Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

Today, Irving Kristol died at the age of 89 in Arlington, Virginia. The New York Times obituary calls him the “Godfather of Conservatism;” the Washington Post’s obit is headlined “Architect of Neoconservatism.” Either way, there is no disputing that Kristol was the most potent force behind the most profound shift of the last half-century in American politics: the exodus of a large number of once-liberal (and in some cases once-radical) intellectuals (many, though not all, from New York and Jewish) to the conservative cause, especially in foreign policy. Adam Bernstein’s Post obituary ably describes Kristol’s career and his influence on American intellectual history.