Making It

A crucial record of American intellectual life, Norman Podhoretz's controversial memoir about his journey from a tough Brooklyn neighborhood to the ivory tower of academia is a takedown for the ages, and timely for its observations concerning the relationship between politics, money, and education. Norman Podhoretz, the son of Jewish immigrants, grew up in the tough Brownsville section of Brooklyn, and attended Columbia on a scholarship, while also receiving degrees from Jewish Theological Seminary and Cambridge University. Returning to New York, he established himself as a pugnacious critic of literature and politics before becoming editor of Commentary magazine. Podhoretz was a central figure in the literary and political developments and controversies of the fifties and sixties, very much on the left. Then, in the early seventies, he entirely rejected his earlier positions, becoming a fierce neo-conservative, as he remains to this day. Making It came out in 1967, before that change of heart, though the scandal it would provoke helped to bring it about. Making It is Podhoretz's account of fighting his way from the streets of Brooklyn into and out of the Ivory Tower, of his military service, and finally into the ranks of what he calls "The Family," the small group of largely Jewish critics and writers whose opinions had come to dominate and increasingly politicize the American literary scene. It is a Balzacian story of raw talent and relentless and ruthless ambition. It is also a closely observed and in many ways still pertinent analysis of the tense and not a little duplicitous relationship that exists in America between intellect and imagination, money, social status, and power. The Family responded to Podhoretz's book with savage outrage, and Podhoretz soon turned no less angrily on them. Fifty years later, this controversial and legendary book remains both a riveting autobiography, a book that can be painfully revealing about the complex convictions and needs of a complicated man as well as a fascinating and essential document of mid-century American cultural life.

About the Author :
Norman Podhoretz is an author, editor, and political and cultural critic. He was the editor of Commentary from 1960 to 1965 and he has written several nonfiction books, including World War IV, The Prophets, Ex-Friends, and most recently Why Are Jews Liberal?. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. He lives in New York City. Benjamin Moser is the author of Why This World- A Biography of Clarice Lispector, which was a finalist for the NBCC Award, and the editor of a new translation of The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector. A former books columnist at Harper's Magazine, Moser is now a columnist at The New York Times Book Review, and is currently at work on the authorized biography of Susan Sontag. He lives in the Netherlands.

Review :
"A frank and honest book...high-stepping brilliance...tactfully and touchingly revealing of the fearful ambitions of Podhoretz’s family.... Podhoretz has ‘allowed himself to be fully known’ and so may give the key to the B.Y.M. (Bright Young Men) of the next generation, which will allow them to shuck the iron mask of premature intellectual good taste and join in the common pursuit of self-knowledge and self-expression." —Frederic Raphael, The New York Times "This masterpiece of American autobiography is the tale of a striving, self-mythologized, and nearly Melvillean figure crashing toward his own salvation—and more.... Nearly 50 years on, it’s clear that, to paraphrase Dostoevsky on Gogol, we all come out from Podhoretz’s overcoat." —Lee Smith, Tablet "One can’t really understand the state of so-called highbrow culture today without first coming to terms with the career of Norman Podhoretz. Along with Jason and Barbara Epstein, Robert Silvers, Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer and a few others (the ‘children’ of Edmund Wilson, Lionel Trilling and Philip Rahv), Mr. Podhoretz reconceived the very idea of what it means to be an intellectual." —Robert S. Boynton, The New York Observer "Making It was a brave and original book." —Robert Fulford, The Globe and Mail "Podhoretz’s analysis of the power of the family is penetrating." —Andrew M. Greeley, The Reporter One can’t really understand the state of so-called highbrow culture today without first coming to terms with the career of Norman Podhoretz. Along with Jason and Barbara Epstein, Robert Silvers, Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer and a few others (the ‘children’ of Edmund Wilson, Lionel Trilling and Philip Rahv), Mr. Podhoretz reconceived the very idea of what it means to be an intellectual. The New York Observer