Tag: Social Science

Topics

Books

The Indefatigable Fabian

– “The Indefatigable Fabian,” New York Times Book Review, August 24, 1952. (A review of Beatrice Webb's Diaries: 1912-1924, edited by Margaret I. Cole.)

Class and Sociology: “The Shadow of Marxism”

– "Class and Sociology: 'The Shadow of Marxism'," Commentary, October 1957. (A review of The American Class Structure by Joseph A. Kahl and Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process by Bernard Barber.)
Excerpt: Twentieth-Century America is perhaps the most egalitarian society the civilized world has ever seen, yet nowhere has there been so much solemn brooding over “class” as in this… More

Our Boondoggling Democracy

– "Our Boondoggling Democracy," Commentary, August 1958.  (A review of The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith.)
Excerpt: The Affluent Society is by far the most serious critique of “welfare capitalism” that has been written in the post-Marxian era. (It is perhaps worth remarking that, though Mr.… More

A Cool Sociological Eye

– “A Cool Sociological Eye,” Reporter, February 4, 1960.  (A review of Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics by Seymour Martin Lipset.)

Social Sciences and Law

– “Social Sciences and Law,” in The Great Ideas Today, ed. by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962).

The Idea of Mass Culture

– “The Idea of Mass Culture,” Yale Review, February 1962. (A review of The Political Context of Sociology by Leon Bramson.)

Murder in New Jersey

– “Murder in New Jersey,” New York Review of Books, April 16, 1964. (A review of Doe Day: The Antlerless Deer Controversy in New Jersey by Paul Tillett.)
Excerpt: Paul Tillett’s Doe Day has a far more modest compass, and in it science suffers no such interesting and ironic reversals. But it, too, is enlightening in a way that few works of… More

What Is the Public Interest?

– "What Is the Public Interest?" (with Daniel Bell), The Public Interest, Fall 1965.
Excerpt: The aim of THE PUBLIC INTEREST is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking… More

The Troublesome Intellectuals

– "The Troublesome Intellectuals," The Public Interest, Winter 1966.
Excerpt: The American intellectual has not yet been favored with tax loopholes, nor has he been supplied with his own official depreciation schedule; but in every other respect he is now… More

Who’s in Charge Here?

– “Who's in Charge Here?” Fortune, November 1967. (A review of The Power Structure by Arnold Rose.)

The Don Comes Up Like Thunder

– “The Don Comes Up Like Thunder,” Washington Post, August 25, 1968. (A review of A Runaway World? by Edmund Leach.)

In Search of the Missing Social Indicator

– “In Search of the Missing Social Indicator,” Fortune, August 1969. (A review of Toward a Social Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

Barbarians from Within

– “Barbarians from Within,” Fortune, March 1970. (A review of Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today by Daniel Boorstin.)

A University’s Business

– “A University's Business” (A reply to a letter), New York Times Magazine, April 19, 1970.

From Priorities to Goals

– "From Priorities to Goals," The Public Interest, Summer 1971.
Excerpt: Controversies over matters of political philosophy, since they are controversies over fundamental beliefs, are exceedingly dangerous for any nation. They certainly ought not to… 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

World Perspective

– “World Perspective” (Interview with Boardroom Reports), February 15, 1975.

The High Cost of Equality

– “The High Cost of Equality,” Fortune, November 1975. (A review of Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff by Arthur Okun.)

Toward a “New” Economics

– “Toward a 'New' Economics,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1977.
Excerpt: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the fact that, for the first time in half a century, it is the economic philosophy of conservatives that is showing signs of… More

Professors, Politicians and Public Policy

– Professors, Politicians and Public Policy: A Round Table Held on July 29, 1977 (AEI Forum No. 10), ed. John Charles Daly (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).

Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution

– "Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution," in The American Economy in Transition, ed. Martin Feldstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
Excerpt: It is my understanding, from surveying various studies of trends in income distribution in the United States over the past three decades, that economists have found very little… More

Rationalism in Economics

– "Rationalism in Economics," The Public Interest, Special Issue 1980.
Excerpt: IT is widely conceded that something like a “crisis in economic theory” exists, but there is vehement disagreement about the extent and nature of this crisis. The more… More

Ideology and Supply-Side Economics

– "Ideology & Supply-Side Economics," Commentary, April 1981.
Excerpt: The terms being applied—by the media, by politicians, by economists—to President Reagan’s economic program, and most particularly to the tax-cutting aspect of this program,… More

The Dubious Science

– “The Dubious Science,” The New Republic, June 6, 1983. (A review of Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics by Lester Thurow.)

The State of the Union

– “The State of the Union,” The New Republic, October 29, 1984. (A review of The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong by Ben Wattenberg.)

Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest

– "Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest," The Public Interest, Fall, 1985.
Excerpt: Indeed, The Public Interest has always emphasized the modestly positive along with the skeptical. Ours has always really been a meliorist frame of mind. The world is not coming to… More

On the Character of American Political Order

– “On the Character of American Political Order,” In The Promise of American Politics: Principles and Practice after Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert Utley (New York: University Press of America, 1989).

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

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).

A Third Cheer for Capitalism

– Irwin Stelzer, "A Third Cheer for Capitalism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

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

An Autobiographical Memoir

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

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 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

Conflicts That Can’t Be Resolved

– "Conflicts That Can't Be Resolved," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Peace processes are proliferating all over the world, along with the violence that gave birth to them. There is the Middle East peace process, of course, but peace processes are… More

Arguing the World

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

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words, ed. Joseph Dorman (New York: Free Press, 2000). (Transcript of TV interviews from 1998.)

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

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

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

The Godfather, R.I.P.

– Myron Magnet, "The Godfather, R.I.P.," City Journal, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: His own world-historically influential magazine, The Public Interest, bore Irving’s stamp of practicality and realism, indeed of realpolitik. It aimed, through its hard-headed… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

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

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 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 Interested Man

– Nathan Glazer, "The Interested Man," The New Republic, November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: I think back to these early days because it seems to me that Irving was all of a piece, almost from the beginning. No comment on his passing has failed to mention the young… More

Two Cheers for Philanthropy

– Leslie Lenkowsky, "Two Cheers for Philanthropy," Philanthropy, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: In philanthropy as in much else of American life, however, the 1960s challenged older patterns. For foundations, this meant that efforts to change public policy, empower… 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

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

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

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

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

The Indefatigable Fabian

– “The Indefatigable Fabian,” New York Times Book Review, August 24, 1952. (A review of Beatrice Webb's Diaries: 1912-1924, edited by Margaret I. Cole.)

Class and Sociology: “The Shadow of Marxism”

– "Class and Sociology: 'The Shadow of Marxism'," Commentary, October 1957. (A review of The American Class Structure by Joseph A. Kahl and Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process by Bernard Barber.)
Excerpt: Twentieth-Century America is perhaps the most egalitarian society the civilized world has ever seen, yet nowhere has there been so much solemn brooding over “class” as in this… More

Our Boondoggling Democracy

– "Our Boondoggling Democracy," Commentary, August 1958.  (A review of The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith.)
Excerpt: The Affluent Society is by far the most serious critique of “welfare capitalism” that has been written in the post-Marxian era. (It is perhaps worth remarking that, though Mr.… More

A Cool Sociological Eye

– “A Cool Sociological Eye,” Reporter, February 4, 1960.  (A review of Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics by Seymour Martin Lipset.)

Social Sciences and Law

– “Social Sciences and Law,” in The Great Ideas Today, ed. by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962).

The Idea of Mass Culture

– “The Idea of Mass Culture,” Yale Review, February 1962. (A review of The Political Context of Sociology by Leon Bramson.)

Murder in New Jersey

– “Murder in New Jersey,” New York Review of Books, April 16, 1964. (A review of Doe Day: The Antlerless Deer Controversy in New Jersey by Paul Tillett.)
Excerpt: Paul Tillett’s Doe Day has a far more modest compass, and in it science suffers no such interesting and ironic reversals. But it, too, is enlightening in a way that few works of… More

What Is the Public Interest?

