Description

Struggling for Empire is a unique study of the neoconservative movement's leading thinker and magazine: Norman Podhoretz and Commentary. In this book, Nathan Abrams examines the origins, rise, and fall of neoconservatism and argues that much of what has been said about it in the last six years is the result of willful distortion and exaggeration by both the neocons and their opponents. The main goal of this critical and balanced survey is to dispel misconceptions of what the much widely used and abused term "neocon" actually refers to. Norman Podhoretz (b. 1930) was one of the neocon movement's leading intellectuals. With ten books and 35 years as Editor of the magazine Commentary, Podhoretz was a powerful force who helped shape neoconservatism. In fact, neoconservatism was almost Podhoretz's personal ideology, one in which he promoted his own ideas for the future direction of America. However, in spite of being described as "the conductor of the neocon orchestra," Podhoretz is often ignored by current assessments of the neocon movement. A fair examination of his work, as done in Struggling for Empire, will foster better understanding of the roots, concepts, and intellectual background of the movement. The book is also unique in that it is the first complete study to cover the years 1960 to the present of Commentary, puncturing, where necessary, some of the mythology that surrounds the flagship neocon magazine. Based on archival and unpublished materials, including Podhoretz's private papers, Struggling for Empire is the first detailed and critical study of neoconservatism to focus exclusively on Podhoretz and Commentary. A notable contribution to the study of conservatism in America, this timely book will appeal to anyone who seeks to understand better the movement that has shaped contemporary American politics.