Podhoretz, Norman

Podhoretz, Norman, 1930–, American editor and essayist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. As editor in chief (1960–95) of Commentary, he turned the Jewish monthly into an influential forum for social criticism and American neoconservatism. He subsequently became a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank. He has written several memoirs, including Making It (1967), which traces his rise to power among New York intellectuals, and Breaking Ranks (1979), which explains his switch from liberalism to neoconservatism. The Norman Podhoretz Reader (2004, ed. by T. L. Jeffers) compiles selections from his writings.