Tag: Conservatism

Topics

Books

James Burnham’s “The Machiavellians”

– “James Burnham's 'The Machiavellians'" (as William Ferry), Enquiry, July 1943. (A review of The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: The atmosphere, these days, contains a good deal more of what is called ‘realism’ than is usually considered desirable for healthy progress. In some measure this is a… More

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

Old Truths and the New Conservatism

– “Old Truths and the New Conservatism,” Yale Review, May 1958.
Excerpt: Now, it may please us to think that everyone is born either a little liberal or a little conservative. It may please us so much, indeed, that we conveniently forget there was a… More

On the Burning Deck

– “On the Burning Deck,” Reporter, November 26, 1959.  (A review of Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Last of the Whigs

– "Last of the Whigs," Commentary, April 1960.  (A review of The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek.)
Excerpt: Professor Friederich Hayek, who is usually thought of as a conservative and laisser-fairist, can be more accurately regarded (and clearly defines himself) as the last surviving… More

New Left, New Right

– "New Left, New Right." The Public Interest, Summer 1966.
First, on all the evidence, the one worst way to cope with this crisis in values is through organized political-ideological action. Most of the hysteria, much of the stupidity, and a good… More

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

Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell

– Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell, The Alternative, May 1969.
Excerpt: TYRRELL: Is the new left really that new? Where did it come from? KRISTOL: Well, what is new about the new left is its identification of a political mythology with a generational… More

“Capitalism” and “the Free Society”

– "'Capitalism' and 'the Free Society'," (a reply to John K. Jessup), The Public Interest, Winter 1971.
Excerpt: Now, there is only one rejoinder that someone like Jessup can make to this point. It is the libertarian answer given by Hayek and Friedman: what legitimates a “free… More

Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism

– "Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism," The Public Interest, Spring 1973.
Excerpt: WHENEVER and wherever defenders of “free enterprise,” “individual liberty,” and “a free society” assemble, these days, one senses a peculiar kind of nostalgia in the… More

The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution

– “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution” (lecture delivered at American Enterprise Institute, October 12, 1973), printed in America's Continuing Revolution: An Act of Conservation (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975).
Excerpt: As we approach the bicentennial of the American Revolution, we find ourselves in a paradoxical and embarrassing situation. A celebration of some kind certainly seems to be in… More

What Is a “Neo-Conservative”?

– “What Is a ‘Neo-Conservative’?” Newsweek, January 19, 1976.
Excerpt: 1.  Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state.  In general, it approves of… More

Two Cheers for Capitalism

– New York: Basic Books, March 1978.
PART ONE: The Enemy of Being is Having 1. Corporate Capitalism in America 2. Business and the “New Class” 3. Frustrations of Affluence 4. Ideology and Food 5. The… More

Is America Moving Right? Ought It?

– ''Is America Moving Right? Ought It?” (A conversation with Irving Kristol and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), Public Opinion, September/October, 1978.

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).

The Political Dilemma of American Jews

– "The Political Dilemma of American Jews," Commentary, July 1984.
Excerpt: In short, while American Jews have for the most part persisted in their loyalty to the politics of American liberalism, that politics has blandly and remorselessly distanced itself… More

Reflections of a Neoconservative

– “Reflections of a Neoconservative,” Partisan Review, no. 4, 1984.
Excerpt: Even to raise that question, of course, is to define oneself as some kind of conservative, if only an incipient kind of conservative. Just what “conservative” means,… More

Jewish Voters and the “Politics of Compassion”

– "Jewish Voters and the 'Politics of Compassion'," (A reply to letters), Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: Now, compassion is indeed a virtue, much prized in the Jewish tradition. But it is worth recalling, as the etymology of the word itself indicates, that compassion is—a passion.… More

The David I Knew

– “The David I Knew,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1986.

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

This Is the Place to Be

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

Interview with Tom Bethell

– Interview with Tom Bethell, American Spectator, December 1991.
Excerpt: “The Democratic party is falling apart,” he said. “Which is lucky for us. It’s completely out of sync with the public. What’s happening to the… More

Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously

– “Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously,” Foreword to Disciples and Democracy: Religious Conservatives and the Future of American Politics, ed. Michael Cromartie (Grand Rapids, MI: Ethics and Public Policy Center and William Eerdman's, 1994).
Excerpt: For the past century the rise of liberalism has been wedded to the rise of secularism in all areas of American life. In the decades ahead, the decline of secularism will signify… More

Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday

– Christopher DeMuth, George Will, Walter Berns, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Kristol, "Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday," The American Enterprise Institute, January 21, 1995.
Excerpt: If what is called neoconservatism is by now an institution of sorts, it truly is what Emerson said institutions are–the lengthening shadow of a man. And the man is Irving… More

An Old Friend’s Image

– Earl Raab, "An Old Friend's Image," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Irving Kristol’s Moral Realism

– Philip Selznick, "Irving Kristol's Moral Realism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

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).

A Tribute to Irving Kristol

– William E. Simon, "A Tribute to Irving Kristol," 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

Booknotes

– "Booknotes" (An interview with Brian Lamb), September 5, 1995.

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

American Conservatism, 1945-1995

– "American Conservatism, 1945-1995," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
Excerpt: THE Public Interest was born well before the term “neoconservative” was invented, and will—I trust—be alive and active when the term is of only historical interest. That… More

Sex Trumps Gender

– “Sex Trumps Gender,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1996.  

The Right Stuff

– “The Right Stuff,” Prospect, October 1996.
Excerpt: I remember the day very well, back in 1956, when I arrived at my office at Encounter-of which I was then co-editor-and found on my desk an unsolicited manuscript by Michael… 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

The Tipping-Point Election

– “The Tipping-Point Election: Will Future Americans Look Back at the 1996 Vote and Say 'Bingo'?” American Enterprise, November/December 1996.

Arguing the World

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

Liberties and Licences

– "Liberties and Licences," Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1998.  (A review of Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W. Carey.)

Censorship?

– “Censorship?” (A symposium), The Weekly Standard, August 23, 1999.
Excerpt: For years now, conservatives have been waiting for “the people” to rise up against the institutional elites who have imposed their culture on us. But the people can’t be… More

On the Political Stupidity of the Jews

– "On the Political Stupidity of the Jews," Azure, Autumn 1999.
Excerpt: The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s,… More

Kristol Clear

– Bruce Bartlett, "Kristol Clear," National Review Online, June 26, 2002.
Excerpt: This critical foundation, which Kristol put together in the 1970s, all came together with the Reagan campaign in 1980. The people and the policies Kristol had nurtured for a decade… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is

– "The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is,"  The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2003.
Excerpt: Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism… More

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

Forty Good Years

– "Forty Good Years," The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
Excerpt: Yet The Public Interest, it should be said, transcended any political ideology, or even any political “disposition.” Inevitably, to be sure, my own political identity… More

A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut

– "A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut," [London] Sunday Times, March 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Although I am always reluctant to do what that famous Yankee baseball player claimed that his predecessor had done — “He learnt me his experience” — I can’t resist the… More

Our Own Cool Hand Luke

– Charles Krauthammer, "Our Own Cool Hand Luke," The Washington Post, April 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Kristol’s influence and intellect and importance to the political history of our time are well known. The most remarkable and least known thing about him, however, is his… More

My “Public Interest”

– "My 'Public Interest'," The Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006.
Excerpt: In 1965, through a series of circumstances that need not be recounted here, the stars became properly aligned so that my wish could become a reality. Dan Bell and I were able to… More

Remembering Irving Kristol

– Peter Wehner, "The Corner," National Review Online, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was a great man, a model and courageous public intellectual, and a giant in the conservative movement. He brought to it enormous intelligence and scholarship, great learning… More

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

– John Podhoretz, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009," Contentions blog, Commentary, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod… More

A Life in the Public Interest

– James Q. Wilson, "A Life in the Public Interest" The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many of the writers, myself included,… More

Irving Kristol’s Gone–We’ll Miss His Clear Vision

– Irwin Stelzer, "Irving Kristol's Gone–We'll Miss His Clear Vision," Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving is best known as the godfather of neoconservatism, although his persuasive tools were not those of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando’s Godfather-figures, but contained in… More