– "What Is the Public Interest?" (with Daniel Bell), The Public Interest, Fall 1965.
Excerpt: The aim of THE PUBLIC INTEREST is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking… More

The Troublesome Intellectuals

– "The Troublesome Intellectuals," The Public Interest, Winter 1966.
Excerpt: The American intellectual has not yet been favored with tax loopholes, nor has he been supplied with his own official depreciation schedule; but in every other respect he is now… More

Who’s in Charge Here?

– “Who's in Charge Here?” Fortune, November 1967. (A review of The Power Structure by Arnold Rose.)

The Don Comes Up Like Thunder

– “The Don Comes Up Like Thunder,” Washington Post, August 25, 1968. (A review of A Runaway World? by Edmund Leach.)

In Search of the Missing Social Indicator

– “In Search of the Missing Social Indicator,” Fortune, August 1969. (A review of Toward a Social Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

Barbarians from Within

– “Barbarians from Within,” Fortune, March 1970. (A review of Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today by Daniel Boorstin.)

A University’s Business

– “A University's Business” (A reply to a letter), New York Times Magazine, April 19, 1970.

From Priorities to Goals

– "From Priorities to Goals," The Public Interest, Summer 1971.
Excerpt: Controversies over matters of political philosophy, since they are controversies over fundamental beliefs, are exceedingly dangerous for any nation. They certainly ought not to… 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

World Perspective

– “World Perspective” (Interview with Boardroom Reports), February 15, 1975.

The High Cost of Equality

– “The High Cost of Equality,” Fortune, November 1975. (A review of Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff by Arthur Okun.)

Toward a “New” Economics

– “Toward a 'New' Economics,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1977.
Excerpt: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the fact that, for the first time in half a century, it is the economic philosophy of conservatives that is showing signs of… More

Professors, Politicians and Public Policy

– Professors, Politicians and Public Policy: A Round Table Held on July 29, 1977 (AEI Forum No. 10), ed. John Charles Daly (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).

Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution

– "Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution," in The American Economy in Transition, ed. Martin Feldstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
Excerpt: It is my understanding, from surveying various studies of trends in income distribution in the United States over the past three decades, that economists have found very little… More

Rationalism in Economics

– "Rationalism in Economics," The Public Interest, Special Issue 1980.
Excerpt: IT is widely conceded that something like a “crisis in economic theory” exists, but there is vehement disagreement about the extent and nature of this crisis. The more… More

Ideology and Supply-Side Economics

– "Ideology & Supply-Side Economics," Commentary, April 1981.
Excerpt: The terms being applied—by the media, by politicians, by economists—to President Reagan’s economic program, and most particularly to the tax-cutting aspect of this program,… More

The Dubious Science

– “The Dubious Science,” The New Republic, June 6, 1983. (A review of Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics by Lester Thurow.)

The State of the Union

– “The State of the Union,” The New Republic, October 29, 1984. (A review of The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong by Ben Wattenberg.)

Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest

– "Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest," The Public Interest, Fall, 1985.
Excerpt: Indeed, The Public Interest has always emphasized the modestly positive along with the skeptical. Ours has always really been a meliorist frame of mind. The world is not coming to… More

On the Character of American Political Order

– “On the Character of American Political Order,” In The Promise of American Politics: Principles and Practice after Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert Utley (New York: University Press of America, 1989).

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

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).

A Third Cheer for Capitalism

– Irwin Stelzer, "A Third Cheer for Capitalism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

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

An Autobiographical Memoir

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

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 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

Conflicts That Can’t Be Resolved

– "Conflicts That Can't Be Resolved," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Peace processes are proliferating all over the world, along with the violence that gave birth to them. There is the Middle East peace process, of course, but peace processes are… More

Arguing the World

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

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words, ed. Joseph Dorman (New York: Free Press, 2000). (Transcript of TV interviews from 1998.)

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

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

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

The Godfather, R.I.P.

