Commentary, the seminal neoconservative magazine, has donated its archives to the University of Texas at Austin.
Founded in 1945, the New York-based magazine has played an outsized role in American intellectual life as a venue for essays on politics, culture and Jewish issues. Commentary moved rightward along with its editor Norman Podhoretz, who took the helm in 1960, and the magazine became a leading voice of the emerging neoconservative movement.
The Commentary archive that the University of Texas is receiving spans material from 1945 to 1995, including correspondence with S. Y. Agnon, Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, William F. Buckley, George Orwell, Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe.
The archive will be housed at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum that already houses the papers of a number of prominent American Jewish writers, such as Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, David Mamet, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Leon Uris.
“The early decades of Commentary, especially its first 25 years, should prove to be an invaluable resource for the social and intellectual history of the postwar years and the gradual assimilation of Jews into the mainstream of American life,” said Morris Dickstein, distinguished professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, said in a statement released by the Ransom Center on Monday.
Commentary was long published by the American Jewish Committee, though it had editorial independence. Commentary became fully independent of AJC in 2006 and is today edited by John Podhoretz, Norman’s son.
Commentary magazine donates archive to University of Texas
Jewish Journal
Commentary, the seminal neoconservative magazine, has donated its archives to the University of Texas at Austin.
Founded in 1945, the New York-based magazine has played an outsized role in American intellectual life as a venue for essays on politics, culture and Jewish issues. Commentary moved rightward along with its editor Norman Podhoretz, who took the helm in 1960, and the magazine became a leading voice of the emerging neoconservative movement.
The Commentary archive that the University of Texas is receiving spans material from 1945 to 1995, including correspondence with S. Y. Agnon, Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, William F. Buckley, George Orwell, Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe.
The archive will be housed at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum that already houses the papers of a number of prominent American Jewish writers, such as Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, David Mamet, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Leon Uris.
“The early decades of Commentary, especially its first 25 years, should prove to be an invaluable resource for the social and intellectual history of the postwar years and the gradual assimilation of Jews into the mainstream of American life,” said Morris Dickstein, distinguished professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, said in a statement released by the Ransom Center on Monday.
Commentary was long published by the American Jewish Committee, though it had editorial independence. Commentary became fully independent of AJC in 2006 and is today edited by John Podhoretz, Norman’s son.
Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.
Editor's Picks
Israel and the Internet Wars – A Professional Social Media Review
The Invisible Student: A Tale of Homelessness at UCLA and USC
What Ever Happened to the LA Times?
Who Are the Jews On Joe Biden’s Cabinet?
You’re Not a Bad Jewish Mom If Your Kid Wants Santa Claus to Come to Your House
No Labels: The Group Fighting for the Political Center
Latest Articles
Steve Garvey Holds Press Conference Calling for Action Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests
West Hollywood’s MASH Gallery Exhibition to Feature Female Jewish Art
Echad Mi Yodea? Who Knows One?
The First Alphabet and the Third Plague
A Bisl Torah – The Fifth Child
A Moment in Time: “A Week without Bread: Do we Really Kneed It?”
Culture
Beth Lee: OMG Yummy, Exciting Flavors and Preserved Lemons
Passover Breakfast
Dr. Nicole Saphier on Motherhood and Jewish Advocacy
Friendship Warms the Heart of ‘The Bespoke Overcoat’
Passover Amid Pain: Families of Hostages Mark 200 Days Since Abductions
Given the difficult times that Israelis — and Jews worldwide — are currently living through, it can be challenging to navigate the holidays
Robin Finn Helps Women Find Their Voice on the Page
“Too many women think their stories are not important or their voice doesn’t matter, which could not be further from the truth.”
MAZON Holds Its 15th Annual Hunger Seder
On April 11, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger held its 15th annual National Hunger Seder on Capitol Hill.
“Symphony of the Holocaust,” MDA Paramedic, Birthright Israel Excel Summit
Notable people and events in the Jewish LA community.
Moving from Passover to Shavuot: A Spiritual Journey
One of the most unusually gratifying rituals in modern Jewish life is what we call the Counting of the Omer.
Hollywood
Spielberg Says Antisemitism Is “No Longer Lurking, But Standing Proud” Like 1930s Germany
Young Actress Juju Brener on Her “Hocus Pocus 2” Role
Behind the Scenes of “Jeopardy!” with Mayim Bialik
Podcasts
Beth Lee: OMG Yummy, Exciting Flavors and Preserved Lemons
Shani Seidman: Manischewitz, Passover Memories and Matzo Brei
More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.