The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy

by Murray Friedman

Overview

This is the first history of the development of American Jewish political conservatism and the rise of a group of Jewish intellectuals and activists who are known as neoconservatives. It describes the growth of perhaps a dozen such figures in the 1940s and 50s, including Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer and Norman Podhoretz, to several hundred younger people such as Paul Wolfowitz, David Brooks and Charles Krauthammer who have had a powerful impact on American public policy, including the run up to and aftermath of the war in Iraq.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521545013
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/09/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.66(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Historian, social activist, and a prolific writer, Murray Friedman was appointed as vice chair of the US Civil Rights Commission in Washington, D.C. by Preisdent Ronald Reagan and acting chair following the death of the chairman. He will be honored in 2005 by Temple University which will announce the creation of the Murray Friedman Chair in American Jewish History at that time. In 2003, he served in a State Department delegation representing the US in Vienna at a Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination. Dr Friedman has written and edited numerous books including What Went Wrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black Jewish Alliance (1995), several volumes on Philadelphia history, and The Utopian Dilemma: American Jews and Public Policy. In addition, he has written articles in Commentary, The Atlantic Monthly, The Weekly Standard, and The New Republic as well as professional journals such as American Jewish History.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Jews and the making of the cosmopolitan culture; 2. The premature Jewish Neoconservatives; 3. Forgotten Jewish godfathers; 4. The Liberal civil war; 5. The modernization of American conservatism; 6. The Liberal meltdown; 7. The rise of the Neoconservatives; 8. Neoconservatives and the Reagan revolution; 9. Nicaragua: the cold war comes to this hemisphere; 10. Irving Kristol and a new vision of capitalism; 11. The Neoconservative assault on the counterculture; 12. Jews and the Christian right; 13. Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

"His book is a useful introduction to its history." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"It is an important and elegant history of how Jewish intellectuals have shaped conservative politics." Washington Examiner, Gregory L. Schneider, Emporia State University

"...a first-rate history of the neoconservative movement." Philadelphia Inquirer, Jack Fischel, Millersville University

"[Friedman's] written an engaging history of the entire post-WWII conservative movement, showing how neoconservatism and traditional conservativism...eventually intersected. And, more importantly, how the neocons played a critical role in reshaping the movement before that joining." New York Post, Eric Fettman

"Friedman's book forms a fine testament to his memory, as well as fitting legacy to the nation it reveals him to have so dearly loved."
Jewish Chronicle

“Readable and comprehensive. What distinguishes this volume from its predecessors is the greater support of attention it pays to the specifically Jewish background and concerns of some of the leading neoconservatives of both the older and the younger generations. The epilogue briefly delineates the role played by Jewish neoconservatives in the launching of the Iraq War in 2003.”
Choice

"Freedman is at his best when theorizing about why this clique of Jews might have sought so much power, developed tunnel vision in wielding of it, and courted the support of Bible-thumping Christians while tossing former allies like gays and women under the bus. Few may have noticed while the coup was occuring, but at least The Neoconservative Revolution, after the fact, relates the fascinating back story of how the prevailing American mindset has been reshaped to the point where the handling of Katrina and the unprovoked war of aggression in Iraq are no longer national disgraces but simply signs indicating that the neocon policies have been fully implemented." - Kam Williams

From the Publisher