– Myron Magnet, "The Godfather, R.I.P.," City Journal, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: His own world-historically influential magazine, The Public Interest, bore Irving’s stamp of practicality and realism, indeed of realpolitik. It aimed, through its hard-headed… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

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

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 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 Interested Man

– Nathan Glazer, "The Interested Man," The New Republic, November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: I think back to these early days because it seems to me that Irving was all of a piece, almost from the beginning. No comment on his passing has failed to mention the young… More

Two Cheers for Philanthropy

– Leslie Lenkowsky, "Two Cheers for Philanthropy," Philanthropy, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: In philanthropy as in much else of American life, however, the 1960s challenged older patterns. For foundations, this meant that efforts to change public policy, empower… 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

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

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

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

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

The Indefatigable Fabian

– “The Indefatigable Fabian,” New York Times Book Review, August 24, 1952. (A review of Beatrice Webb's Diaries: 1912-1924, edited by Margaret I. Cole.)

Class and Sociology: “The Shadow of Marxism”

– "Class and Sociology: 'The Shadow of Marxism'," Commentary, October 1957. (A review of The American Class Structure by Joseph A. Kahl and Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process by Bernard Barber.)
Excerpt: Twentieth-Century America is perhaps the most egalitarian society the civilized world has ever seen, yet nowhere has there been so much solemn brooding over “class” as in this… More

Our Boondoggling Democracy

– "Our Boondoggling Democracy," Commentary, August 1958.  (A review of The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith.)
Excerpt: The Affluent Society is by far the most serious critique of “welfare capitalism” that has been written in the post-Marxian era. (It is perhaps worth remarking that, though Mr.… More

A Cool Sociological Eye

– “A Cool Sociological Eye,” Reporter, February 4, 1960.  (A review of Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics by Seymour Martin Lipset.)

Social Sciences and Law

– “Social Sciences and Law,” in The Great Ideas Today, ed. by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962).

The Idea of Mass Culture

– “The Idea of Mass Culture,” Yale Review, February 1962. (A review of The Political Context of Sociology by Leon Bramson.)

Murder in New Jersey

– “Murder in New Jersey,” New York Review of Books, April 16, 1964. (A review of Doe Day: The Antlerless Deer Controversy in New Jersey by Paul Tillett.)
Excerpt: Paul Tillett’s Doe Day has a far more modest compass, and in it science suffers no such interesting and ironic reversals. But it, too, is enlightening in a way that few works of… More

What Is the Public Interest?

– "What Is the Public Interest?" (with Daniel Bell), The Public Interest, Fall 1965.
Excerpt: The aim of THE PUBLIC INTEREST is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking… More

The Troublesome Intellectuals

– "The Troublesome Intellectuals," The Public Interest, Winter 1966.
Excerpt: The American intellectual has not yet been favored with tax loopholes, nor has he been supplied with his own official depreciation schedule; but in every other respect he is now… More

Who’s in Charge Here?

– “Who's in Charge Here?” Fortune, November 1967. (A review of The Power Structure by Arnold Rose.)

The Don Comes Up Like Thunder

– “The Don Comes Up Like Thunder,” Washington Post, August 25, 1968. (A review of A Runaway World? by Edmund Leach.)

In Search of the Missing Social Indicator

– “In Search of the Missing Social Indicator,” Fortune, August 1969. (A review of Toward a Social Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

Barbarians from Within

– “Barbarians from Within,” Fortune, March 1970. (A review of Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today by Daniel Boorstin.)

A University’s Business

– “A University's Business” (A reply to a letter), New York Times Magazine, April 19, 1970.

From Priorities to Goals

– "From Priorities to Goals," The Public Interest, Summer 1971.
Excerpt: Controversies over matters of political philosophy, since they are controversies over fundamental beliefs, are exceedingly dangerous for any nation. They certainly ought not to… 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

World Perspective

– “World Perspective” (Interview with Boardroom Reports), February 15, 1975.

The High Cost of Equality

– “The High Cost of Equality,” Fortune, November 1975. (A review of Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff by Arthur Okun.)

