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Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine

The Rise and Fall of the Neocons

Professor Nathan Abrams author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Continuum Publishing Corporation

Published:17th Mar '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine cover

A fascinating new study of the neoconservative momevent's leading thinker and magazine: Norman Podhoretz and Commentary.

A study of the neoconservative movement's leading thinker and magazine: Norman Podhoretz and "Commentary". It examines the origins, rise, and fall of neoconservatism and argues that much of what has been said about it is the result of willful distortion and exaggeration by both the neocons and their opponents.This is a fascinating new study of the neoconservative momevent's leading thinker and magazine: Norman Podhoretz and "Commentary". "Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine" is a unique study of the neoconservative movement's leading thinker and magazine: Norman Podhoretz and "Commentary". In this book, Nathan Abrams examines the origins, rise, and fall of neoconservatism and argues that much of what has been said about it in the last six years is the result of willful distortion and exaggeration by both the neocons and their opponents. With ten books and 35 years as Editor of the magazine "Commentary", Podhoretz was a powerful force who helped shape neoconservatism. In fact, neoconservatism was almost Podhoretz's personal ideology, one in which he promoted his own ideas for the future direction of America. However, in spite of being described as 'the conductor of the neocon orchestra', Podhoretz is often ignored by current assessments of the neocon movement. Based on archival and unpublished materials, including Podhoretz's private papers, this is the first detailed and critical study of neoconservatism to focus exclusively on Podhoretz and "Commentary". A notable contribution to the study of conservatism in America, this timely book will appeal to anyone who seeks to understand better the movement that has shaped contemporary American politics.

"...there is still more to say about Commentary magazine, one of the small-circulation journals with outsize influence that defined the post-World War II intellectual, political and artistic preoccupations, and about Norman Podhoretz, its larger-than-life former editor and a founder of neoconservatism."-The New York Times
"While the neoconservative movement was correctly understood as being highly influential in the second Bush administration, it remains, according to Abrams, poorly understood, in part because of willful distortion and exaggeration both by the neoconservatives themselves as well as their many enemies and detractors. He aims to improve our understanding through a case study of the movement's "foremost intellectual," Norman Podhoretz, and the magazine he edited for 35 years, Commentary. He focuses on how Commentary dealt with those issues that he argues caused Podhoretz and others to break with liberalism and become neoconservatives: Judaism and American policy towards Israel; US foreign policy and American anti-communism; and the civil rights movement and race relations, including Jewish-black relations and debates over affirmative action. He also addresses cultural issues such as homosexuality, religion and politics, feminism, and abortion, and considers the legacy of Podhoretz in terms of the moral and ethical responsibilities of the intellectual's vocation, especially when intellectuals get involved in politics." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
... a major contribution to the study of neoconservatism... -- Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol 24, No, 1

ISBN: 9781441109682

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

376 pages