The art of honest obituary writing died with Christopher Hitchens.https://twitter.com/Eric_Alterman/status/1524018772377542659 …
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When the real history of neoconservatism is written, people will notice that Gertrude Himmelfarb was more a more thinker than Irving Kristol & Midge Decter as formative as Norman Podhoretz. Being anti-feminists, Himmelfarb & Decter never made those claims, but they're true.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
I think Himmelfarb’s stature vis a vis her husband and their peers is recognized by those who have read her—
@KJTorrance for example. But being serious and less of a controversialist (not that she was controversy averse) might be worse for one’s place in cultural memory.1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @ToryAnarchist @KJTorrance
Yes obviously anyone who has read, say, The Idea of Poverty as against Kristol's essay collections will understand the relative stature. But in popular understanding of neo-conservatism, she's rarely mentioned.
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Replying to @HeerJeet @KJTorrance
Neoconservatism was polemical rather than really about ideas, though. In that sense it may be to Himmelfarb’s credit that she’s not so well known for her place in the gang. (
@BloggerGideon noted Irving’s tactical interest in ideas themselves, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/everything-old-is-neo-again/ … )1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
She wasn't polemical but the synthesis she made between Victorian moralism and anti-communism was important for Cold War liberalism and prepared path for neo-con turn (and, more broadly, Thatcherite "family values"). @samuelmoyn's lecture on her is great on this.
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