The Practical Liberal by Christopher DeMuth

– Christopher DeMuth, "The Practical Liberal," The American, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was, from start to finish, a proponent of vigorous government within its proper sphere. He never passed up a chance to enter a dissent, serious or wisecracking, against… More

Irving Kristol’s Clear Thinking

– Jonah Goldberg, "Irving Kristol's Clear Thinking," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Buckley said that the neocons’ greatest contribution to conservatism was “sociology.” The early National Review conservatism was more Aristotelian, Buckley observed, while… More

Irving Kristol

– "Irving Kristol," The Economist, September 24, 2009.
Excerpt: Conservatism, Kristol-style, acquired a “neo”. He was always, he mused, a neo-something: neoMarxist, neoliberal, neo-Orthodox (because he believed, though he wasn’t sure… More

A Great Good Man by Charles Krauthammer

– Charles Krauthammer, "A Great Good Man," The Washington Post, September 25, 2009.
Excerpt: My theory of Irving is that this amazing equanimity was rooted in a profound sense of modesty. First about himself. At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the… More

For the Record

– Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer, "For the Record" (Letters to he editor), The Economist, October 8, 2009.
Excerpt: Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset and I were not part of Kristol’s project to transform American conservatism. I, his co-editor for many years, consistently supported the… More

The Equilibrist

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Equilibrist," National Review, October 19, 2009.
Excerpt: LUNCH with Irving Kristol was an experience to remember. I had the pleasure only three times, always in the excellent dining room atop the American Enterprise Institute, but I… More

The Real Irving Kristol

– Norman Podhoretz, "The Real Irving Kristol," Commentary, November 2009.
Excerpt: The obituaries got most of the facts right: that Irving Kristol’s death at the age of 89 marked the passing of one of the most important public intellectuals of the past 40… More

The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol by Eric Cohen

– Eric Cohen, "The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol," National Affairs, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: Neoconservatism was, as Kristol always described it, merely a “­persuasion” that tried to “imagine the world as it might be,” but also to “live and… More

Beyond Ideology

– James Q. Wilson, "Beyond Ideology," Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: The essays in “The Neoconservative Persuasion”—all but one never before brought together in a book—are a remarkable introduction to one of the few people who… More

Irving Kristol and Republican Virtue

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" blog, Commentary, January 24, 2011.
Excerpt: On C-SPAN’s series After Words, David Brooks hosted an engaging and wide-ranging interview with William Kristol on The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942-2009,… More

Irving Kristol’s Brute Reason

– Paul Berman, "Irving Kristol's Brute Reason," New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2011.
Excerpt: And, in this new spirit, he plunged into his magnum opus, which, instead of a book, was the constructing of something called “neoconservatism.” This was intended to be a new… More

Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion

– Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Irving Kristol's Neoconservative Persuasion," Commentary, February 2011.
Excerpt: Much has been made of the consistency of tone in his writings—bold and speculative but never dogmatic or academic, always personal, witty, ironic. That tone is not only a matter… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

The Great Persuader by James W. Ceaser

– James W. Ceaser, "The Great Persuader," The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Of public intellectuals so conceived, there have been only a handful: George Bancroft, whose famous History of the United States and orations sketched out much of the Jacksonian… More

The Flexible Temperament

– James Piereson, "The Flexible Temperament," The New Criterion, March 2010. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Kristol’s intellectual contribution was to bring these fundamental ideas into contemporary debates about politics and public policy through his writings in outlets like the Wall… More

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

A Legacy of Temperament

– Roger Kimball, "A Legacy of Temperament," National Review, June 6, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: An honest man, said the poet William Blake, may change his opinions, but not his principles. Irving Kristol, who died in September 2009 just shy of 90, embarked on intellectual… More

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

– Meir Soloveichik, "Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis," Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Renowned as a founder of neoconservativism, Irving Kristol was “neo” in other respects as well. “Is there such a thing as a ‘neo’ gene?” he once… More

The Art of Persuasion

– Ross Douthat, "The Art of Persuasion," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: At times, the essays in The Neoconservative Persuasion suggest that these critics have a point. Neoconservatism may not be a rigid ideology, but even as a “persuasion”… More

The Brooklyn Burkeans

– Jonathan Bronitsky, "The Brooklyn Burkeans," National Affairs, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: By the time Kristol and Himmelfarb moved back home to New York in 1958, they were entrenched in the classical-liberal tradition and, therefore, primed to react negatively to the… More

A Cheerful Conservative

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" Blog, Commentary, May 12, 2014.
Excerpt: Building on Tom Wilson’s fine post on the creation of the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s new website devoted to the writings of Irving Kristol… More

The Public Interest at 50

– Adam Keiper, National Affairs, Fall 2015.
Excerpt: Before long, of course, The Public Interest would bring together policy, philosophy, morality, social science, and political economy as had never been done before. Kristol, Bell,… More

Essays

James Burnham’s “The Machiavellians”

– “James Burnham's 'The Machiavellians'" (as William Ferry), Enquiry, July 1943. (A review of The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: The atmosphere, these days, contains a good deal more of what is called ‘realism’ than is usually considered desirable for healthy progress. In some measure this is a… More

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

Old Truths and the New Conservatism

– “Old Truths and the New Conservatism,” Yale Review, May 1958.
Excerpt: Now, it may please us to think that everyone is born either a little liberal or a little conservative. It may please us so much, indeed, that we conveniently forget there was a… More

On the Burning Deck

– “On the Burning Deck,” Reporter, November 26, 1959.  (A review of Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Last of the Whigs

– "Last of the Whigs," Commentary, April 1960.  (A review of The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek.)
Excerpt: Professor Friederich Hayek, who is usually thought of as a conservative and laisser-fairist, can be more accurately regarded (and clearly defines himself) as the last surviving… More

New Left, New Right

– "New Left, New Right." The Public Interest, Summer 1966.
First, on all the evidence, the one worst way to cope with this crisis in values is through organized political-ideological action. Most of the hysteria, much of the stupidity, and a good… More

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

Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell

– Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell, The Alternative, May 1969.
Excerpt: TYRRELL: Is the new left really that new? Where did it come from? KRISTOL: Well, what is new about the new left is its identification of a political mythology with a generational… More

“Capitalism” and “the Free Society”

– "'Capitalism' and 'the Free Society'," (a reply to John K. Jessup), The Public Interest, Winter 1971.
Excerpt: Now, there is only one rejoinder that someone like Jessup can make to this point. It is the libertarian answer given by Hayek and Friedman: what legitimates a “free… More

Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism

– "Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism," The Public Interest, Spring 1973.
Excerpt: WHENEVER and wherever defenders of “free enterprise,” “individual liberty,” and “a free society” assemble, these days, one senses a peculiar kind of nostalgia in the… More

The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution

– “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution” (lecture delivered at American Enterprise Institute, October 12, 1973), printed in America's Continuing Revolution: An Act of Conservation (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975).
Excerpt: As we approach the bicentennial of the American Revolution, we find ourselves in a paradoxical and embarrassing situation. A celebration of some kind certainly seems to be in… More

What Is a “Neo-Conservative”?

– “What Is a ‘Neo-Conservative’?” Newsweek, January 19, 1976.
Excerpt: 1.  Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state.  In general, it approves of… More

Two Cheers for Capitalism

– New York: Basic Books, March 1978.
PART ONE: The Enemy of Being is Having 1. Corporate Capitalism in America 2. Business and the “New Class” 3. Frustrations of Affluence 4. Ideology and Food 5. The… More

Is America Moving Right? Ought It?

– ''Is America Moving Right? Ought It?” (A conversation with Irving Kristol and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), Public Opinion, September/October, 1978.

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).

The Political Dilemma of American Jews

– "The Political Dilemma of American Jews," Commentary, July 1984.
Excerpt: In short, while American Jews have for the most part persisted in their loyalty to the politics of American liberalism, that politics has blandly and remorselessly distanced itself… More

Reflections of a Neoconservative

– “Reflections of a Neoconservative,” Partisan Review, no. 4, 1984.
Excerpt: Even to raise that question, of course, is to define oneself as some kind of conservative, if only an incipient kind of conservative. Just what “conservative” means,… More

Jewish Voters and the “Politics of Compassion”

– "Jewish Voters and the 'Politics of Compassion'," (A reply to letters), Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: Now, compassion is indeed a virtue, much prized in the Jewish tradition. But it is worth recalling, as the etymology of the word itself indicates, that compassion is—a passion.… More

The David I Knew

– “The David I Knew,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1986.

