The son of Julius and Helen (Woliner) Podhoretz, Jewish immigrants from the Central European region of Galicia, Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Podhoretz's family was leftist, with his elder sister joining a Socialist youth movement.
Podhoretz received Bachelor's Degrees from both Columbia University ... where he studied under Lionel Trilling ... and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He later received a BA with first-class honors and an MA from the University of Cambridge. He also served in the United States Army (1953—1955) where he worked for the U.S. Army Security Agency.
Podhoretz served as Commentary magazine's Editor-in-Chief from 1960 (when he replaced Elliot E. Cohen) until his retirement in 1995. Podhoretz remains Commentary's Editor-at-Large. In 1963, he wrote the influential essay, “ My Negro Problem — And Ours," in which he described the oppression he felt from African-Americans as a child , and concluded by calling for a color-blind society, and advocated "the wholesale merging of the two race [as] the most desirable alternative for everyone concerned."
From 1981 to 1987, Podhoretz was an adviser to the U.S. Information Agency. From 1995 to 2003, he was a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2004. The award recognized Podhoretz's intellectual contributions as editor-in-chief of Commentary magazine and as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. White House Personnel Announcement, Office of the Press Secretary, June 18, 2004.
Podhoretz is married to author Midge Decter, and is the stepfather of Rachel Decter (Elliott Abrams' wife) and father of syndicated columnist John Podhoretz.
Norman Podhoretz was one of the original signatories of the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century.
Podhoretz received the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University on May 24, 2007.
He served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani in his 2008 presidential campaign. The same year, he publicly advocated an American attack on Iran.
Podhoretz's book, Why are Jews liberals?, questions why Jews for decades have been dependable Democrats, often supporting the party by margins of better than two-to-one, even in years of Republican landslides.
In the leadup to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Podhoretz argued strongly for military intervention, claiming that Saddam Hussein posed a direct threat to the United States.After the 9/11 attack and more than a year before the start of the War in Iraq, Podhoretz wrote in February 2002 that"There is no doubt that Saddam already possesses large stores of chemical and biological weapons, and may ... be 'on the precipice of nuclear power.' ... Some urge that we ... concentrate on easier targets first. Others contend that the longer we wait, the more dangerous Saddam will grow. Yet whether or not Iraq becomes the second front in the war against terrorism, one thing is certain: there can be no victory in this war if it ends with Saddam Hussein still in power."
Iran
In 2007, Podhoretz argued that the United States should attack Iranian nuclear facilities. According to The Sunday Times, Podhoretz believes that "Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are merely different fronts of the same long war." Podhoretz describes diplomatic efforts with Iran as similar to appeasement of Nazi Germany prior to World War II. He also contends that the War on Terror is a war against Islamofascism, and constitutes World War IV (World War III having been the Cold War), and advocates the bombing of Iran to preempt Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. His book on that subject, entitled World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, was published by Doubleday on September 11, 2007.
In a more recent article, Podhoretz explicitly stated his view that Iran should be attacked: "In short, the plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force." He then went on to consider the consequences of bombing Iran:
Vietnam
In an editorial to the Wall Street Journal on the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Podhoretz contends that the retreat from Iraq should not be similar to the retreat from Vietnam. He argues that when the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam, it sacrificed its national honor.
In 1982, James Fallows wrote a review of Podhoretz's book, Why We Were in Vietnam, for the New York Times, in which he accuses Podhoretz of "changing his views" and "self-righteousness" on the subject of Vietnam, noting that in 1971 Podhoretz wrote that he would "prefer just such an American defeat to a 'Vietnamization' of the war."
A larger quote from Why We Were in Vietnam which was included in the review is as follows:
Soviet Union
In the early 1980s, Podhoretz was extremely sceptical that fundamental reform was possible in the USSR, and sharply criticized those who argued that U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union should be one of détente. In his 1980 book The Present Danger, Podhoretz predicted that the United States was in danger of losing the Cold War and falling behind the Soviet Union as a global power. Later he would express anger with President Ronald Reagan for "not establishing sufficiently strong policies toward the Soviets."
