Customer Reviews

The Norman Podhoretz Reader: A Selection of His Writings from the 1950s through the 1990s

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Norman Podhoretz Reader" is a definitive collection of essays and book excerpts from the godfather of neo-conservatism. The selections stretch back to the 1950's when he was an eager young leftist, to the 1990's when he saw many of his second thoughts about the left vindicated by history. Almost half the material in the book is from the '90's so it hasn't appeared in previous book collections of his work.

Podhoretz had his fling with antinomianism in the '50's and '60's--that is, an attitude of hostility to law. But because he was a devoted family man he was forced to reconsider the true effects of the "liberation" of those heady decades. He began so see: the bloody tyranny of utopian socialism; the monstrous arrogance of the post-war "new class" of liberal intellectuals and managers who thought they could repeal natural law and reshape human nature; the wisdom of religious thought; and the virtues of the United States as the worldwide guarantor of freedom and true liberalism.

Some of my favorite pieces in this book are; "The Know-Nothing Bohemians" where Podhoretz debunks the Beats by examining the real-world consequences of their ideas about life (he may have been too hard on them as artists, but he had a point about them as people.) "An Open Letter to Milan Kundera", a brilliant consideration of that great novelist's work. "A Foul-Weather Friend to Norman Mailer", which examines his long, complex personal relationship with that eminence. "Was Bach Jewish?", a cheeky claim on that great composer for Podhoretz's own tradition. "If Orwell Were Alive Today", which convincingly demonstrates the conservative tendencies of the author of "Animal Farm" and "1984."

Podhoretz's great gifts are his preternatural clarity of vision and hs forceful, elegant prose. Paul Johnson compares him to Orwell, and Jean-Francois Revel compares him to Emerson. Reading this book is like getting a second university liberal arts education, only this time from a professor who know what he's talking about.

This is a wonderful collection of essays and chapters from Mr. Podhoretz. Mr. Podhoretz is one of the great dissidents of the right whose stance against his `former friends' of the left has earned him a grand reputation and much critique. In this new reader you will find such wonderfully insightful essays as `My Negro Problem-and ours' as well as his views of Hannah Arendt and Eichman where he skewers her opinion that the Jews should have fought harder in WWII by showing that in fact Germany lost the war in order to `finish' the Holocaust. Here you will find the great essays and open letters where Podhoretz declares himself out to his former friends of the left and where he takes on such luminaries as Mr. Ginsberg. A fabulous collection that will be a great addition to any shelf that contains Bloom, Rand, Strauss or Horowitz.

Podhoretz is a literary and cultural critic, an autobiographer man-of- letters, and political polemicist. Most importantly he is a writer who truly stands for basic values , for truth and for goodness and for aesthetic excellence. In his long career he has been at the center of New York intellectual life.
It is possible to quarrel with many of his judgments and to find fault with many of his literary evaluations but at the same time understand that he is treating both Literature and Life with the kind of ' high seriousness' which his mentors Leavis and Trilling were forceful advocates of.
Podhoretz is a fighter who might be testy at times but whose writing truly stands for what is best in our culture.
Reading him is an education and at the same time often a very great pleasure.

Norman Podhoretz is one of the finest minds of our time. His writings on politics and literature display an unusual combination of intellectual depth and readability. A refreshing change from the current crop of political pundits who are more intested in demonizing their enemies than bringing insight to the issues confronting us.

As stated on the cover, this book Òoffers some of the best and most influential political essays written by anyone in our time.Ó The author addresses important issues and personages, and does so in an Òoffhand prose that moves easily between novelistic scene-setting and savvy exposition.Ó The book will surely find favor with thoughtful and literary readers.

Although I concur with virtually all of Mr. PodhoretzÕ conclusions (as far as they go) I find Paul JohnsonÕs introduction praising him as Òa bit of a prophetÉa purveyor of harsh and often unwelcome truthÓ, extreme. My reading of Mr. Podhoretz is the very opposite. He consistently shrinks from ÒharshÓ and Òunwelcome truthÓ preferring to follow the formulaic rules of political advantage Ð criticizing adversaries and protecting allies Ð rather than developing ideas to their logical conclusions. Had he in fact dealt with ideas strictly on their merit, Mr. Podhoretz could have been the prophet that he is praised as being.

I strongly recommend this book, but if one seeks positions beyond the confines of political correctness, he will not find them herein.

Judging from the comments of your first reviewer it's nice to see that the trendy left now openly professes it's antisemitism. Now if they could only be honest about the rest of their motivations...

Buy the book if only to p**s off the pseudo-intellectual, self-congratulatory leftists, uhh national socialists, uhh progressives or whatever else they're calling themselves this decade.

There are some books that unintentionally reveal the author to be less than what he purports to be. The Norman Podhoretz Reader is one such book. Norman Podhoretz pretends to be a sophisticated thinker, however the essays in this book reveal him to be a fairly simplistic person, at least as far as politics are concerned.

For instance, Podhoretz maintains that any and all criticism of Israel is motivated by anti-semitism. Also, he holds that criticism of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam is motivated by anti-Americanism. In other words, if you disagree with Podhoretz on the vital issues of the day, then you must have ulterior motives for doing so. Folks, this is comic book thinking.

I give this book 2 stars only because there are a number of interesting essays concerning some of Podhoretz's literary contemporaries such as Norman Mailer and Philip Roth. It is literary criticism, not political pontificating where Podhoretz's true strengths lie and unfortunately, Podhoretz's intellectual energies during the past 25 years or so have been almost entirely consumed by politics.

I've never heard of this guy nor read his works, but in certain circles he is revered, perhaps because he switched sides.

At best obscurantism; at worse literary criticism of the kind that engineers loath--that's why engineers hate the humanities.

But again, I've not read Podhoretz.