What Every Soviet Leader Wants," Fortune, September 1, 1986. (A review of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline by Seweryn Bialer.)
Excerpt: What should American policy toward the Soviet Union be? Nobody can answer that question without confronting another: What are Soviet intentions? I am not referring to short-term,… More

Don’t Count Out Conservatism

– “Don't Count Out Conservatism,” New York Times Magazine, June 14, 1987.
Excerpt: WHAT THE REAGAN Administration has not been able to do is articulate any kind of comprehensive conservative viewpoint. This is an Administration that from the beginning has been a… More

Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan

– "Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan," (Remarks for a symposium), American Enterprise Institute, December 7, 1988.
Excerpt: As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has… More

This Is the Place to Be

– “This Is the Place to Be” (Interview with Ken Adelman), Washingtonian, July 1989.

My Cold War

– “My Cold War,” The National Interest, Spring 1993.
Excerpt: The truth is that, by the time I came to Encounter, anticommunism or anti-Marxism or anti-Marxist-Leninism or anti-totalitarianism had pretty much ceased to interest me as an… More

Irving Kristol in London

– Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, "Irving Kristol in London," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

The Australian Connection

– Owen Harries, "The Australian Connection," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Following Irving

– Norman Podhoretz, "Following Irving," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple

– Mark Gerson, "Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

– New York: Free Press, 1995.
SECTION I 1. An Autobiographical Memoir   SECTION II: RACE, SEX, AND FAMILY 2. Welfare: The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results 3. The Tragedy of “Multiculturalism” 4.… More

An Autobiographical Memoir

– “An Autobiographical Memoir” from Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1995).
Excerpt: Is there such a thing as a “neo” gene? I ask that question because, looking back over a lifetime of my opinions, I am struck by the fact that they all quality as “neo.” I… More

The Family Way

– Jacob Weisberg, "The Family Way," The New Yorker, October 21 & 28, 1996.
Excerpt: Someone imperfectly versed in the idiosyncrasies of American political life might have found Irving Kristol’s seventy-fifth-birthday party a bit peculiar. Gathered to… More

Arguing the World

– "Arguing the World" (A documentary), written and directed by Joseph Dorman, January 7, 1998.

It Wasn’t Inevitable

– "It Wasn't Inevitable," The Weekly Standard, June 21, 2004.
Excerpt: It is generally conceded–even by Senator Kennedy!–that Reagan’s Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that’s a… More

Farewell to the Godfather

– Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Godfather," Slate, September 20, 2009.
Excerpt: The neoconservative faction, or should we say movement, is generally secular and often associated with the name of Leo Strauss. Kristol was one of those who never minded saying… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

– David Brooks, "Three Cheers for Irving," The New York Times, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: Kristol championed capitalism and wrote brilliantly about Adam Smith. But like Smith, he could only give two cheers for capitalism, because the system of creative destruction has… More

Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?

– Justin Vaïsse, "Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?" Foreign Policy, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Although a few other neoconservatives followed Kristol’s realist line (Glazer and, to some extent, Jeane Kirkpatrick), for most of the others the idea of retrenching and… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

– Amy Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Irwin Stelzer, Leon Kass, and William Kristol, "The Neoconservative Persuasion" (A panel discussion), February 2, 2011.

Ideas Rule the World

– Franklin Foer, "Ideas Rule the World," The New Republic, March 17, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: We are still living in the world of total ideological combat that Irving Kristol created (or re-created, since it was also the world into which he was born) in the course of… More

The Enduring Irving Kristol

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Enduring Irving Kristol," First Things, August/September 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: In any event, one must remember that it was in the shadow of events eerily similar in many ways to those of our own times that neoconservatism took shape, both in Irving… More

Teaching

Flying off the Broomstick

– "Flying off the Broomstick," Commentary, April 1951. (A review of Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy by Carey McWilliams.)
Excerpt: Perhaps the most important premise is that which sets up a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane—the East and the West. The former is beyond human… More

