Download or read book Norman Podhoretz written by Thomas L. Jeffers and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-14 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first biography of the Jewish-American intellectual Norman Podhoretz, longtime editor of the influential magazine Commentary. As both an editor and a writer, he spearheaded the countercultural revolution of the 1960s and - after he "broke ranks" - the neoconservative response. For years he defined what was at stake in the struggle against communism; recently he has nerved America for a new struggle against jihadist Islam; always he has given substance to debates over the function of religion, ethics, and the arts in our society. The turning point of his life occurred, at the age of forty near a farmhouse in upstate New York, in a mystic clarification. It compelled him to "unlearn" much that he had earlier been taught to value, and it also made him enemies. Revealing the private as well as the public man, Thomas L. Jeffers chronicles a heroically coherent life.
Download or read book World War IV written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost half a century—as a magazine editor and as the author of numerous bestselling books and hundreds of articles—Norman Podhoretz has helped drive the central political and intellectual debates in this country. Now, in this provocative and powerfully argued book, he takes on the most controversial issue of our time—the war against the global network of terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.
Download or read book Making It written by Norman Podhoretz and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial memoir about American intellectual life and academia and the relationship between politics, money, and education. Norman Podhoretz, the son of Jewish immigrants, grew up in the tough Brownsville section of Brooklyn, attended Columbia University on a scholarship, and later received degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Cambridge University. Making It is his blistering account of fighting his way out of Brooklyn and into, then out of, the Ivory Tower, of his military service, and finally of his induction into the ranks of what he calls “the Family,” the small group of left-wing and largely Jewish critics and writers whose opinions came to dominate and increasingly politicize the American literary scene in the fifties and sixties. It is a Balzacian story of raw talent and relentless and ruthless ambition. It is also a closely observed and in many ways still-pertinent analysis of the tense and more than a little duplicitous relationship that exists in America between intellect and imagination, money, social status, and power. The Family responded to the book with outrage, and Podhoretz soon turned no less angrily on them, becoming the fierce neoconservative he remains to this day. Fifty years after its first publication, this controversial and legendary book remains a riveting autobiography, a book that can be painfully revealing about the complex convictions and needs of a complicated man as well as a fascinating and essential document of mid-century American cultural life.
Download or read book Why Are Jews Liberals written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of World War IV, a brilliant investigation of a central question in American politics and culture. During his career as a neoconservative thinker, Norman Podhoretz has been asked no question more often than “Why are so many Jews liberals?” In this provocative book he sets out to solve this puzzle. He first offers a fascinating account of anti-Semitism in the West to show the historical roots of Jewish mistrust of the right. But, Podhoretz argues, since the Six Day War of 1967 Jewish allegiance to the left no longer makes sense, and yet most Jews continue supporting the Democratic Party and the liberal agenda. Reviewing the history of Jewish political attitudes and examining the available evidence, Podhoretz argues against the conventional explanations for Jewish liberalism—finally proposing his own.
Download or read book Ex Friends written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-05-13 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer -- all are ex-friends of Norman Podhoretz, the renowned editor and critic and leading member of the group of New York intellectuals who came to be known as "the Family." As only a family member could, Podhoretz tells the story of these friendships, once central to his life, and shows how the political and cultural struggles of the past fifty years made them impossible to sustain. With wit, piercing insight, and startling honesty, we are introduced as never before to a type of person for whom ideas were often matters of life and death, and whose passing from the scene has left so large a gap in American culture. Podhoretz was the trailblazer of the now-famous journey of a number of his fellow intellectuals from radicalism to conservatism -- a journey through which they came to exercise both cultural and political influence far beyond their number. With this fascinating account of his once happy and finally troubled relations with these cultural icons, Podhoretz helps us understand why that journey was undertaken and just how consequential it became. In the process we get a brilliantly illuminating picture of the writers and intellectuals who have done so much to shape our world. Combining a personal memoir with literary, social, and political history, this unique gallery of stern and affectionate portraits is as entertaining as a novel and at the same time more instructive about postwar American culture than a formal scholarly study. Interwoven with these tales of some of the most quixotic and scintillating of contemporary American thinkers are themes that are introduced, developed, and redeveloped in a variety of contexts, with each appearance enriching the others, like a fugue in music. It is all here: the perversity of brilliance; the misuse of the mind; the benightedness of people usually considered especially enlightened; their human foibles and olympian detachment; the rigors to be endured and the prizes to be won and the prices to be paid for the reflective life. Most people live their lives in a very different way, and at one point, in a defiantly provocative defense of the indifference shown to the things by which intellectuals are obsessed, Norman Podhoretz says that Socrates' assertion that the unexamined life was not worth living was one of the biggest lies ever propagated by a philosopher. And yet, one comes away from Ex-Friends feeling wistful for a day when ideas really mattered and when there were people around who cared more deeply about them than about anything else. Reading of a time when the finest minds of a generation regularly gathered in New York living rooms to debate one another with an articulateness, a passion, and a level of erudition almost extinct, we come to realize how enviable it can be to live a life as poignantly and purposefully examined as Norman Podhoretz's is in Ex-Friends.
