I’m very sad to hear that Midge Decter has died.

I’m sure others will post their own memories of her. I was introduced to her very briefly — and for her, likely forgettably — at the 2006 Philadelphia Society, an occasion that turned into an astonishingly fun row over the Right’s foreign policy. Decter was a fierce advocate of American power. Over that weekend, which was hot with anger, and the beginning of the recriminations that would stalk the American Right for a decade, she was graceful and revered. I recall only that she inspired men who saw her as an ideological rival within the Right to behave like gentlemen around her.

Decter was not just one of the greatest writers and social critics on the American right. She was one of America’s greatest writers and social critics. I highly recommend her essays at Commentary. Try “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” Or “How the Rioters Won.”

Pray for consolation for her husband, Norman Podhoretz, and the entire extended Podhoretz and Blum families.