Toward a “New” Economics

– “Toward a 'New' Economics,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1977.
Excerpt: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the fact that, for the first time in half a century, it is the economic philosophy of conservatives that is showing signs of… More

Professors, Politicians and Public Policy

– Professors, Politicians and Public Policy: A Round Table Held on July 29, 1977 (AEI Forum No. 10), ed. John Charles Daly (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).

Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution

– "Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution," in The American Economy in Transition, ed. Martin Feldstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
Excerpt: It is my understanding, from surveying various studies of trends in income distribution in the United States over the past three decades, that economists have found very little… More

Rationalism in Economics

– "Rationalism in Economics," The Public Interest, Special Issue 1980.
Excerpt: IT is widely conceded that something like a “crisis in economic theory” exists, but there is vehement disagreement about the extent and nature of this crisis. The more… More

Ideology and Supply-Side Economics

– "Ideology & Supply-Side Economics," Commentary, April 1981.
Excerpt: The terms being applied—by the media, by politicians, by economists—to President Reagan’s economic program, and most particularly to the tax-cutting aspect of this program,… More

The Dubious Science

– “The Dubious Science,” The New Republic, June 6, 1983. (A review of Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics by Lester Thurow.)

The State of the Union

– “The State of the Union,” The New Republic, October 29, 1984. (A review of The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong by Ben Wattenberg.)

Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest

– "Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest," The Public Interest, Fall, 1985.
Excerpt: Indeed, The Public Interest has always emphasized the modestly positive along with the skeptical. Ours has always really been a meliorist frame of mind. The world is not coming to… More

On the Character of American Political Order

– “On the Character of American Political Order,” In The Promise of American Politics: Principles and Practice after Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert Utley (New York: University Press of America, 1989).

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

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).

A Third Cheer for Capitalism

– Irwin Stelzer, "A Third Cheer for Capitalism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

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

An Autobiographical Memoir

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

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 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

Conflicts That Can’t Be Resolved

– "Conflicts That Can't Be Resolved," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Peace processes are proliferating all over the world, along with the violence that gave birth to them. There is the Middle East peace process, of course, but peace processes are… More

Arguing the World

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

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words, ed. Joseph Dorman (New York: Free Press, 2000). (Transcript of TV interviews from 1998.)

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

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

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

The Godfather, R.I.P.

– Myron Magnet, "The Godfather, R.I.P.," City Journal, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: His own world-historically influential magazine, The Public Interest, bore Irving’s stamp of practicality and realism, indeed of realpolitik. It aimed, through its hard-headed… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

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

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 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 Interested Man

– Nathan Glazer, "The Interested Man," The New Republic, November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: I think back to these early days because it seems to me that Irving was all of a piece, almost from the beginning. No comment on his passing has failed to mention the young… More

Two Cheers for Philanthropy

– Leslie Lenkowsky, "Two Cheers for Philanthropy," Philanthropy, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: In philanthropy as in much else of American life, however, the 1960s challenged older patterns. For foundations, this meant that efforts to change public policy, empower… 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

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

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

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

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

The Indefatigable Fabian

– “The Indefatigable Fabian,” New York Times Book Review, August 24, 1952. (A review of Beatrice Webb's Diaries: 1912-1924, edited by Margaret I. Cole.)

Class and Sociology: “The Shadow of Marxism”

– "Class and Sociology: 'The Shadow of Marxism'," Commentary, October 1957. (A review of The American Class Structure by Joseph A. Kahl and Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process by Bernard Barber.)
Excerpt: Twentieth-Century America is perhaps the most egalitarian society the civilized world has ever seen, yet nowhere has there been so much solemn brooding over “class” as in this… More

Our Boondoggling Democracy

– "Our Boondoggling Democracy," Commentary, August 1958.  (A review of The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith.)
Excerpt: The Affluent Society is by far the most serious critique of “welfare capitalism” that has been written in the post-Marxian era. (It is perhaps worth remarking that, though Mr.… More

A Cool Sociological Eye

– “A Cool Sociological Eye,” Reporter, February 4, 1960.  (A review of Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics by Seymour Martin Lipset.)

