Success, the World of Letters, and the “Brutal Bargain” of American Jewish Assimilation

Told by his friends in 1967 that he would ruin his career and reputation by publishing his brief memoir, titled Making It, Norman Podhoretz published it anyway. The book chronicles Podhoretz’s own rise to prominence in the world of the New York intellectuals, and the “brutal bargain” that Jews—and children of other immigrant groups—must make to shed their ethnic distinctiveness in the pursuit of respectability; Making It also shed light on the pettiness and snobbery of the literary world. Although the book earned its author some “ex-friends” (the title of a subsequent memoir), his career as an essayist and as the editor of Commentary continued unabated. Fred Bauer discusses Making It and its relevance today with Flagg Taylor. (Audio, 78 minutes).