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

This Is the Place to Be

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

Interview with Tom Bethell

– Interview with Tom Bethell, American Spectator, December 1991.
Excerpt: “The Democratic party is falling apart,” he said. “Which is lucky for us. It’s completely out of sync with the public. What’s happening to the… More

Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously

– “Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously,” Foreword to Disciples and Democracy: Religious Conservatives and the Future of American Politics, ed. Michael Cromartie (Grand Rapids, MI: Ethics and Public Policy Center and William Eerdman's, 1994).
Excerpt: For the past century the rise of liberalism has been wedded to the rise of secularism in all areas of American life. In the decades ahead, the decline of secularism will signify… More

Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday

– Christopher DeMuth, George Will, Walter Berns, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Kristol, "Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday," The American Enterprise Institute, January 21, 1995.
Excerpt: If what is called neoconservatism is by now an institution of sorts, it truly is what Emerson said institutions are–the lengthening shadow of a man. And the man is Irving… More

An Old Friend’s Image

– Earl Raab, "An Old Friend's Image," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Irving Kristol’s Moral Realism

– Philip Selznick, "Irving Kristol's Moral Realism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

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).

A Tribute to Irving Kristol

– William E. Simon, "A Tribute to Irving Kristol," 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

Booknotes

– "Booknotes" (An interview with Brian Lamb), September 5, 1995.

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

American Conservatism, 1945-1995

– "American Conservatism, 1945-1995," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
Excerpt: THE Public Interest was born well before the term “neoconservative” was invented, and will—I trust—be alive and active when the term is of only historical interest. That… More

Sex Trumps Gender

– “Sex Trumps Gender,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1996.  

The Right Stuff

– “The Right Stuff,” Prospect, October 1996.
Excerpt: I remember the day very well, back in 1956, when I arrived at my office at Encounter-of which I was then co-editor-and found on my desk an unsolicited manuscript by Michael… 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

The Tipping-Point Election

– “The Tipping-Point Election: Will Future Americans Look Back at the 1996 Vote and Say 'Bingo'?” American Enterprise, November/December 1996.

Arguing the World

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

Liberties and Licences

– "Liberties and Licences," Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1998.  (A review of Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W. Carey.)

Censorship?

– “Censorship?” (A symposium), The Weekly Standard, August 23, 1999.
Excerpt: For years now, conservatives have been waiting for “the people” to rise up against the institutional elites who have imposed their culture on us. But the people can’t be… More

On the Political Stupidity of the Jews

– "On the Political Stupidity of the Jews," Azure, Autumn 1999.
Excerpt: The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s,… More

Kristol Clear

– Bruce Bartlett, "Kristol Clear," National Review Online, June 26, 2002.
Excerpt: This critical foundation, which Kristol put together in the 1970s, all came together with the Reagan campaign in 1980. The people and the policies Kristol had nurtured for a decade… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is

– "The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is,"  The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2003.
Excerpt: Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism… More

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

Forty Good Years

– "Forty Good Years," The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
Excerpt: Yet The Public Interest, it should be said, transcended any political ideology, or even any political “disposition.” Inevitably, to be sure, my own political identity… More

A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut

– "A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut," [London] Sunday Times, March 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Although I am always reluctant to do what that famous Yankee baseball player claimed that his predecessor had done — “He learnt me his experience” — I can’t resist the… More

Our Own Cool Hand Luke

– Charles Krauthammer, "Our Own Cool Hand Luke," The Washington Post, April 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Kristol’s influence and intellect and importance to the political history of our time are well known. The most remarkable and least known thing about him, however, is his… More

My “Public Interest”

– "My 'Public Interest'," The Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006.
Excerpt: In 1965, through a series of circumstances that need not be recounted here, the stars became properly aligned so that my wish could become a reality. Dan Bell and I were able to… More

Remembering Irving Kristol

– Peter Wehner, "The Corner," National Review Online, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was a great man, a model and courageous public intellectual, and a giant in the conservative movement. He brought to it enormous intelligence and scholarship, great learning… More

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

– John Podhoretz, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009," Contentions blog, Commentary, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod… More

A Life in the Public Interest

– James Q. Wilson, "A Life in the Public Interest" The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many of the writers, myself included,… More

Irving Kristol’s Gone–We’ll Miss His Clear Vision

– Irwin Stelzer, "Irving Kristol's Gone–We'll Miss His Clear Vision," Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving is best known as the godfather of neoconservatism, although his persuasive tools were not those of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando’s Godfather-figures, but contained in… More

The Practical Liberal by Christopher DeMuth

– Christopher DeMuth, "The Practical Liberal," The American, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was, from start to finish, a proponent of vigorous government within its proper sphere. He never passed up a chance to enter a dissent, serious or wisecracking, against… More

Irving Kristol’s Clear Thinking

– Jonah Goldberg, "Irving Kristol's Clear Thinking," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Buckley said that the neocons’ greatest contribution to conservatism was “sociology.” The early National Review conservatism was more Aristotelian, Buckley observed, while… More

Irving Kristol

– "Irving Kristol," The Economist, September 24, 2009.
Excerpt: Conservatism, Kristol-style, acquired a “neo”. He was always, he mused, a neo-something: neoMarxist, neoliberal, neo-Orthodox (because he believed, though he wasn’t sure… More

A Great Good Man by Charles Krauthammer

– Charles Krauthammer, "A Great Good Man," The Washington Post, September 25, 2009.
Excerpt: My theory of Irving is that this amazing equanimity was rooted in a profound sense of modesty. First about himself. At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the… More

For the Record

– Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer, "For the Record" (Letters to he editor), The Economist, October 8, 2009.
Excerpt: Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset and I were not part of Kristol’s project to transform American conservatism. I, his co-editor for many years, consistently supported the… More

The Equilibrist

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Equilibrist," National Review, October 19, 2009.
Excerpt: LUNCH with Irving Kristol was an experience to remember. I had the pleasure only three times, always in the excellent dining room atop the American Enterprise Institute, but I… More

The Real Irving Kristol

– Norman Podhoretz, "The Real Irving Kristol," Commentary, November 2009.
Excerpt: The obituaries got most of the facts right: that Irving Kristol’s death at the age of 89 marked the passing of one of the most important public intellectuals of the past 40… More

The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol by Eric Cohen

– Eric Cohen, "The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol," National Affairs, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: Neoconservatism was, as Kristol always described it, merely a “­persuasion” that tried to “imagine the world as it might be,” but also to “live and… More

Beyond Ideology

– James Q. Wilson, "Beyond Ideology," Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: The essays in “The Neoconservative Persuasion”—all but one never before brought together in a book—are a remarkable introduction to one of the few people who… More

Irving Kristol and Republican Virtue

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" blog, Commentary, January 24, 2011.
Excerpt: On C-SPAN’s series After Words, David Brooks hosted an engaging and wide-ranging interview with William Kristol on The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942-2009,… More

Irving Kristol’s Brute Reason

– Paul Berman, "Irving Kristol's Brute Reason," New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2011.
Excerpt: And, in this new spirit, he plunged into his magnum opus, which, instead of a book, was the constructing of something called “neoconservatism.” This was intended to be a new… More

Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion

– Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Irving Kristol's Neoconservative Persuasion," Commentary, February 2011.
Excerpt: Much has been made of the consistency of tone in his writings—bold and speculative but never dogmatic or academic, always personal, witty, ironic. That tone is not only a matter… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

The Great Persuader by James W. Ceaser

– James W. Ceaser, "The Great Persuader," The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Of public intellectuals so conceived, there have been only a handful: George Bancroft, whose famous History of the United States and orations sketched out much of the Jacksonian… More

The Flexible Temperament

– James Piereson, "The Flexible Temperament," The New Criterion, March 2010. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Kristol’s intellectual contribution was to bring these fundamental ideas into contemporary debates about politics and public policy through his writings in outlets like the Wall… More

