My parents were FDR Democrats who were long time readers of The New Republic. I remember quite well when they decided not to renew their subscription. I was around 18 then and would flip through...
My parents were FDR Democrats who were long time readers of The New Republic. I remember quite well when they decided not to renew their subscription. I was around 18 then and would flip through it when I saw it, and I recall being somewhat baffled as to why a supposedly liberal publication seemed to spend all of its time promoting conservative to reactionary causes and insulting Jimmy Carter.
From the article: Marty Peretz was a Harvard University professor of government, and the owner of the influential political journal, The New Republic from 1974 to 2009, and Editor-in-Chief until...
From the article:
In The Controversialist, Peretz recounts his ups and downs with a certain knowingness that can be, at times, candid or evasive, boastful or apologetic. Peretz tells his story in the irascible, self-pitying, blunt voice of an octogenarian gearing up for the Seinfeld-ian ritual of Festivus, where he can shout out all his grievances. Beginning with his hothouse upbringing in an argumentative and often abusive household in the Bronx in the 1940s, and continuing with his emergence as a wealthy supporter of radical causes during the heady 1960s and his political U-turn toward neoliberal disillusionment in the last quarter of the 20th century, The Controversialist offers a portrait not just of Peretz’s own ideological and social trajectory but also of the long shadow he cast over American political culture as one of the most pivotal liberal figures in the second half of the 20th century. For better and (often) for worse, Peretz has been a force in American life for decades, and his story is not just of one man but of a politics, and an elite, that has never quite been able to come to terms with its culpability for triggering the ever-widening crises of the 21st century.
Marty Peretz was a Harvard University professor of government, and the owner of the influential political journal, The New Republic from 1974 to 2009, and Editor-in-Chief until 2012. Peretz was one of the figures driving the U.S. turn towards neoliberal economics (particularly within the Democratic Party) and return to racially-biased anti-egalitarianism.
An essay in the remaining left-leaning political journal, The Nation, described The New Republic as follows:
the magazine promoted many of the worst decisions in modern American history–the killing fields in 1980s Central America, the invasion of Iraq, the downgrading of diplomacy in preference to military solutions in foreign policy, the neoliberal economics that has fueled inequality and instability, the brutalization of the Palestinians, the revival of scientific racism, and the persistent whittling-down of the welfare state.
I'm not usually a fan of autobiography, especially from rich self-promoters, but this is likely to be an interesting travelogue of left-to-right and maybe back again, too late for anything but regrets.
My parents were FDR Democrats who were long time readers of The New Republic. I remember quite well when they decided not to renew their subscription. I was around 18 then and would flip through it when I saw it, and I recall being somewhat baffled as to why a supposedly liberal publication seemed to spend all of its time promoting conservative to reactionary causes and insulting Jimmy Carter.
From the article:
Marty Peretz was a Harvard University professor of government, and the owner of the influential political journal, The New Republic from 1974 to 2009, and Editor-in-Chief until 2012. Peretz was one of the figures driving the U.S. turn towards neoliberal economics (particularly within the Democratic Party) and return to racially-biased anti-egalitarianism.
An essay in the remaining left-leaning political journal, The Nation, described The New Republic as follows:
I'm not usually a fan of autobiography, especially from rich self-promoters, but this is likely to be an interesting travelogue of left-to-right and maybe back again, too late for anything but regrets.