Irving Kristol | |
|---|---|
 Kristolc. 1974 | |
| Born | (1920-01-22)January 22, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | September 18, 2009(2009-09-18) (aged 89) Falls Church, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | City College of New York (BA) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingBill Kristol |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Unit | 12th Armored Division |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Irving William Kristol (/ˈkrɪstəl/; January 22, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was an American journalist and writer. As a founder, editor, and contributor to various magazines, he played an influential role in the intellectual and political culture of the latter half of the twentieth century.[1] He was dubbed the "godfather ofneoconservatism".[2][3] After his death, he was described byThe Daily Telegraph as being "perhaps the most consequentialpublic intellectual of the latter half of the century".[4] He is the father ofpolitical writerBill Kristol.
Kristol was born inBrooklyn, New York City, the son of non-observantJewish immigrants fromEastern Europe, Bessie (Mailman) and Joseph Kristol.[5][6] He graduated fromBoys High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1936 and received his B.A. from theCity College of New York in 1940, where he majored in history. In college he was a member of theYoung People's Socialist League and was part of a small but vocal group ofTrotskyist anti-Soviets who later became known as theNew York Intellectuals. It was at these meetings that Kristol met historianGertrude Himmelfarb, whom he married in 1942. They had two children, Elizabeth Nelson andBill Kristol.[7][8] DuringWorld War II, he served in Europe in the12th Armored Division as a combat infantryman.[9]: 3–4
Kristol was affiliated with theCongress for Cultural Freedom. He wrote inCommentary magazine from 1947 to 1952 under the editorElliot E. Cohen (not to be confused withEliot A. Cohen, a currentCommentary contributor). WithStephen Spender, he was co-founder of and contributor to the British-basedEncounter from 1953 to 1958; editor ofThe Reporter from 1959 to 1960. He also was the executive vice-president of the publishing houseBasic Books from 1961 to 1969, the Henry Luce Professor of Urban Values atNew York University from 1969 to 1987, and co-founder and co-editor (first withDaniel Bell and thenNathan Glazer) ofThe Public Interest from 1965 to 2002. He was the founder and publisher ofThe National Interest from 1985 to 2002. FollowingRamparts' publication of information showingCentral Intelligence Agency funding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which was widely reported elsewhere, Kristol left in the late 1960s and became affiliated with theAmerican Enterprise Institute.[10]
Kristol was a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations and a fellow emeritus at theAmerican Enterprise Institute (having been an associate fellow from 1972, a senior fellow from 1977 and the John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow from 1988 to 1999). As a member of the board of contributors ofThe Wall Street Journal, he contributed a monthly column from 1972 to 1997. He served on the Council of theNational Endowment for the Humanities from 1972 to 1977.
In 1978, Kristol andWilliam E. Simon founded The Institute For Education Affairs, which as a result of a merger with theMadison Center became theMadison Center for Educational Affairs in 1990.
Kristol died from complications oflung cancer, aged 89, on September 18, 2009, at the Capital Hospice inFalls Church, Virginia.[2][11]
During the late 1960s up until the 1970s,neoconservatives were worried about theCold War and that itsliberalism was turning intoradicalism, thus many neoconservatives including Irving Kristol,Norman Podhoretz andDaniel Patrick Moynihan wanted Democrats to continue on a strong anti-communist foreign policy.[12] This foreign policy was to use Soviet human rights violations to attack the Soviet Union.[12] This later led to Nixon's policies called détente.[12] Kristol did not believe that the samecivil liberties should be granted to communists because it would be like paying "a handsome salary to someone pledged to his liquidation".[13]: 63
In 1973,Michael Harrington coined the term, "neo-conservatism", to describe thoseliberal intellectuals and political philosophers who were disaffected with the political and cultural attitudes dominating theDemocratic Party and were moving toward a new form of conservatism.[14] Intended by Harrington as a pejorative term, it was accepted by Kristol as an apt description of the ideas and policies exemplified byThe Public Interest. Unlike liberals, for example, neo-conservatives rejected most of theGreat Society programs sponsored byLyndon B. Johnson and, unlike traditional conservatives, they supported the more limited welfare state instituted byFranklin D. Roosevelt.[citation needed]
In February 1979, Kristol was featured on the cover ofEsquire. The caption identified him as "the godfather of the most powerful new political force in America – Neo-conservatism".[15] That year also saw the publication of the book,The Neo-conservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics. Like Harrington, the author,Peter Steinfels, was critical of neo-conservatism, but he was impressed by its growing political and intellectual influence. Kristol's response appeared under the title "Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed – Perhaps the Only – 'Neo-conservative'".[16]
Neo-conservatism, Kristol maintained, is not an ideology but a "persuasion", a way of thinking about politics rather than a compendium of principles and axioms.[17] It is classical, rather than romantic, in temperament and practical and anti-utopian in policy. One of Kristol's most well-known quips defines a neo-conservative as "a liberal who has been mugged by reality". These concepts lie at the core of neo-conservative philosophy to this day.[18]
While propounding the virtues ofsupply-side economics as the basis for the economic growth that is "asine qua non for the survival of a modern democracy", he also insists that any economic philosophy has to be enlarged by "political philosophy, moral philosophy, and even religious thought", which were as much thesine qua non for a modern democracy.[9]: 37
One of his early books,Two Cheers for Capitalism, asserts thatcapitalism, or more precisely,bourgeois capitalism, is worthy of two cheers. One cheer because "it works, in a quite simple, material sense" by improving the conditions of people; and a second cheer because it is "congenial to a large measure of personal liberty". He argues these are no small achievements and only capitalism has proved capable of providing them. However, it also imposes a great "psychic burden" upon the individual and the social order. Because it does not meet the individual's "'existential' human needs", it creates a "spiritual malaise" that threatens the legitimacy of that social order. As much as anything else, it is the withholding of that potential third cheer that is the distinctive mark of neo-conservatism as Kristol understood it.[19]
Regardingforeign policy Kristol said "What's the point in being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role?", adding that the USA "should play a far more dominant role in world affairs" in form of "command[s] and giving orders as to what is to be done".[20] Kristol was pessimistic about the prospects of theVietnam War, believing thatSouth Vietnam was "barely capable of decent self-government under the best of conditions. It lacks the political traditions, the educated classes, the civic spirit that makes self-government workable." Due to this the most America could hope for would be to "remove this little, backward nation from the front line of the Cold War so that it can stew quietly in its own political juice".[13]: 113
In July 2002, he received fromPresidentGeorge W. Bush thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Kristol onNeoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, September 24, 1995,C-SPAN |
Authored
Edited
Contributed
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote