10 Facts About Irving Kristol

Irving Kristol was an American journalist who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism".

Irving Kristol wrote in Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952 under the editor Elliot E Cohen.

Irving Kristol was the executive vice-president of the publishing house, Basic Books, from 1961 to 1969, the Henry Luce Professor of Urban Values at New York University from 1969 to 1987, and co-founder and co-editor of The Public Interest from 1965 to 2002.

Irving Kristol was the founder and publisher of The National Interest from 1985 to 2002.

Irving Kristol served on the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1972 to 1977.

Irving Kristol died from complications of lung cancer, aged 89, on September 18,2009, at the Capital Hospice in Falls Church, Virginia.

In February 1979, Irving Kristol was featured on the cover of Esquire.

Neo-conservatism, Irving Kristol maintained, is not an ideology but a "persuasion", a way of thinking about politics rather than a compendium of principles and axioms.

One of Irving Kristol's most celebrated quips defines a neo-conservative as "a liberal who has been mugged by reality".

Irving Kristol argues these are no small achievements and only capitalism has proved capable of providing them.