“Civil Liberties,” 1952 – A Study in Confusion

– "'Civil Liberties,' 1952 – A Study in Confusion," Commentary, March 1952.
Excerpt: Is it conceivable that the line was incorrectly drawn in the first place? The liberals are loath to weigh the possibility lest it give comfort to the enemy; Senator McCarthy for… More

Two Varieties of Democracy

– "Two Varieties of Democracy," Commentary, September 1952.  (A review of The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy by J. L. Talmon.)
Excerpt: An essential defect of Mr. Talmon’s analysis is that he takes the ideology of “totalitarian democracy” as corresponding to an actual fact. In a sense he is deceived by the… More

Ordeal by Mendacity

– “Ordeal by Mendacity,” Twentieth Century, October 1952. (A review of Ordeal by Slander by Owen Lattimore.)

The Web of Realism

– "The Web of Realism," Commentary, June 1954.  (A review of The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the United States Government by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: In The Web of Subversion, Mr. Burnham presents a terse and lucid summary of what has been discovered by various investigating committees about Communist espionage networks in the… More

The New Forsyte Saga

– “The New Forsyte Saga,” Encounter, December 1956. (A review of How the Soviet System Works by Raymond A. Bauer, et al and  Russia without Stalin by Edward Crankshaw.)

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

– “Vox Populi, Vox Dei?” Encounter, March 1957.  (A review of Torment of Secrecy by Edward Shils and Freedom or Secrecy by James Russell Wiggins.)

The Question of the Bomb

– "The Question of the Bomb," Spectator, April 18, 1958.
Excerpt: The choice for Europe is not between servitude and survival on the one hand and catastrophe on the other. That choice is out of its hands. The real European choice is between a… More

Toward Pre-Emptive War?

– “Toward Pre-Emptive War?,” Reporter, May 14, 1959.  (A review of War and the Soviet Union by Herbert S. Dinerstein.)

A Matter of Fundamentals

– “A Matter of Fundamentals,” Encounter, April 1960.  (A review of America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes and  Beyond Survival by Max Ways.)

Deterrence

– "Deterrence" (a discussion with H. Stuart Hughes), Commentary, July 1961.
Excerpt: I have stated my own position, which is that the United States should unilaterally renounce the first use of atomic or nuclear weapons. And I mean that renunciation to be… More

The Last Hundred Days

– "The Last Hundred Days," The New Republic, November 20, 1961.
Excerpt: These last hundred days have been so dizzying, so astonishing, and to some of us so dismaying a reversal of what we all took to be the inevitable course of history, that one can… More

Mythraking

– “Mythraking,” The New Leader, May 11, 1964. (A review of The End of Alliance by Ronald Steel.)

A Talk-In on Vietnam

– “A Talk-In on Vietnam” (A Symposium), New York Times Magazine, February 6, 1966.

The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange

– “The New York Intellectuals: An Exchange” (with Irving Howe), Commentary, January 1969.
Excerpt: Behind Mr. Howe’s perspective there lies an unexamined premise: that there is something unnatural in an intellectual being anything but politically radical, a man of the… More

Secrets of State

– “Secrets of State,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1974.

Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer

– Peter Steinfels, "Irving Kristol, Standard-Bearer," a chapter in The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979).

“No First Use” Requires a Conventional Build-Up

– “'No First Use' Requires a Conventional Build-Up,” in The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated, ed. Ernest W. Lefever and E. Stephen Hunt (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Committee, 1982).

What’s Wrong with NATO?

– "What's Wrong with NATO?" New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1983.
Excerpt: If we have learned anything from the NATO experience of the last 30 years, it is the rediscovery of an old truth: Dependency corrupts and absolute dependency corrupts absolutely.… More

What’s Going On Out There?

– ''What's Going On Out There?" (Proceedings of a conference held May 11-13, 1984 in Washington, D.C.), The State of the Nation: A Conference of the Committee for the Free World, ed. Steven C. Munson (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1985).

Let Europe Be Europe

– “Let Europe Be Europe,” New York Times Book Review, June 10, 1984. (A review of Antipolitics by George Konrad.)

