to be featured on book tv this weekend

Running Commentary:
The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right
by Benjamin Balint

From the Publisher

In the years of cultural and political ferment following World War II, a new generation of Jewish- American writers and thinkers arose to make an indelible mark on American culture. Commentary was their magazine; the place where they and other politically sympathetic intellectuals—Hannah Arendt, Saul Bellow, Lionel Trilling, Alfred Kazin, James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick and many others—shared new work, explored ideas, and argued with each other.

Founded by the offspring of immigrants, Commentary began life as a voice for the marginalized and a feisty advocate for civil rights and economic justice. But just as American culture moved in its direction, it began—inexplicably to some—to veer right, becoming the voice of neoconservativism and defender of the powerful.

This lively history, based on unprecedented access to the magazine’s archives and dozens of original interviews, provocatively explains that shift while recreating the atmosphere of some of the most exciting decades in American intellectual life.

i'll be interested to see if this version matches what i heard back then, which is similar to the wikipedia account, with a few added details, like it wasn't so much that the shift was caused by the new left's criticism of israel as the fear that the antiwar movement was becoming anti-american, as evidenced by occasional flag burnings, which were actually very rare. i also heard that the rag had been operating more or less as a collective till editor norman podhoretz abruptly announced to the staff that he owned it and it would thenceforth advance conservative views.