Download or read book My Love Affair with America written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-02-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this touching and delightful memoir, Norman Podhoretz charts the ups and downs of his lifelong love affair with his native land, and warns that to turn against America, from the Right no less than from the Left, is to fall into the rankest ingratitude. While telling the story of how he himself grew up to be a fervent patriot, one of this country's leading conservative thinkers urges his fellow conservatives to rediscover and reclaim their faith in America. A superb storyteller, Podhoretz takes us from his childhood as a working-class kid in Brooklyn during the Great Depression -- the son of Jewish immigrants singing Catholic hymns in a public school staffed by Irish spinsters and duking it out on the streets with his black and Italian classmates -- to his later education, his shifting political alliances, and his arrival at a happy personal and intellectual resolution. My Love Affair with America shows us a gentler and funnier Podhoretz than readers have seen before. At the same time, it presents a picture of someone eager to proclaim, against all comers, that America represents one of the high points in the history of human civilizations. In this powerful, elegantly written, and poignant cautionary tale, Podhoretz pleads with his fellow conservatives not to fall, as some have lately done, into their own special brand of anti-Americanism, as he reminds them of the disastrous consequences that followed the assault by the New Left against the United States in decades gone by. Warm in feeling and brilliantly perceptive, My Love Affair with America points the way back to a thoroughly unabashed love of country -- the kind of patriotism that has rarely been encountered in recent years and that is as invigorating as it is inspiring.
Download or read book Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine written by Nathan Abrams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does the term "neoconservative" mean? Who are we talking about and where did they come from? Abrams answers those very questions through a detailed and critical study of neoconservatism's leading thinker, Norman Podhoretz, and the magazine he edited for 35 years, Commentary. Podhoretz has been described as "the conductor of the neocon orchestra" and through Commentary Podhoretz powerfully shaped neoconservatism. Rich in research, the book is based upon a wide range of sources, including archival and other material never before published in the context of Commentary magazine, including Podhoretz's private papers. It argues that much of what has been said about neoconservatism is the product of willful distortion and exaggeration both by the neoconservatives themselves and their many enemies. From this unique perspective, Abrams examines the origins, rise, and fall of neoconservatism. In understanding Podhoretz, a figure often overlooked, this book sheds light on the origins, ideas, and intellectual pedigree of neoconservatism.
Download or read book Breaking Ranks written by Norman Podhoretz and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1979 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Prophets written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical reinterpretation of the biblical prophets by one of America's most provocative critics reveals the eternal beauty of their language and the enduring resonance of their message. Long before Norman Podhoretz became one of the intellectual leaders of American neoconservatism, he was a student of Hebrew literature and a passionate reader of the prophets of the Old Testament. Returning to them after fifty years, he has produced something remarkable: an entirely new perspective on some of the world's best-known works. Or, rather, three new perspectives. The first is a fascinating account of the golden age of biblical prophecy, from the eighth to the fifth century B.C.E., and its roots in earlier ages of the ancient Israelite saga. Thus, like large parts of the Bible itself, The Prophets is a history of the Near East from the point of view of a single nation, covering not only what is known about the prophets themselves -- including Elijah, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel -- but also the stories of King David, King Saul, and how the ancient Israelites were affected by the great Near Eastern empires that surrounded them. Layered into this work of history is a piece of extraordinary literary criticism. Podhoretz's very close reading of the verse and imagery used by the biblical prophets restores them to the top reaches of the poetic pantheon, for these books contain, unequivocally, some of the greatest poetry ever written. The historical chronicle and the literary criticism will transport readers to a time that is both exotic and familiar and, like any fine work of history or literature, will evoke a distinct and original world. But the third perspective of The Prophets is that of moral philosophy, and it serves to bring the prophets' message into the twenty-first century. For to Norman Podhoretz, the real relevance of the prophets today is more than the excitement of their history or the beauty of their poetry: it is their message. Podhoretz sees, in the words of the biblical prophets, a war being waged, a war against the sin of revering anything made by the hands of man -- in short, idolatry. In their relentless battle against idolatry, Podhoretz finds the prophets' most meaningful and enduring message: a stern warning against the all-consuming worship of self that is at least as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was three thousand years ago. The Prophets will earn the respect of biblical scholars and the fascinated attention of general readers; its observations will be equally valued by believers and nonbelievers, by anyone with spiritual yearnings. Learned, provocative, and beautifully written, The Prophets is a deeply felt, deeply satisfying work that is at once history, literary criticism, and moral philosophy -- a tour de force.