The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry

– “The Twisted Vocabulary of Superpower Symmetry” (remarks originally delivered as part of a conference in May 1985), in Scorpions in a Bottle: Dangerous Ideas About the United States and the Soviet Union, ed. Lissa Roche (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 1986).

What Every Soviet Leader Wants

– "What Every Soviet Leader Wants," Fortune, September 1, 1986. (A review of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline by Seweryn Bialer.)
Excerpt: What should American policy toward the Soviet Union be? Nobody can answer that question without confronting another: What are Soviet intentions? I am not referring to short-term,… More

Don’t Count Out Conservatism

– “Don't Count Out Conservatism,” New York Times Magazine, June 14, 1987.
Excerpt: WHAT THE REAGAN Administration has not been able to do is articulate any kind of comprehensive conservative viewpoint. This is an Administration that from the beginning has been a… More

Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan

– "Freedom and Vigilance: Ronald Reagan," (Remarks for a symposium), American Enterprise Institute, December 7, 1988.
Excerpt: As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has… More

This Is the Place to Be

– “This Is the Place to Be” (Interview with Ken Adelman), Washingtonian, July 1989.

My Cold War

– “My Cold War,” The National Interest, Spring 1993.
Excerpt: The truth is that, by the time I came to Encounter, anticommunism or anti-Marxism or anti-Marxist-Leninism or anti-totalitarianism had pretty much ceased to interest me as an… More

Irving Kristol in London

– Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, "Irving Kristol in London," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

The Australian Connection

– Owen Harries, "The Australian Connection," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Following Irving

– Norman Podhoretz, "Following Irving," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple

– Mark Gerson, "Reflections of a Neoconservative Disciple," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

– New York: Free Press, 1995.
SECTION I 1. An Autobiographical Memoir   SECTION II: RACE, SEX, AND FAMILY 2. Welfare: The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results 3. The Tragedy of “Multiculturalism” 4.… More

An Autobiographical Memoir

– “An Autobiographical Memoir” from Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1995).
Excerpt: Is there such a thing as a “neo” gene? I ask that question because, looking back over a lifetime of my opinions, I am struck by the fact that they all quality as “neo.” I… More

The Family Way

– Jacob Weisberg, "The Family Way," The New Yorker, October 21 & 28, 1996.
Excerpt: Someone imperfectly versed in the idiosyncrasies of American political life might have found Irving Kristol’s seventy-fifth-birthday party a bit peculiar. Gathered to… More

Arguing the World

– "Arguing the World" (A documentary), written and directed by Joseph Dorman, January 7, 1998.

It Wasn’t Inevitable

– "It Wasn't Inevitable," The Weekly Standard, June 21, 2004.
Excerpt: It is generally conceded–even by Senator Kennedy!–that Reagan’s Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that’s a… More

Farewell to the Godfather

– Christopher Hitchens, "Farewell to the Godfather," Slate, September 20, 2009.
Excerpt: The neoconservative faction, or should we say movement, is generally secular and often associated with the name of Leo Strauss. Kristol was one of those who never minded saying… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

– David Brooks, "Three Cheers for Irving," The New York Times, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: Kristol championed capitalism and wrote brilliantly about Adam Smith. But like Smith, he could only give two cheers for capitalism, because the system of creative destruction has… More

Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?

– Justin Vaïsse, "Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative?" Foreign Policy, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Although a few other neoconservatives followed Kristol’s realist line (Glazer and, to some extent, Jeane Kirkpatrick), for most of the others the idea of retrenching and… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

– Amy Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Irwin Stelzer, Leon Kass, and William Kristol, "The Neoconservative Persuasion" (A panel discussion), February 2, 2011.

Ideas Rule the World

– Franklin Foer, "Ideas Rule the World," The New Republic, March 17, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: We are still living in the world of total ideological combat that Irving Kristol created (or re-created, since it was also the world into which he was born) in the course of… More

The Enduring Irving Kristol

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Enduring Irving Kristol," First Things, August/September 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: In any event, one must remember that it was in the shadow of events eerily similar in many ways to those of our own times that neoconservatism took shape, both in Irving… More