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

A Legacy of Temperament

– Roger Kimball, "A Legacy of Temperament," National Review, June 6, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: An honest man, said the poet William Blake, may change his opinions, but not his principles. Irving Kristol, who died in September 2009 just shy of 90, embarked on intellectual… More

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

– Meir Soloveichik, "Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis," Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Renowned as a founder of neoconservativism, Irving Kristol was “neo” in other respects as well. “Is there such a thing as a ‘neo’ gene?” he once… More

The Art of Persuasion

– Ross Douthat, "The Art of Persuasion," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: At times, the essays in The Neoconservative Persuasion suggest that these critics have a point. Neoconservatism may not be a rigid ideology, but even as a “persuasion”… More

The Brooklyn Burkeans

– Jonathan Bronitsky, "The Brooklyn Burkeans," National Affairs, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: By the time Kristol and Himmelfarb moved back home to New York in 1958, they were entrenched in the classical-liberal tradition and, therefore, primed to react negatively to the… More

A Cheerful Conservative

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" Blog, Commentary, May 12, 2014.
Excerpt: Building on Tom Wilson’s fine post on the creation of the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s new website devoted to the writings of Irving Kristol… More

The Public Interest at 50

– Adam Keiper, National Affairs, Fall 2015.
Excerpt: Before long, of course, The Public Interest would bring together policy, philosophy, morality, social science, and political economy as had never been done before. Kristol, Bell,… More

Commentary

James Burnham’s “The Machiavellians”

– “James Burnham's 'The Machiavellians'" (as William Ferry), Enquiry, July 1943. (A review of The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: The atmosphere, these days, contains a good deal more of what is called ‘realism’ than is usually considered desirable for healthy progress. In some measure this is a… More

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

Old Truths and the New Conservatism

– “Old Truths and the New Conservatism,” Yale Review, May 1958.
Excerpt: Now, it may please us to think that everyone is born either a little liberal or a little conservative. It may please us so much, indeed, that we conveniently forget there was a… More

On the Burning Deck

– “On the Burning Deck,” Reporter, November 26, 1959.  (A review of Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Last of the Whigs

– "Last of the Whigs," Commentary, April 1960.  (A review of The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek.)
Excerpt: Professor Friederich Hayek, who is usually thought of as a conservative and laisser-fairist, can be more accurately regarded (and clearly defines himself) as the last surviving… More

New Left, New Right

– "New Left, New Right." The Public Interest, Summer 1966.
First, on all the evidence, the one worst way to cope with this crisis in values is through organized political-ideological action. Most of the hysteria, much of the stupidity, and a good… More

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

Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell

– Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell, The Alternative, May 1969.
Excerpt: TYRRELL: Is the new left really that new? Where did it come from? KRISTOL: Well, what is new about the new left is its identification of a political mythology with a generational… More

“Capitalism” and “the Free Society”

– "'Capitalism' and 'the Free Society'," (a reply to John K. Jessup), The Public Interest, Winter 1971.
Excerpt: Now, there is only one rejoinder that someone like Jessup can make to this point. It is the libertarian answer given by Hayek and Friedman: what legitimates a “free… More

Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism

– "Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism," The Public Interest, Spring 1973.
Excerpt: WHENEVER and wherever defenders of “free enterprise,” “individual liberty,” and “a free society” assemble, these days, one senses a peculiar kind of nostalgia in the… More

The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution

– “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution” (lecture delivered at American Enterprise Institute, October 12, 1973), printed in America's Continuing Revolution: An Act of Conservation (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975).
Excerpt: As we approach the bicentennial of the American Revolution, we find ourselves in a paradoxical and embarrassing situation. A celebration of some kind certainly seems to be in… More

What Is a “Neo-Conservative”?

– “What Is a ‘Neo-Conservative’?” Newsweek, January 19, 1976.
Excerpt: 1.  Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state.  In general, it approves of… More

Two Cheers for Capitalism

– New York: Basic Books, March 1978.
PART ONE: The Enemy of Being is Having 1. Corporate Capitalism in America 2. Business and the “New Class” 3. Frustrations of Affluence 4. Ideology and Food 5. The… More

Is America Moving Right? Ought It?

– ''Is America Moving Right? Ought It?” (A conversation with Irving Kristol and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), Public Opinion, September/October, 1978.

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).

The Political Dilemma of American Jews

– "The Political Dilemma of American Jews," Commentary, July 1984.
Excerpt: In short, while American Jews have for the most part persisted in their loyalty to the politics of American liberalism, that politics has blandly and remorselessly distanced itself… More

Reflections of a Neoconservative

– “Reflections of a Neoconservative,” Partisan Review, no. 4, 1984.
Excerpt: Even to raise that question, of course, is to define oneself as some kind of conservative, if only an incipient kind of conservative. Just what “conservative” means,… More

Jewish Voters and the “Politics of Compassion”

– "Jewish Voters and the 'Politics of Compassion'," (A reply to letters), Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: Now, compassion is indeed a virtue, much prized in the Jewish tradition. But it is worth recalling, as the etymology of the word itself indicates, that compassion is—a passion.… More

The David I Knew

– “The David I Knew,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1986.

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

This Is the Place to Be

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

Interview with Tom Bethell

– Interview with Tom Bethell, American Spectator, December 1991.
Excerpt: “The Democratic party is falling apart,” he said. “Which is lucky for us. It’s completely out of sync with the public. What’s happening to the… More

Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously

– “Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously,” Foreword to Disciples and Democracy: Religious Conservatives and the Future of American Politics, ed. Michael Cromartie (Grand Rapids, MI: Ethics and Public Policy Center and William Eerdman's, 1994).
Excerpt: For the past century the rise of liberalism has been wedded to the rise of secularism in all areas of American life. In the decades ahead, the decline of secularism will signify… More

Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday

– Christopher DeMuth, George Will, Walter Berns, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Kristol, "Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday," The American Enterprise Institute, January 21, 1995.
Excerpt: If what is called neoconservatism is by now an institution of sorts, it truly is what Emerson said institutions are–the lengthening shadow of a man. And the man is Irving… More

An Old Friend’s Image

– Earl Raab, "An Old Friend's Image," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Irving Kristol’s Moral Realism

– Philip Selznick, "Irving Kristol's Moral Realism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

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).

A Tribute to Irving Kristol

– William E. Simon, "A Tribute to Irving Kristol," 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

Booknotes

– "Booknotes" (An interview with Brian Lamb), September 5, 1995.

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

American Conservatism, 1945-1995

– "American Conservatism, 1945-1995," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
Excerpt: THE Public Interest was born well before the term “neoconservative” was invented, and will—I trust—be alive and active when the term is of only historical interest. That… More

Sex Trumps Gender

– “Sex Trumps Gender,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1996.  

The Right Stuff

– “The Right Stuff,” Prospect, October 1996.
Excerpt: I remember the day very well, back in 1956, when I arrived at my office at Encounter-of which I was then co-editor-and found on my desk an unsolicited manuscript by Michael… 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

The Tipping-Point Election

– “The Tipping-Point Election: Will Future Americans Look Back at the 1996 Vote and Say 'Bingo'?” American Enterprise, November/December 1996.

Arguing the World

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

Liberties and Licences

– "Liberties and Licences," Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1998.  (A review of Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W. Carey.)

Censorship?

