The Neoconservative Revolution
Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy

This book is the first history of the development of American Jewish political conservatism.

Murray Friedman (Author)

9780521836562, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2005

310 pages
23.3 x 16 x 2.8 cm, 0.55 kg

'One is left wondering what is 'conservative' in this revolution.' Contemporary Review

This book which will come as a surprise to many educated observers and historians suggests that Jews and Jewish intellectuals have played a considerable role in the development and shaping of modern American conservatism. The focus is on the rise of a group of Jewish intellectuals and activists known as neoconservatives who began to impact on American public policy during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and most recently in the lead up to and invasion of Iraq. It presents a portrait of the life and work of the original and small group of neocons including Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and Sidney Hook. This group has grown into a new generation who operate as columnists in conservative think tanks like The Heritage and The American Enterprise Institute, at colleges and universities, and in government in the second Bush Administration including such lightning rod figures as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Elliot Abrams. The book suggests the neo cons have been so significant in reshaping modern American conservatism and public policy that they constitute a Neoconservative Revolution.

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.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP]