Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right

Former editor of Commentary, Balint introduces a guide of the magazine's evolution with a primary focus on Jewish history from WWI to the present, with parallel Commentary articles and writers providing crucial historical markers. The Holocaust gets extensive coverage, both through the eyes of its victims and of Commentary's editors and writers, complete with early critiques of the ignorance that created and fed the WWII machine. Balint ties the growth of the magazine to the influx of Jews to America following that war. As refuges built new communities, Commentary widened its focus from the Jewish religion, printing articles that expressed pride in Judaism and patriotism for America, making it acceptable for Jewish immigrants, who were ready to shed the past because of the extensive Nazi hatred, to embrace American culture while maintaining their Jewish identity and religion. Readers will appreciate this rare behind-the-scenes look into a prolific magazine that helped provide a positive outlet and shape a new community after an unthinkable atrocity. (June)