– “Censorship?” (A symposium), The Weekly Standard, August 23, 1999.
Excerpt: For years now, conservatives have been waiting for “the people” to rise up against the institutional elites who have imposed their culture on us. But the people can’t be… More

On the Political Stupidity of the Jews

– "On the Political Stupidity of the Jews," Azure, Autumn 1999.
Excerpt: The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s,… More

Kristol Clear

– Bruce Bartlett, "Kristol Clear," National Review Online, June 26, 2002.
Excerpt: This critical foundation, which Kristol put together in the 1970s, all came together with the Reagan campaign in 1980. The people and the policies Kristol had nurtured for a decade… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is

– "The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is,"  The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2003.
Excerpt: Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism… More

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

Forty Good Years

– "Forty Good Years," The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
Excerpt: Yet The Public Interest, it should be said, transcended any political ideology, or even any political “disposition.” Inevitably, to be sure, my own political identity… More

A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut

– "A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut," [London] Sunday Times, March 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Although I am always reluctant to do what that famous Yankee baseball player claimed that his predecessor had done — “He learnt me his experience” — I can’t resist the… More

Our Own Cool Hand Luke

– Charles Krauthammer, "Our Own Cool Hand Luke," The Washington Post, April 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Kristol’s influence and intellect and importance to the political history of our time are well known. The most remarkable and least known thing about him, however, is his… More

My “Public Interest”

– "My 'Public Interest'," The Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006.
Excerpt: In 1965, through a series of circumstances that need not be recounted here, the stars became properly aligned so that my wish could become a reality. Dan Bell and I were able to… More

Remembering Irving Kristol

– Peter Wehner, "The Corner," National Review Online, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was a great man, a model and courageous public intellectual, and a giant in the conservative movement. He brought to it enormous intelligence and scholarship, great learning… More

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

– John Podhoretz, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009," Contentions blog, Commentary, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod… More

A Life in the Public Interest

– James Q. Wilson, "A Life in the Public Interest" The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many of the writers, myself included,… More

Irving Kristol’s Gone–We’ll Miss His Clear Vision

– Irwin Stelzer, "Irving Kristol's Gone–We'll Miss His Clear Vision," Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving is best known as the godfather of neoconservatism, although his persuasive tools were not those of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando’s Godfather-figures, but contained in… More

The Practical Liberal by Christopher DeMuth

– Christopher DeMuth, "The Practical Liberal," The American, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was, from start to finish, a proponent of vigorous government within its proper sphere. He never passed up a chance to enter a dissent, serious or wisecracking, against… More

Irving Kristol’s Clear Thinking

– Jonah Goldberg, "Irving Kristol's Clear Thinking," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Buckley said that the neocons’ greatest contribution to conservatism was “sociology.” The early National Review conservatism was more Aristotelian, Buckley observed, while… More

Irving Kristol

– "Irving Kristol," The Economist, September 24, 2009.
Excerpt: Conservatism, Kristol-style, acquired a “neo”. He was always, he mused, a neo-something: neoMarxist, neoliberal, neo-Orthodox (because he believed, though he wasn’t sure… More

A Great Good Man by Charles Krauthammer

– Charles Krauthammer, "A Great Good Man," The Washington Post, September 25, 2009.
Excerpt: My theory of Irving is that this amazing equanimity was rooted in a profound sense of modesty. First about himself. At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the… More

For the Record

– Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer, "For the Record" (Letters to he editor), The Economist, October 8, 2009.
Excerpt: Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset and I were not part of Kristol’s project to transform American conservatism. I, his co-editor for many years, consistently supported the… More

The Equilibrist

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Equilibrist," National Review, October 19, 2009.
Excerpt: LUNCH with Irving Kristol was an experience to remember. I had the pleasure only three times, always in the excellent dining room atop the American Enterprise Institute, but I… More

The Real Irving Kristol

– Norman Podhoretz, "The Real Irving Kristol," Commentary, November 2009.
Excerpt: The obituaries got most of the facts right: that Irving Kristol’s death at the age of 89 marked the passing of one of the most important public intellectuals of the past 40… More

The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol by Eric Cohen

– Eric Cohen, "The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol," National Affairs, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: Neoconservatism was, as Kristol always described it, merely a “­persuasion” that tried to “imagine the world as it might be,” but also to “live and… More

Beyond Ideology

– James Q. Wilson, "Beyond Ideology," Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: The essays in “The Neoconservative Persuasion”—all but one never before brought together in a book—are a remarkable introduction to one of the few people who… More

Irving Kristol and Republican Virtue

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" blog, Commentary, January 24, 2011.
Excerpt: On C-SPAN’s series After Words, David Brooks hosted an engaging and wide-ranging interview with William Kristol on The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942-2009,… More

Irving Kristol’s Brute Reason

– Paul Berman, "Irving Kristol's Brute Reason," New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2011.
Excerpt: And, in this new spirit, he plunged into his magnum opus, which, instead of a book, was the constructing of something called “neoconservatism.” This was intended to be a new… More

Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion

– Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Irving Kristol's Neoconservative Persuasion," Commentary, February 2011.
Excerpt: Much has been made of the consistency of tone in his writings—bold and speculative but never dogmatic or academic, always personal, witty, ironic. That tone is not only a matter… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

The Great Persuader by James W. Ceaser

– James W. Ceaser, "The Great Persuader," The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Of public intellectuals so conceived, there have been only a handful: George Bancroft, whose famous History of the United States and orations sketched out much of the Jacksonian… More

The Flexible Temperament

– James Piereson, "The Flexible Temperament," The New Criterion, March 2010. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Kristol’s intellectual contribution was to bring these fundamental ideas into contemporary debates about politics and public policy through his writings in outlets like the Wall… More

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

A Legacy of Temperament

– Roger Kimball, "A Legacy of Temperament," National Review, June 6, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: An honest man, said the poet William Blake, may change his opinions, but not his principles. Irving Kristol, who died in September 2009 just shy of 90, embarked on intellectual… More

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

– Meir Soloveichik, "Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis," Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Renowned as a founder of neoconservativism, Irving Kristol was “neo” in other respects as well. “Is there such a thing as a ‘neo’ gene?” he once… More

The Art of Persuasion

– Ross Douthat, "The Art of Persuasion," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: At times, the essays in The Neoconservative Persuasion suggest that these critics have a point. Neoconservatism may not be a rigid ideology, but even as a “persuasion”… More

The Brooklyn Burkeans

– Jonathan Bronitsky, "The Brooklyn Burkeans," National Affairs, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: By the time Kristol and Himmelfarb moved back home to New York in 1958, they were entrenched in the classical-liberal tradition and, therefore, primed to react negatively to the… More

A Cheerful Conservative

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" Blog, Commentary, May 12, 2014.
Excerpt: Building on Tom Wilson’s fine post on the creation of the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s new website devoted to the writings of Irving Kristol… More

The Public Interest at 50

– Adam Keiper, National Affairs, Fall 2015.
Excerpt: Before long, of course, The Public Interest would bring together policy, philosophy, morality, social science, and political economy as had never been done before. Kristol, Bell,… More

Multimedia

James Burnham’s “The Machiavellians”

– “James Burnham's 'The Machiavellians'" (as William Ferry), Enquiry, July 1943. (A review of The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: The atmosphere, these days, contains a good deal more of what is called ‘realism’ than is usually considered desirable for healthy progress. In some measure this is a… More

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

Old Truths and the New Conservatism

– “Old Truths and the New Conservatism,” Yale Review, May 1958.
Excerpt: Now, it may please us to think that everyone is born either a little liberal or a little conservative. It may please us so much, indeed, that we conveniently forget there was a… More

On the Burning Deck

– “On the Burning Deck,” Reporter, November 26, 1959.  (A review of Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Last of the Whigs

– "Last of the Whigs," Commentary, April 1960.  (A review of The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek.)
Excerpt: Professor Friederich Hayek, who is usually thought of as a conservative and laisser-fairist, can be more accurately regarded (and clearly defines himself) as the last surviving… More

New Left, New Right

– "New Left, New Right." The Public Interest, Summer 1966.
First, on all the evidence, the one worst way to cope with this crisis in values is through organized political-ideological action. Most of the hysteria, much of the stupidity, and a good… More

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

Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell

– Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell, The Alternative, May 1969.
Excerpt: TYRRELL: Is the new left really that new? Where did it come from? KRISTOL: Well, what is new about the new left is its identification of a political mythology with a generational… More

“Capitalism” and “the Free Society”

– "'Capitalism' and 'the Free Society'," (a reply to John K. Jessup), The Public Interest, Winter 1971.
Excerpt: Now, there is only one rejoinder that someone like Jessup can make to this point. It is the libertarian answer given by Hayek and Friedman: what legitimates a “free… More

Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism

– "Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism," The Public Interest, Spring 1973.
Excerpt: WHENEVER and wherever defenders of “free enterprise,” “individual liberty,” and “a free society” assemble, these days, one senses a peculiar kind of nostalgia in the… More

The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution

– “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution” (lecture delivered at American Enterprise Institute, October 12, 1973), printed in America's Continuing Revolution: An Act of Conservation (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975).
Excerpt: As we approach the bicentennial of the American Revolution, we find ourselves in a paradoxical and embarrassing situation. A celebration of some kind certainly seems to be in… More

What Is a “Neo-Conservative”?