Social Sciences and Law

– “Social Sciences and Law,” in The Great Ideas Today, ed. by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962).

The Idea of Mass Culture

– “The Idea of Mass Culture,” Yale Review, February 1962. (A review of The Political Context of Sociology by Leon Bramson.)

Murder in New Jersey

– “Murder in New Jersey,” New York Review of Books, April 16, 1964. (A review of Doe Day: The Antlerless Deer Controversy in New Jersey by Paul Tillett.)
Excerpt: Paul Tillett’s Doe Day has a far more modest compass, and in it science suffers no such interesting and ironic reversals. But it, too, is enlightening in a way that few works of… More

What Is the Public Interest?

– "What Is the Public Interest?" (with Daniel Bell), The Public Interest, Fall 1965.
Excerpt: The aim of THE PUBLIC INTEREST is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking… More

The Troublesome Intellectuals

– "The Troublesome Intellectuals," The Public Interest, Winter 1966.
Excerpt: The American intellectual has not yet been favored with tax loopholes, nor has he been supplied with his own official depreciation schedule; but in every other respect he is now… More

Who’s in Charge Here?

– “Who's in Charge Here?” Fortune, November 1967. (A review of The Power Structure by Arnold Rose.)

The Don Comes Up Like Thunder

– “The Don Comes Up Like Thunder,” Washington Post, August 25, 1968. (A review of A Runaway World? by Edmund Leach.)

In Search of the Missing Social Indicator

– “In Search of the Missing Social Indicator,” Fortune, August 1969. (A review of Toward a Social Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

Barbarians from Within

– “Barbarians from Within,” Fortune, March 1970. (A review of Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today by Daniel Boorstin.)

A University’s Business

– “A University's Business” (A reply to a letter), New York Times Magazine, April 19, 1970.

From Priorities to Goals

– "From Priorities to Goals," The Public Interest, Summer 1971.
Excerpt: Controversies over matters of political philosophy, since they are controversies over fundamental beliefs, are exceedingly dangerous for any nation. They certainly ought not to… 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

World Perspective

– “World Perspective” (Interview with Boardroom Reports), February 15, 1975.

The High Cost of Equality

– “The High Cost of Equality,” Fortune, November 1975. (A review of Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff by Arthur Okun.)

Toward a “New” Economics

– “Toward a 'New' Economics,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1977.
Excerpt: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the fact that, for the first time in half a century, it is the economic philosophy of conservatives that is showing signs of… More

Professors, Politicians and Public Policy

– Professors, Politicians and Public Policy: A Round Table Held on July 29, 1977 (AEI Forum No. 10), ed. John Charles Daly (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).

Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution

– "Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution," in The American Economy in Transition, ed. Martin Feldstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
Excerpt: It is my understanding, from surveying various studies of trends in income distribution in the United States over the past three decades, that economists have found very little… More

Rationalism in Economics

– "Rationalism in Economics," The Public Interest, Special Issue 1980.
Excerpt: IT is widely conceded that something like a “crisis in economic theory” exists, but there is vehement disagreement about the extent and nature of this crisis. The more… More

Ideology and Supply-Side Economics

– "Ideology & Supply-Side Economics," Commentary, April 1981.
Excerpt: The terms being applied—by the media, by politicians, by economists—to President Reagan’s economic program, and most particularly to the tax-cutting aspect of this program,… More

The Dubious Science

– “The Dubious Science,” The New Republic, June 6, 1983. (A review of Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics by Lester Thurow.)

The State of the Union

– “The State of the Union,” The New Republic, October 29, 1984. (A review of The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong by Ben Wattenberg.)

Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest

– "Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest," The Public Interest, Fall, 1985.
Excerpt: Indeed, The Public Interest has always emphasized the modestly positive along with the skeptical. Ours has always really been a meliorist frame of mind. The world is not coming to… More

On the Character of American Political Order

– “On the Character of American Political Order,” In The Promise of American Politics: Principles and Practice after Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert Utley (New York: University Press of America, 1989).

