Marty Peretz and the Neoliberal Reckoning
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, David Klion on the legacy of the former New Republic publisher.
![The Nation Podcasts](https://media.redcircle.com/images/2024/1/22/16/305287dd-3c1e-4d50-8ef8-939b191115b7__ac35afe0-783b-4422-a72e-e6c64f20fcc0_38137755.jpg)
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, David Klion on the legacy of the former New Republic publisher.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
![](https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-515306252-1.jpg)
Martin Peretz in his magazine office.
(Bettmann / Getty Images)Marty Peretz has led a large life, one he recounts with aplomb in his autobiography, The Controversialist. As publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic from 1974 to 2012, he transformed the venerable liberal magazine into an organ of neoliberalism, with a politics that emphasized deregulation of the economy, scaling back the welfare state, militant Zionism, and an aggressive foreign policy (leading the magazine to support the disastrous Iraq War in 2003). Coupled with the magazine, Peretz used his second wife’s vast fortune to create an political network that extended to many nodes of elite power: Harvard, Wall Street and even the White House (Vice President Al Gore was Peretz’s protégé).
I wrote about Peretz’s life and also the large-scale damage done by his politics in a recent review of his memoir. Frequent guest of the show David Klion, who wrote about the memoir for The Baffler, joined the The Time of Monsters for a spirited discussion of a memorable life. Also relevant to this discussion is David’s review of Liberties, a magazine founded by Peretz’s longtime crony Leon Wieseltier.
![The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer](https://media.redcircle.com/images/2022/5/12/17/6d373f13-76c4-4226-b59e-e406665a47eb_96862dd-b8fe-471d-aa35-ac01dd829bb7_t-o-m-logo.jpg)
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
On June 28, I delivered a speech at the central branch of the Regina Public Library on the history of American support for Israel. The speech almost didn’t happen. The library briefly cancelled it because they claimed the group promoting it was encouraging discrimination against Jews. Fortunately, a city councillor intervened to sponsor the talk. For this podcast, I give the gist of my talk.
The podcast will be going on a summer break and return in a few weeks.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts
Thank you for reading The Nation
We hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.
Throughout this critical election year and a time of media austerity and renewed campus activism and rising labor organizing, independent journalism that gets to the heart of the matter is more critical than ever before. Donate right now and help us hold the powerful accountable, shine a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug, and build a more just and equitable future.
For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and moral clarity. As a reader-supported publication, we are not beholden to the whims of advertisers or a corporate owner. But it does take financial resources to report on stories that may take weeks or months to properly investigate, thoroughly edit and fact-check articles, and get our stories into the hands of readers.
Donate today and stand with us for a better future. Thank you for being a supporter of independent journalism.