– “What Is a ‘Neo-Conservative’?” Newsweek, January 19, 1976.
Excerpt: 1.  Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state.  In general, it approves of… More

Two Cheers for Capitalism

– New York: Basic Books, March 1978.
PART ONE: The Enemy of Being is Having 1. Corporate Capitalism in America 2. Business and the “New Class” 3. Frustrations of Affluence 4. Ideology and Food 5. The… More

Is America Moving Right? Ought It?

– ''Is America Moving Right? Ought It?” (A conversation with Irving Kristol and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), Public Opinion, September/October, 1978.

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).

The Political Dilemma of American Jews

– "The Political Dilemma of American Jews," Commentary, July 1984.
Excerpt: In short, while American Jews have for the most part persisted in their loyalty to the politics of American liberalism, that politics has blandly and remorselessly distanced itself… More

Reflections of a Neoconservative

– “Reflections of a Neoconservative,” Partisan Review, no. 4, 1984.
Excerpt: Even to raise that question, of course, is to define oneself as some kind of conservative, if only an incipient kind of conservative. Just what “conservative” means,… More

Jewish Voters and the “Politics of Compassion”

– "Jewish Voters and the 'Politics of Compassion'," (A reply to letters), Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: Now, compassion is indeed a virtue, much prized in the Jewish tradition. But it is worth recalling, as the etymology of the word itself indicates, that compassion is—a passion.… More

The David I Knew

– “The David I Knew,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1986.

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

This Is the Place to Be

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

Interview with Tom Bethell

– Interview with Tom Bethell, American Spectator, December 1991.
Excerpt: “The Democratic party is falling apart,” he said. “Which is lucky for us. It’s completely out of sync with the public. What’s happening to the… More

Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously

– “Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously,” Foreword to Disciples and Democracy: Religious Conservatives and the Future of American Politics, ed. Michael Cromartie (Grand Rapids, MI: Ethics and Public Policy Center and William Eerdman's, 1994).
Excerpt: For the past century the rise of liberalism has been wedded to the rise of secularism in all areas of American life. In the decades ahead, the decline of secularism will signify… More

Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday

– Christopher DeMuth, George Will, Walter Berns, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Kristol, "Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday," The American Enterprise Institute, January 21, 1995.
Excerpt: If what is called neoconservatism is by now an institution of sorts, it truly is what Emerson said institutions are–the lengthening shadow of a man. And the man is Irving… More

An Old Friend’s Image

– Earl Raab, "An Old Friend's Image," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Irving Kristol’s Moral Realism

– Philip Selznick, "Irving Kristol's Moral Realism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

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).

A Tribute to Irving Kristol

– William E. Simon, "A Tribute to Irving Kristol," 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

Booknotes

– "Booknotes" (An interview with Brian Lamb), September 5, 1995.

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

American Conservatism, 1945-1995

– "American Conservatism, 1945-1995," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
Excerpt: THE Public Interest was born well before the term “neoconservative” was invented, and will—I trust—be alive and active when the term is of only historical interest. That… More

Sex Trumps Gender

– “Sex Trumps Gender,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1996.  

The Right Stuff

– “The Right Stuff,” Prospect, October 1996.
Excerpt: I remember the day very well, back in 1956, when I arrived at my office at Encounter-of which I was then co-editor-and found on my desk an unsolicited manuscript by Michael… 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

The Tipping-Point Election

– “The Tipping-Point Election: Will Future Americans Look Back at the 1996 Vote and Say 'Bingo'?” American Enterprise, November/December 1996.

Arguing the World

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

Liberties and Licences

– "Liberties and Licences," Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1998.  (A review of Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W. Carey.)

Censorship?

– “Censorship?” (A symposium), The Weekly Standard, August 23, 1999.
Excerpt: For years now, conservatives have been waiting for “the people” to rise up against the institutional elites who have imposed their culture on us. But the people can’t be… More

On the Political Stupidity of the Jews

– "On the Political Stupidity of the Jews," Azure, Autumn 1999.
Excerpt: The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s,… More

Kristol Clear

– Bruce Bartlett, "Kristol Clear," National Review Online, June 26, 2002.
Excerpt: This critical foundation, which Kristol put together in the 1970s, all came together with the Reagan campaign in 1980. The people and the policies Kristol had nurtured for a decade… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is

– "The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is,"  The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2003.
Excerpt: Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism… More

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

Forty Good Years

– "Forty Good Years," The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
Excerpt: Yet The Public Interest, it should be said, transcended any political ideology, or even any political “disposition.” Inevitably, to be sure, my own political identity… More

A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut

– "A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut," [London] Sunday Times, March 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Although I am always reluctant to do what that famous Yankee baseball player claimed that his predecessor had done — “He learnt me his experience” — I can’t resist the… More

Our Own Cool Hand Luke

– Charles Krauthammer, "Our Own Cool Hand Luke," The Washington Post, April 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Kristol’s influence and intellect and importance to the political history of our time are well known. The most remarkable and least known thing about him, however, is his… More

My “Public Interest”

– "My 'Public Interest'," The Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006.
Excerpt: In 1965, through a series of circumstances that need not be recounted here, the stars became properly aligned so that my wish could become a reality. Dan Bell and I were able to… More

Remembering Irving Kristol

– Peter Wehner, "The Corner," National Review Online, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was a great man, a model and courageous public intellectual, and a giant in the conservative movement. He brought to it enormous intelligence and scholarship, great learning… More

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

– John Podhoretz, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009," Contentions blog, Commentary, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod… More

A Life in the Public Interest

– James Q. Wilson, "A Life in the Public Interest" The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many of the writers, myself included,… More

Irving Kristol’s Gone–We’ll Miss His Clear Vision

– Irwin Stelzer, "Irving Kristol's Gone–We'll Miss His Clear Vision," Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving is best known as the godfather of neoconservatism, although his persuasive tools were not those of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando’s Godfather-figures, but contained in… More

The Practical Liberal by Christopher DeMuth

– Christopher DeMuth, "The Practical Liberal," The American, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was, from start to finish, a proponent of vigorous government within its proper sphere. He never passed up a chance to enter a dissent, serious or wisecracking, against… More

Irving Kristol’s Clear Thinking

– Jonah Goldberg, "Irving Kristol's Clear Thinking," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Buckley said that the neocons’ greatest contribution to conservatism was “sociology.” The early National Review conservatism was more Aristotelian, Buckley observed, while… More

Irving Kristol

– "Irving Kristol," The Economist, September 24, 2009.
Excerpt: Conservatism, Kristol-style, acquired a “neo”. He was always, he mused, a neo-something: neoMarxist, neoliberal, neo-Orthodox (because he believed, though he wasn’t sure… More

A Great Good Man by Charles Krauthammer

– Charles Krauthammer, "A Great Good Man," The Washington Post, September 25, 2009.
Excerpt: My theory of Irving is that this amazing equanimity was rooted in a profound sense of modesty. First about himself. At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the… More

For the Record

– Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer, "For the Record" (Letters to he editor), The Economist, October 8, 2009.
Excerpt: Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset and I were not part of Kristol’s project to transform American conservatism. I, his co-editor for many years, consistently supported the… More

The Equilibrist

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Equilibrist," National Review, October 19, 2009.
Excerpt: LUNCH with Irving Kristol was an experience to remember. I had the pleasure only three times, always in the excellent dining room atop the American Enterprise Institute, but I… More

The Real Irving Kristol

– Norman Podhoretz, "The Real Irving Kristol," Commentary, November 2009.
Excerpt: The obituaries got most of the facts right: that Irving Kristol’s death at the age of 89 marked the passing of one of the most important public intellectuals of the past 40… More

The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol by Eric Cohen

– Eric Cohen, "The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol," National Affairs, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: Neoconservatism was, as Kristol always described it, merely a “­persuasion” that tried to “imagine the world as it might be,” but also to “live and… More

