By standing boldly for what he believed in, he helped shape the course of the 20th century.
So much will be written about the towering legacy of Norman Podhoretz in the wake of his death this week that it seems almost fatuous for me to attempt a tribute. We weren’t closely acquainted, and by the time I was born he had already stepped down as the editor of Commentary. In 2021, however, I had the privilege of speaking to him over Zoom. I was interviewing him for a profile that would be published a few weeks later, but for the more than two hours we spent together, I could easily have been listening to a grandparent share the sort of knowledge that is only gained from a life enviably well-lived.
I still think about that call frequently. I feel uniquely privileged to have experienced it in part because few members of my generation were able to meet Podhoretz. But beyond that, I have had few conversations that were equally fascinating.
What struck me immediately about Podhoretz was that he had lost none of his verbal agility. He spoke candidly, in elegant sentences that could have been taken directly from a book. He was one of the last surviving observers of some of the 20th century’s most significant events in American high culture, and he could describe them in detail without as much as a stumble.
We talked about the raucous gatherings hosted by the New York intellectuals that attracted luminaries in art and politics. He shared stories of friendship and feuds with the likes of Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley Jr. And he recalled his attendance at Truman Capote’s famous Black and White Ball in 1966, where he mingled with the Rat Pack, Andy Warhol, and Italian royalty in the span of one especially lavish evening.
In retrospect, he seemed more embarrassed by the excess of the ’60s than proud of his participation in it. There was no pretension to Podhoretz, and his intellectual seriousness was tempered by an understated sense of humor.
Podhoretz’s journey was defined by transformation. He was a scholar of literature who became renowned for political commentary; a left-winger with a revolutionary streak who shaped the evolution of neoconservatism; an impoverished child who joined the cultural elite. He saw his remarkable life story as uniquely American, and he adored the United States with an almost religious zeal.
Podhoretz’s greatest fear was that a rise in anti-American sentiment would lead the country to unravel if left unchecked. On our call, he told me such decline was already apparent in New York City, which had suffered from deleterious policy decisions and hapless political leadership throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the long, hot summer of George Floyd riots. As the Big Apple braces for the cold grip of socialism, it’s a tragedy that we can only imagine the sort of perfectly pointed wordsmithery that Podhoretz would employ to skewer Zohran Mamdani.
Far less imagination is needed, however, to picture what Podhoretz would write about America’s continuing slouch toward self-hatred. In the face of our current cultural iconoclasm, he would affirm that our nation is worth defending; that its systems and values have been uniquely conducive to human flourishing; and that his parents’ decision to immigrate to it allowed him to live “the best life I think I could possibly have had,” as he once told the Claremont Review of Books.
As the left became increasingly radical in the ’60s, Podhoretz’s wholehearted love of everything American pulled him toward the right and guided the course of the rest of his life. Podhoretz stood boldly for what he believed in, regardless of what it cost him in friendships or social prestige. Judging by how contented he seemed when we spoke, that commitment to principle ultimately served him well.
Podhoretz lived a life defined by conviction. He was driven by a love of ideas and a desire to champion the ones he believed in. That intellectual work allowed him to help shape the course of the 20th century. To honor his legacy, we should take the power of ideas as seriously as he did. His own body of work is a perfect place to start.