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

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).

A Third Cheer for Capitalism

– Irwin Stelzer, "A Third Cheer for Capitalism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

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

An Autobiographical Memoir

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

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 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

Conflicts That Can’t Be Resolved

– "Conflicts That Can't Be Resolved," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Peace processes are proliferating all over the world, along with the violence that gave birth to them. There is the Middle East peace process, of course, but peace processes are… More

Arguing the World

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

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words, ed. Joseph Dorman (New York: Free Press, 2000). (Transcript of TV interviews from 1998.)

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

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

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

The Godfather, R.I.P.

– Myron Magnet, "The Godfather, R.I.P.," City Journal, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: His own world-historically influential magazine, The Public Interest, bore Irving’s stamp of practicality and realism, indeed of realpolitik. It aimed, through its hard-headed… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

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

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 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 Interested Man

– Nathan Glazer, "The Interested Man," The New Republic, November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: I think back to these early days because it seems to me that Irving was all of a piece, almost from the beginning. No comment on his passing has failed to mention the young… More

Two Cheers for Philanthropy

– Leslie Lenkowsky, "Two Cheers for Philanthropy," Philanthropy, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: In philanthropy as in much else of American life, however, the 1960s challenged older patterns. For foundations, this meant that efforts to change public policy, empower… 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

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

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

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

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

The Indefatigable Fabian

– “The Indefatigable Fabian,” New York Times Book Review, August 24, 1952. (A review of Beatrice Webb's Diaries: 1912-1924, edited by Margaret I. Cole.)

Class and Sociology: “The Shadow of Marxism”

– "Class and Sociology: 'The Shadow of Marxism'," Commentary, October 1957. (A review of The American Class Structure by Joseph A. Kahl and Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process by Bernard Barber.)
Excerpt: Twentieth-Century America is perhaps the most egalitarian society the civilized world has ever seen, yet nowhere has there been so much solemn brooding over “class” as in this… More

Our Boondoggling Democracy

– "Our Boondoggling Democracy," Commentary, August 1958.  (A review of The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith.)
Excerpt: The Affluent Society is by far the most serious critique of “welfare capitalism” that has been written in the post-Marxian era. (It is perhaps worth remarking that, though Mr.… More

A Cool Sociological Eye

– “A Cool Sociological Eye,” Reporter, February 4, 1960.  (A review of Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics by Seymour Martin Lipset.)

Social Sciences and Law

– “Social Sciences and Law,” in The Great Ideas Today, ed. by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962).

The Idea of Mass Culture

– “The Idea of Mass Culture,” Yale Review, February 1962. (A review of The Political Context of Sociology by Leon Bramson.)

Murder in New Jersey

– “Murder in New Jersey,” New York Review of Books, April 16, 1964. (A review of Doe Day: The Antlerless Deer Controversy in New Jersey by Paul Tillett.)
Excerpt: Paul Tillett’s Doe Day has a far more modest compass, and in it science suffers no such interesting and ironic reversals. But it, too, is enlightening in a way that few works of… More

What Is the Public Interest?

– "What Is the Public Interest?" (with Daniel Bell), The Public Interest, Fall 1965.
Excerpt: The aim of THE PUBLIC INTEREST is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking… More

The Troublesome Intellectuals

– "The Troublesome Intellectuals," The Public Interest, Winter 1966.
Excerpt: The American intellectual has not yet been favored with tax loopholes, nor has he been supplied with his own official depreciation schedule; but in every other respect he is now… More

Who’s in Charge Here?

– “Who's in Charge Here?” Fortune, November 1967. (A review of The Power Structure by Arnold Rose.)

The Don Comes Up Like Thunder

– “The Don Comes Up Like Thunder,” Washington Post, August 25, 1968. (A review of A Runaway World? by Edmund Leach.)

In Search of the Missing Social Indicator

– “In Search of the Missing Social Indicator,” Fortune, August 1969. (A review of Toward a Social Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

Barbarians from Within

– “Barbarians from Within,” Fortune, March 1970. (A review of Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today by Daniel Boorstin.)