Beyond Ideology

– James Q. Wilson, "Beyond Ideology," Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: The essays in “The Neoconservative Persuasion”—all but one never before brought together in a book—are a remarkable introduction to one of the few people who… More

Irving Kristol and Republican Virtue

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" blog, Commentary, January 24, 2011.
Excerpt: On C-SPAN’s series After Words, David Brooks hosted an engaging and wide-ranging interview with William Kristol on The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942-2009,… More

Irving Kristol’s Brute Reason

– Paul Berman, "Irving Kristol's Brute Reason," New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2011.
Excerpt: And, in this new spirit, he plunged into his magnum opus, which, instead of a book, was the constructing of something called “neoconservatism.” This was intended to be a new… More

Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion

– Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Irving Kristol's Neoconservative Persuasion," Commentary, February 2011.
Excerpt: Much has been made of the consistency of tone in his writings—bold and speculative but never dogmatic or academic, always personal, witty, ironic. That tone is not only a matter… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

The Great Persuader by James W. Ceaser

– James W. Ceaser, "The Great Persuader," The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Of public intellectuals so conceived, there have been only a handful: George Bancroft, whose famous History of the United States and orations sketched out much of the Jacksonian… More

The Flexible Temperament

– James Piereson, "The Flexible Temperament," The New Criterion, March 2010. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Kristol’s intellectual contribution was to bring these fundamental ideas into contemporary debates about politics and public policy through his writings in outlets like the Wall… More

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

A Legacy of Temperament

– Roger Kimball, "A Legacy of Temperament," National Review, June 6, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: An honest man, said the poet William Blake, may change his opinions, but not his principles. Irving Kristol, who died in September 2009 just shy of 90, embarked on intellectual… More

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

– Meir Soloveichik, "Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis," Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Renowned as a founder of neoconservativism, Irving Kristol was “neo” in other respects as well. “Is there such a thing as a ‘neo’ gene?” he once… More

The Art of Persuasion

– Ross Douthat, "The Art of Persuasion," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: At times, the essays in The Neoconservative Persuasion suggest that these critics have a point. Neoconservatism may not be a rigid ideology, but even as a “persuasion”… More

The Brooklyn Burkeans

– Jonathan Bronitsky, "The Brooklyn Burkeans," National Affairs, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: By the time Kristol and Himmelfarb moved back home to New York in 1958, they were entrenched in the classical-liberal tradition and, therefore, primed to react negatively to the… More

A Cheerful Conservative

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" Blog, Commentary, May 12, 2014.
Excerpt: Building on Tom Wilson’s fine post on the creation of the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s new website devoted to the writings of Irving Kristol… More

The Public Interest at 50

– Adam Keiper, National Affairs, Fall 2015.
Excerpt: Before long, of course, The Public Interest would bring together policy, philosophy, morality, social science, and political economy as had never been done before. Kristol, Bell,… More

Teaching

James Burnham’s “The Machiavellians”

– “James Burnham's 'The Machiavellians'" (as William Ferry), Enquiry, July 1943. (A review of The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.)
Excerpt: The atmosphere, these days, contains a good deal more of what is called ‘realism’ than is usually considered desirable for healthy progress. In some measure this is a… More

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

Old Truths and the New Conservatism

– “Old Truths and the New Conservatism,” Yale Review, May 1958.
Excerpt: Now, it may please us to think that everyone is born either a little liberal or a little conservative. It may please us so much, indeed, that we conveniently forget there was a… More

On the Burning Deck

– “On the Burning Deck,” Reporter, November 26, 1959.  (A review of Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Last of the Whigs

– "Last of the Whigs," Commentary, April 1960.  (A review of The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek.)
Excerpt: Professor Friederich Hayek, who is usually thought of as a conservative and laisser-fairist, can be more accurately regarded (and clearly defines himself) as the last surviving… More

New Left, New Right

– "New Left, New Right." The Public Interest, Summer 1966.
First, on all the evidence, the one worst way to cope with this crisis in values is through organized political-ideological action. Most of the hysteria, much of the stupidity, and a good… More

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

Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell

– Interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell, The Alternative, May 1969.
Excerpt: TYRRELL: Is the new left really that new? Where did it come from? KRISTOL: Well, what is new about the new left is its identification of a political mythology with a generational… More

“Capitalism” and “the Free Society”

– "'Capitalism' and 'the Free Society'," (a reply to John K. Jessup), The Public Interest, Winter 1971.
Excerpt: Now, there is only one rejoinder that someone like Jessup can make to this point. It is the libertarian answer given by Hayek and Friedman: what legitimates a “free… More

Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism

– "Capitalism, Socialism and Nihilism," The Public Interest, Spring 1973.
Excerpt: WHENEVER and wherever defenders of “free enterprise,” “individual liberty,” and “a free society” assemble, these days, one senses a peculiar kind of nostalgia in the… More

The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution

– “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution” (lecture delivered at American Enterprise Institute, October 12, 1973), printed in America's Continuing Revolution: An Act of Conservation (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975).
Excerpt: As we approach the bicentennial of the American Revolution, we find ourselves in a paradoxical and embarrassing situation. A celebration of some kind certainly seems to be in… More

What Is a “Neo-Conservative”?

– “What Is a ‘Neo-Conservative’?” Newsweek, January 19, 1976.
Excerpt: 1.  Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state.  In general, it approves of… More

Two Cheers for Capitalism

– New York: Basic Books, March 1978.
PART ONE: The Enemy of Being is Having 1. Corporate Capitalism in America 2. Business and the “New Class” 3. Frustrations of Affluence 4. Ideology and Food 5. The… More

Is America Moving Right? Ought It?

– ''Is America Moving Right? Ought It?” (A conversation with Irving Kristol and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), Public Opinion, September/October, 1978.

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).

The Political Dilemma of American Jews

– "The Political Dilemma of American Jews," Commentary, July 1984.
Excerpt: In short, while American Jews have for the most part persisted in their loyalty to the politics of American liberalism, that politics has blandly and remorselessly distanced itself… More

Reflections of a Neoconservative

– “Reflections of a Neoconservative,” Partisan Review, no. 4, 1984.
Excerpt: Even to raise that question, of course, is to define oneself as some kind of conservative, if only an incipient kind of conservative. Just what “conservative” means,… More

Jewish Voters and the “Politics of Compassion”

– "Jewish Voters and the 'Politics of Compassion'," (A reply to letters), Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: Now, compassion is indeed a virtue, much prized in the Jewish tradition. But it is worth recalling, as the etymology of the word itself indicates, that compassion is—a passion.… More

The David I Knew

– “The David I Knew,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1986.

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

This Is the Place to Be

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

Interview with Tom Bethell

– Interview with Tom Bethell, American Spectator, December 1991.
Excerpt: “The Democratic party is falling apart,” he said. “Which is lucky for us. It’s completely out of sync with the public. What’s happening to the… More

Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously

– “Taking Religious Conservatives Seriously,” Foreword to Disciples and Democracy: Religious Conservatives and the Future of American Politics, ed. Michael Cromartie (Grand Rapids, MI: Ethics and Public Policy Center and William Eerdman's, 1994).
Excerpt: For the past century the rise of liberalism has been wedded to the rise of secularism in all areas of American life. In the decades ahead, the decline of secularism will signify… More

Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday

– Christopher DeMuth, George Will, Walter Berns, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Kristol, "Toasts and Remarks Delivered at a Dinner in Honor of Irving Kristol on His Seventy-fifth Birthday," The American Enterprise Institute, January 21, 1995.
Excerpt: If what is called neoconservatism is by now an institution of sorts, it truly is what Emerson said institutions are–the lengthening shadow of a man. And the man is Irving… More

An Old Friend’s Image

– Earl Raab, "An Old Friend's Image," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Irving Kristol’s Moral Realism

– Philip Selznick, "Irving Kristol's Moral Realism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

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).

A Tribute to Irving Kristol

– William E. Simon, "A Tribute to Irving Kristol," 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

Booknotes

– "Booknotes" (An interview with Brian Lamb), September 5, 1995.

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

American Conservatism, 1945-1995

– "American Conservatism, 1945-1995," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
Excerpt: THE Public Interest was born well before the term “neoconservative” was invented, and will—I trust—be alive and active when the term is of only historical interest. That… More

Sex Trumps Gender

– “Sex Trumps Gender,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1996.  