Download or read book Exit Right written by Daniel Oppenheimer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative look at the evolution of America’s political soul through the lives of six political figures who abandoned the left and joined the right—“thoughtful…engaging…political history at a very high level…and the pages fly by” (The New Republic). From the 1950s to the early 2000s millions of Americans moved left to right politically—a shift that forever changed the country. In Exit Right, Daniel Oppenheimer takes us from the height of the Communist Party’s popularity in America in the 1920s and 30s, through the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and up through conservative resurgence of the 80s, before ending with 9/11 and the dawn of the Iraq War. Throughout, he tells the stories of six major political figures whose lives spanned these turbulent times and whose changing politics reshaped the American soul: Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Ronald Reagan, Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz, and Christopher Hitchens. As he maps out the paths that these six individuals have taken to conservatism, Oppenheimer explores the questions of why and how we come to believe politically at all. How do we come to trust one set of truths, or one set of candidates, or associate with one crowd of people—over all other alternatives? Exit Right is an “absorbing” (The Atlantic) look at the roots of American politics. This is a book that will resonate with readers on the left and the right—as well as those stuck somewhere in the middle. Through six dramatic transformations of six enthralling characters, Oppenheimer “writes with the assurance and historical command of someone who has been thinking about his topic for a long time” (The New Yorker).
Download or read book Why We Were in Vietnam written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 1982 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norman Podhoretz retells the story of how and why the United States went to war in Vietnam and how and why it was driven out. Highlighting the major turning points of the war, Podhoretz takes us on a fascinating journey through the entire series of ideas, policies and decisions that led to America's escalating involvement and eventual defeat. He also reviews the ideas of people who called those decisions immoral or criminal, as well as the arguments of those who at first supported the war and then turned against it. (from book jacket)
Download or read book The Bloody Crossroads written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 1986 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's most outspoken neoconservative intellectual, Norman Podhoretz examines the political implications of literary works and the literary dimensions of political ones. Here, in a gathering of controversial essays, he evaluates the political relevance of such writers as Orwell, Camus, Solzhenitsyn, and Kissinger, and explores the literary and cultural dimensions of the struggle between totalitarianism and the democratic West. Podhoretz stresses the autonomy of literature and politics, and does not permit political criticism to obscure literary merit, or literary merit to blunt political criticism. He explains why Arthur Koestler's The God That Failed failed; maintains that Henry Adams merits his recent obscurity; admires Kissinger's memoirs; discusses the politicization in America of Milan Kundera's work; and suggests that if Orwell were alive today, he would take his stand with the neoconservatives. ISBN 0-671-61891-1 : $16.95.
Download or read book The Norman Podhoretz Reader written by Norman Podhoretz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five decades worth of the best work of one of America's great men of letters--including excerpts from his full-length books, literary criticism, and political commentary.
Download or read book Marjorie Morningstar written by Herman Wouk and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now hailed as a "proto-feminist classic" (Vulture), Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk's powerful coming-of-age novel about an ambitious young woman pursuing her artistic dreams in New York City has been a perennial favorite since it was first a bestseller in the 1950s. A starry-eyed young beauty, Marjorie Morgenstern is nineteen years old when she leaves home to accept the job of her dreams--working in a summer-stock company for Noel Airman, its talented and intensely charismatic director. Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest--and the most destructive--love of her life. Rich with humor and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. "I read it and I thought, 'Oh, God, this is me.'" --Scarlet Johansson
Download or read book Running Commentary written by Benjamin Balint and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the years of cultural and political ferment following World War II, a new generation of Jewish- American writers and thinkers arose to make an indelible mark on American culture. Commentary was their magazine; the place where they and other politically sympathetic intellectuals -- Hannah Arendt, Saul Bellow, Lionel Trilling, Alfred Kazin, James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick and many others -- shared new work, explored ideas, and argued with each other. Founded by the offspring of immigrants, Commentary began life as a voice for the marginalized and a feisty advocate for civil rights and economic justice. But just as American culture moved in its direction, it began -- inexplicably to some -- to veer right, becoming the voice of neoconservativism and defender of the powerful. This lively history, based on unprecedented access to the magazine's archives and dozens of original interviews, provocatively explains that shift while recreating the atmosphere of some of the most exciting decades in American intellectual life.
Download or read book Lionel Trilling and the Critics written by John Rodden and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lionel Trilling and the Critics provides a comprehensive portrait of Lionel Trilling, perhaps the most influential American cultural critic of the twentieth century. The contributors are a who?s who of Anglo-American intellectuals from the 1930s through the 1970s. They include Edmund Wilson, Robert Penn Warren, F. R. Leavis, Leslie Fiedler, R. W. B. Lewis, R. P. Blackmur, Irving Howe, Irving Kristol, Raymond Williams, Norman Podhoretz, Gertrude Himmelfarb, William Barrett, Bruno Bettelheim, Gerald Graff, and Cornel West.
Download or read book Hell of a Ride written by John Podhoretz and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a White House MASH written by a Reagan-Bush staffer/speechwriter who saw it all--clueless president, witless sycophants, panicked encumbents, soon to be out on the street. Only a true story of high power at a very low ebb could be this funny.