A University’s Business

– “A University's Business” (A reply to a letter), New York Times Magazine, April 19, 1970.

From Priorities to Goals

– "From Priorities to Goals," The Public Interest, Summer 1971.
Excerpt: Controversies over matters of political philosophy, since they are controversies over fundamental beliefs, are exceedingly dangerous for any nation. They certainly ought not to… 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

World Perspective

– “World Perspective” (Interview with Boardroom Reports), February 15, 1975.

The High Cost of Equality

– “The High Cost of Equality,” Fortune, November 1975. (A review of Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff by Arthur Okun.)

Toward a “New” Economics

– “Toward a 'New' Economics,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1977.
Excerpt: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the fact that, for the first time in half a century, it is the economic philosophy of conservatives that is showing signs of… More

Professors, Politicians and Public Policy

– Professors, Politicians and Public Policy: A Round Table Held on July 29, 1977 (AEI Forum No. 10), ed. John Charles Daly (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).

Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution

– "Some Personal Reflections on Economic Well-Being and Income Distribution," in The American Economy in Transition, ed. Martin Feldstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
Excerpt: It is my understanding, from surveying various studies of trends in income distribution in the United States over the past three decades, that economists have found very little… More

Rationalism in Economics

– "Rationalism in Economics," The Public Interest, Special Issue 1980.
Excerpt: IT is widely conceded that something like a “crisis in economic theory” exists, but there is vehement disagreement about the extent and nature of this crisis. The more… More

Ideology and Supply-Side Economics

– "Ideology & Supply-Side Economics," Commentary, April 1981.
Excerpt: The terms being applied—by the media, by politicians, by economists—to President Reagan’s economic program, and most particularly to the tax-cutting aspect of this program,… More

The Dubious Science

– “The Dubious Science,” The New Republic, June 6, 1983. (A review of Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics by Lester Thurow.)

The State of the Union

– “The State of the Union,” The New Republic, October 29, 1984. (A review of The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong by Ben Wattenberg.)

Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest

– "Skepticism, Meliorism and The Public Interest," The Public Interest, Fall, 1985.
Excerpt: Indeed, The Public Interest has always emphasized the modestly positive along with the skeptical. Ours has always really been a meliorist frame of mind. The world is not coming to… More

On the Character of American Political Order

– “On the Character of American Political Order,” In The Promise of American Politics: Principles and Practice after Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert Utley (New York: University Press of America, 1989).

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

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).

A Third Cheer for Capitalism

– Irwin Stelzer, "A Third Cheer for Capitalism," in The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol, ed. Christopher DeMuth and William Kristol, (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995).

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea

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

An Autobiographical Memoir

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

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 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

Conflicts That Can’t Be Resolved

– "Conflicts That Can't Be Resolved," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Peace processes are proliferating all over the world, along with the violence that gave birth to them. There is the Middle East peace process, of course, but peace processes are… More

Arguing the World

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

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words, ed. Joseph Dorman (New York: Free Press, 2000). (Transcript of TV interviews from 1998.)

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

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

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

The Godfather, R.I.P.

– Myron Magnet, "The Godfather, R.I.P.," City Journal, September 18, 2009.
Excerpt: His own world-historically influential magazine, The Public Interest, bore Irving’s stamp of practicality and realism, indeed of realpolitik. It aimed, through its hard-headed… More

Three Cheers for Irving by David Brooks

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

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 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 Interested Man

– Nathan Glazer, "The Interested Man," The New Republic, November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: I think back to these early days because it seems to me that Irving was all of a piece, almost from the beginning. No comment on his passing has failed to mention the young… More

Two Cheers for Philanthropy

– Leslie Lenkowsky, "Two Cheers for Philanthropy," Philanthropy, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: In philanthropy as in much else of American life, however, the 1960s challenged older patterns. For foundations, this meant that efforts to change public policy, empower… 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

The Neoconservative Persuasion

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

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

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

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