The Right Stuff

– “The Right Stuff,” Prospect, October 1996.
Excerpt: I remember the day very well, back in 1956, when I arrived at my office at Encounter-of which I was then co-editor-and found on my desk an unsolicited manuscript by Michael… 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

The Tipping-Point Election

– “The Tipping-Point Election: Will Future Americans Look Back at the 1996 Vote and Say 'Bingo'?” American Enterprise, November/December 1996.

Arguing the World

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

Liberties and Licences

– "Liberties and Licences," Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1998.  (A review of Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W. Carey.)

Censorship?

– “Censorship?” (A symposium), The Weekly Standard, August 23, 1999.
Excerpt: For years now, conservatives have been waiting for “the people” to rise up against the institutional elites who have imposed their culture on us. But the people can’t be… More

On the Political Stupidity of the Jews

– "On the Political Stupidity of the Jews," Azure, Autumn 1999.
Excerpt: The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s,… More

Kristol Clear

– Bruce Bartlett, "Kristol Clear," National Review Online, June 26, 2002.
Excerpt: This critical foundation, which Kristol put together in the 1970s, all came together with the Reagan campaign in 1980. The people and the policies Kristol had nurtured for a decade… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is

– "The Neoconservative Persuasion: What It Was, and What It Is,"  The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2003.
Excerpt: Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism… More

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

Forty Good Years

– "Forty Good Years," The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
Excerpt: Yet The Public Interest, it should be said, transcended any political ideology, or even any political “disposition.” Inevitably, to be sure, my own political identity… More

A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut

– "A Tory Revival Starts With a 10% Tax Cut," [London] Sunday Times, March 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Although I am always reluctant to do what that famous Yankee baseball player claimed that his predecessor had done — “He learnt me his experience” — I can’t resist the… More

Our Own Cool Hand Luke

– Charles Krauthammer, "Our Own Cool Hand Luke," The Washington Post, April 29, 2005.
Excerpt: Kristol’s influence and intellect and importance to the political history of our time are well known. The most remarkable and least known thing about him, however, is his… More

My “Public Interest”

– "My 'Public Interest'," The Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006.
Excerpt: In 1965, through a series of circumstances that need not be recounted here, the stars became properly aligned so that my wish could become a reality. Dan Bell and I were able to… More

Remembering Irving Kristol

– Peter Wehner, "The Corner," National Review Online, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was a great man, a model and courageous public intellectual, and a giant in the conservative movement. He brought to it enormous intelligence and scholarship, great learning… More

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

– John Podhoretz, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009," Contentions blog, Commentary, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod… More

A Life in the Public Interest

– James Q. Wilson, "A Life in the Public Interest" The Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2009.
Excerpt: The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many of the writers, myself included,… More

Irving Kristol’s Gone–We’ll Miss His Clear Vision

– Irwin Stelzer, "Irving Kristol's Gone–We'll Miss His Clear Vision," Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving is best known as the godfather of neoconservatism, although his persuasive tools were not those of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando’s Godfather-figures, but contained in… More

The Practical Liberal by Christopher DeMuth

– Christopher DeMuth, "The Practical Liberal," The American, September 22, 2009.
Excerpt: Irving was, from start to finish, a proponent of vigorous government within its proper sphere. He never passed up a chance to enter a dissent, serious or wisecracking, against… More

Irving Kristol’s Clear Thinking

– Jonah Goldberg, "Irving Kristol's Clear Thinking," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009.
Excerpt: Buckley said that the neocons’ greatest contribution to conservatism was “sociology.” The early National Review conservatism was more Aristotelian, Buckley observed, while… More

Irving Kristol

– "Irving Kristol," The Economist, September 24, 2009.
Excerpt: Conservatism, Kristol-style, acquired a “neo”. He was always, he mused, a neo-something: neoMarxist, neoliberal, neo-Orthodox (because he believed, though he wasn’t sure… More

A Great Good Man by Charles Krauthammer

– Charles Krauthammer, "A Great Good Man," The Washington Post, September 25, 2009.
Excerpt: My theory of Irving is that this amazing equanimity was rooted in a profound sense of modesty. First about himself. At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the… More

For the Record

– Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer, "For the Record" (Letters to he editor), The Economist, October 8, 2009.
Excerpt: Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset and I were not part of Kristol’s project to transform American conservatism. I, his co-editor for many years, consistently supported the… More

The Equilibrist

– Wilfred M. McClay, "The Equilibrist," National Review, October 19, 2009.
Excerpt: LUNCH with Irving Kristol was an experience to remember. I had the pleasure only three times, always in the excellent dining room atop the American Enterprise Institute, but I… More

The Real Irving Kristol

– Norman Podhoretz, "The Real Irving Kristol," Commentary, November 2009.
Excerpt: The obituaries got most of the facts right: that Irving Kristol’s death at the age of 89 marked the passing of one of the most important public intellectuals of the past 40… More

The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol by Eric Cohen

– Eric Cohen, "The Moral Realism of Irving Kristol," National Affairs, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: Neoconservatism was, as Kristol always described it, merely a “­persuasion” that tried to “imagine the world as it might be,” but also to “live and… More

Beyond Ideology

– James Q. Wilson, "Beyond Ideology," Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: The essays in “The Neoconservative Persuasion”—all but one never before brought together in a book—are a remarkable introduction to one of the few people who… More

Irving Kristol and Republican Virtue

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" blog, Commentary, January 24, 2011.
Excerpt: On C-SPAN’s series After Words, David Brooks hosted an engaging and wide-ranging interview with William Kristol on The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942-2009,… More

Irving Kristol’s Brute Reason

– Paul Berman, "Irving Kristol's Brute Reason," New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2011.
Excerpt: And, in this new spirit, he plunged into his magnum opus, which, instead of a book, was the constructing of something called “neoconservatism.” This was intended to be a new… More

Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion

– Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Irving Kristol's Neoconservative Persuasion," Commentary, February 2011.
Excerpt: Much has been made of the consistency of tone in his writings—bold and speculative but never dogmatic or academic, always personal, witty, ironic. That tone is not only a matter… More

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

The Great Persuader by James W. Ceaser

– James W. Ceaser, "The Great Persuader," The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Of public intellectuals so conceived, there have been only a handful: George Bancroft, whose famous History of the United States and orations sketched out much of the Jacksonian… More

The Flexible Temperament

– James Piereson, "The Flexible Temperament," The New Criterion, March 2010. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Kristol’s intellectual contribution was to bring these fundamental ideas into contemporary debates about politics and public policy through his writings in outlets like the Wall… More

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

A Legacy of Temperament

– Roger Kimball, "A Legacy of Temperament," National Review, June 6, 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: An honest man, said the poet William Blake, may change his opinions, but not his principles. Irving Kristol, who died in September 2009 just shy of 90, embarked on intellectual… More

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

– Meir Soloveichik, "Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis," Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: Renowned as a founder of neoconservativism, Irving Kristol was “neo” in other respects as well. “Is there such a thing as a ‘neo’ gene?” he once… More

The Art of Persuasion

– Ross Douthat, "The Art of Persuasion," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2011. (A review of The Neoconservative Persuasion by Irving Kristol.)
Excerpt: At times, the essays in The Neoconservative Persuasion suggest that these critics have a point. Neoconservatism may not be a rigid ideology, but even as a “persuasion”… More

The Brooklyn Burkeans

– Jonathan Bronitsky, "The Brooklyn Burkeans," National Affairs, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: By the time Kristol and Himmelfarb moved back home to New York in 1958, they were entrenched in the classical-liberal tradition and, therefore, primed to react negatively to the… More

A Cheerful Conservative

– Peter Wehner, "Contentions" Blog, Commentary, May 12, 2014.
Excerpt: Building on Tom Wilson’s fine post on the creation of the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s new website devoted to the writings of Irving Kristol… More

The Public Interest at 50

– Adam Keiper, National Affairs, Fall 2015.
Excerpt: Before long, of course, The Public Interest would bring together policy, philosophy, morality, social science, and political economy as had never been done before. Kristol, Bell,… More