Irving Kristol

Introduction

Irving William Kristol (January 20, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was a prominent American essayist, editor, and publisher, best known for his instrumental role in shaping the neoconservative movement in the United States.  

Born to Jewish immigrants, Irving Kristol spent his formative years in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the City College of New York (CCNY), where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1940. During his college years, Kristol was an anti-Stalinist leftist and an active member of the Trotskyist Young People’s Socialist League. It was during this time that he encountered Gertrude Himmelfarb, a future renowned historian, and the two married in 1942. Following his service in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, Kristol began his editorial career, contributing to Commentary, a liberal anticommunist journal. Kristol eventually became managing editor of Commentary. 

Seeking a change of scenery, Kristol co-founded Encounter, a London-based political and literary journal, in 1953. Upon his return to the United States, he continued his editorial pursuits, serving as editor of The Reporter and later assuming a pivotal role at Basic Books, Inc. 

Ideas and Influence

Kristol’s intellectual legacy is closely intertwined with his role in co-founding The Public Interest in 1965 alongside sociologist Daniel Bell. This journal evolved into a flagship publication of the burgeoning neoconservative movement. While initially positioned as a nonideological platform for domestic-policy analysis, it gradually assumed a more skeptical stance toward liberal social reform projects, epitomized by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society initiatives. 

Kristol’s ideological convictions encompassed both domestic and foreign policy realms. He championed pragmatic solutions over radical reforms and defended New Deal programs, such as Social Security. He critiqued what he perceived as the moral consequences of liberal radicalism, arguing that it led to alienation and moral decay among American youth. Kristol’s advocacy for supply-side economics, emphasizing lower taxes to stimulate economic growth, left an enduring mark on American economic policy, particularly during the Reagan era.