“The Essential Neoconservative Reader”, edited by Mark Gerson, forward by James Q. Wilson

 

496 pages, Basic Books, ISBN-13: 978-0201479683

Dare I? Do I have the guts to review a book called The Essential Neoconservative Reader? After all, Neocons have not fared well in the last several years, being hated by many on both left and right. Indeed, I suspect that most people who identify themselves as Conservative (note the capital “C”) have not read anything by Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Nathan Glazer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Gertrude Himmelfarb or James Q. Wilson, and I doubt that any of these articles played any major role in shaping the policy of Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney et al.

But it was not always so, as this book captures the drama and historical importance of Neoconservatism’s 30 year rise from 1965 to 1995, when this book was published. The word “Neoconservative” was first used as a term of derision for disgruntled ex-liberals of the 1960s, and so, perhaps because of this, there has never been a central credo or organization unifying neoconservatism as a movement, like there was with just your average run-of-the-mill Conservatism of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review, for instance. With this collection, however, Neoconservatism is cast in a new light, portrayed as a comprehensive outlook on economics, politics, society and culture, linked by common principles and a distinctive vision. So please, stop with the hatin’.