George W. Bush
Podhoretz has praised former United States President George W. Bush: "George W. Bush (is) a man who knows evil when he sees it and who has demonstrated an unfailingly courageous willingness to endure vilification and contumely in setting his face against it." He goes on to claim that Bush has been "battered more mercilessly and with less justification than any other in living memory."
Sarah Palin
In a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "In Defense of Sarah Palin," Podhoretz wrote, "I hereby declare that I would rather be ruled by the Tea Party than by the Democratic Party, and I would rather have Sarah Palin sitting in the Oval Office than Barack Obama.
1963: Hannah Arendt on Eichmann: a study in the perversity of brilliance New York: American Jewish Committee
1964: Doings and Undoings; the fifties and after in American writing. New York, Farrar, Straus (collection of essays)
1964: My Negro problem and ours New York: American Jewish Committee
1966: The Commentary reader; two decades of articles and stories, New York, Atheneum editor (collection of essays).
1967: Making It New York, Random House (autobiography) ISBN 0-394-43449-8
1967: Jewishness & the younger intellectuals; a symposium reprinted from Commentary, a journal of significant thought and opinion on Jewish affairs and contemporary issues New York: American Jewish Committee (introduction)
1979: Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir New York: Harper & Row,
1980: The Present Danger: "Do We Have the Will to Reverse the Decline of American Power?" New York: Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-671-41395-3
1981: The new defenders of capitalism Washington, D.C. : Ethics and Public Policy Center
1982: Why We Were in Vietnam New York : Simon and Schuster, (history and argument) ISBN 0-671-44578-2
1982: Congressional policy: a guide to American foreign policy and national defense Washington, D.C. : National Center for Legislative Research
1983: The present and future danger: thoughts on Soviet/American foreign policy Washington, D.C.: National Center for Legislative Research
1984: State of world Jewry address, 1983 New York : 92nd Street Y,
1986: Terrorism...Reagan's response Coral Gables, FL : North-South Center, University of Miami, Working Paper, Soviet and East European Studies Program (transcript of a debate with William Maynes, Jiri Valenta)
1986: The Bloody Crossroads: Where Literature and Politics Meet New York : Simon and Schuster, (collection of essays) ISBN 0-671-61891-1
1989: Israel, a lamentation from the future Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec; Dawn Pub. Co.,
1999: Ex-Friends: Falling Out With Allen Ginsberg, Lionel & Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer New York,: Free Press, (memoir) ISBN 1-893554-17-1
2000: My Love Affair With America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative New York: Free Press,(autobiography) ISBN 1-893554-41-4
2002: The Prophets: Who They Were, What They Are New York: Free Press, (about the classical Hebrew prophets) ISBN 0-7432-1927-9
2003: The Norman Podhoretz Reader: A Selection of His Writings from the 1950s through the 1990s, New York: Free Press, edited by Thomas L. Jeffers; foreword by Paul Johnson ISBN 0-7432-3661-0
2005: The Bush doctrine: what the President said and what it means Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation
2007: World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism New York: Doubleday ISBN 0-385-52221-5
Abrams, Nathan. Norman Podhoretz and Commentary magazine: The rise and fall of the neocons, Continuum, 2010.
Bloom, Alexander. Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals & Their World, Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN 978-0-19-505177-3
Jeffers, Thomas L. Norman Podhoretz: A Biography (Cambridge University Press; 2010) 393 pages
Winchell, Mark Royden . Neoconservative criticism: Norman Podhoretz, Kenneth S. Lynn, and Joseph Epstein, Twayne Publishers, 1991. Twayne's United States authors series
Primary sources
"Norman Podhoretz" New York : American Jewish Committee, Oral History Library, Transcript of an interview conducted by Jill Levine, Dec. 2, 1980 and Jan. 8, July 22, 1981.
