Irving Kristol (/ˈkrJstəl/; January 22, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was an American journalist who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism".[1][2] As a founder, editor, and contributor to various magazines, he played an influential role in the intellectual and political culture of the last half of the twentieth century.[3] After his death, he was described by The Daily Telegraph as being "perhaps the most consequential public intellectual of the latter half of the [twentieth] century".[4]
Kristol was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of non-observant Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Bessie (Mailman) and Joseph Kristol.[5][6] He received his B.A. from the City College of New York in 1940, where he majored in history and was part of a small, but vocal, Trotskyist anti-Soviet group who eventually became known as, The New York Intellectuals. It was at these meetings that Kristol met historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, whom he later married in 1942. They had two children, Elizabeth Nelson and Bill Kristol.[7] During World War II, he served in Europe in the 12th Armored Division as a combat infantryman.[8]
