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Irving Kristol

Irving KristolBorn: 1920
Birthplace: New York City

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Columnist, Author

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Influential neocon

Military service: US Army

Irving Kristol began his political life as a member of the Young People's Socialist League in the 1930s. He considered himself a Trotskyist throughout his years as an undergrad at the City College of New York. But sometime after graduation, he experienced a complete and total change of heart. Kristol described himself as "a liberal who was mugged by reality."

He helped to found what would be called the Neoconservative movement, a radical organization whose goals he would ultimately describe as: "to convert the Republican Party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy."

In 1953 England, Kristol founded the magazine Encounter, secretly funded with seed money from the CIA by way of the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

Father: Joseph Kristol
Wife: Gertrude Himmelfarb (historian, m. 1942, one son, one daughter)
Son: Bill Kristol (editor of The Weekly Standard)

    High School: Boys' High, Brooklyn, NY
    University: BA History, City College of New York (1940)

    American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, 1972-
    American Council of Trustees and Alumni National Council; Donors Working Group
    American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow, 1977-
    American Enterprise Institute John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow, 1988-99
    Council on Foreign Relations
    Committee for the Free World
    Coalition for a Democratic Majority
    Institute for Educational Affairs Co-Founder
    Jewish Policy Center Board of Fellows
    National Association of Scholars Advisory board member
    Project for the New American Century
    Young People's Socialist League
    Commentary Magazine Managing Editor (1947-52)
    Encounter Co-Founder and Editor (1953-58)
    The National Interest Founder and Publisher (1985-2002)
    The Public Interest Co-editor (1965-2002)
    The Reporter Editor (1959-60)
    The Wall Street Journal Board of Contributors (1972-)
    Presidential Medal of Freedom 9-Jul-2002

Author of books:
On the Democratic Idea in America (1972, nonfiction)
Two Cheers for Capitalism (1978, nonfiction)
The Crisis in Economic Theory (1981, nonfiction, with Daniel Bell)
Reflections of a Neoconservative: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (1983, nonfiction)
Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea (1995, essays)



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