Arnold Beichman | |
---|---|
Born | May 17, 1913 (1913-05-17) New York City, US |
Died | February 16, 2010(2010-02-16) (aged 96) Pasadena, California, US |
Alma mater | Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD) |
Occupation(s) | Author, scholar, anti-communist polemicist |
Arnold Beichman (May 17, 1913 – February 17, 2010) was an author, scholar, and a critic of communism. At the time of his death, he was a Hoover Institution research fellow and a columnist for The Washington Times.
Life and career
Beichman was born on New York City's Lower East Side, in Manhattan, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, after which he succeeded his friend, Arthur Lelyveld, as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Beichman spent many years in journalism, working for the New York Herald Tribune, PM, Newsweek, and others. He returned to Columbia in his 50s to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, in 1967 and 1973, respectively.
He gave his name to "Beichman's Law," which states: "With the single exception of the American Revolution, the aftermath of all revolutions from 1789 on only worsened the human condition." His Jewish father Solomon Beichman was unhappy, because he wanted Arnold to be a rabbi.
The Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars was in part funded by Beichman's donations.
Publications
Books
- The "Other" State Department: The United States Mission to the United Nations — Its Role in the Making of Foreign Policy (1968)
- Nine Lies About America (1972)
- Foreword by Tom Wolfe.
- Introduction by Robert Conquest.
- Herman Wouk: The Novelist as Social Historian (1984)
- The Long Pretense: Soviet Treaty Diplomacy from Lenin to Gorbachev (1991)
- Foreword by William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Anti-American Myths: Their Causes and Consequences (1992)
- Foreword by Tom Wolfe.
Books edited
- With Robert Conquest, John Lewis Gaddis and Richard Pipes.
Articles
- "Socialism: Dead or Alive? A Roundtable." The American Enterprise, July 1995, pp. 28–35.
- With David Horowitz, John O'Sullivan, Eric Breindel and Mark Falcoff.
- "The Lesser Evil." The Washington Post, November 4, 2004.
References
- ^ Podhoretz, John. "Arnold Beichman, 1913–2010." Commentary, February 18, 2010. Archived from the original.
- Hevesi, Dennis. "Arnold Beichman, Political Analyst, Dies at 96"(obituary). The New York Times, March 3, 2010. Archived from the original.
- Obituary. The Washington Post, March 9, 2010.
- Gram, Margaret Hunt. "Arnold Beichman '34: Anti-Communist Warrior." Columbia College Today, January 2004. Full issue available. Archived from the original.
- Beichman, Arnold. "The Lesser Evil."The Washington Times, November 4, 2004. Archived from the original.
- "The American Spectator : Arnold Beichman, 1913 – 2010". Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved 2013-01-06.
- Ostermann, Christian F. (ed.) Back cover. Cold War International History Project Bulletin, No. 16, Fall 2007/Winter 2008.
- Campbell, John C. Review of The Long Pretense: Soviet Treaty Diplomacy from Lenin to Gorbachev.Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 3, Summer 1991, p. 174. doi:10.2307/20044868. JSTOR 20044868. Archived from the original.
Further reading
- Bethell, Tom. "Arnold Beichman, 1913-2010: an oral history and remembrance of a great adventurer and friend" (obituary). The American Spectator, Vol. 43, No. 4, May 2010. Archived from the original.
- Beichman, Charles. "Memorial Service for Arnold Beichman"(eulogy). August 2, 2010. Archived from the original.Archived April 1, 2021, at archive.today
External links
- Reading From Left to Right: Writings by Beichman (official website)
- Biographical profile at Hoover Institution
- 1913 births
- 2010 deaths
- 20th-century American Jews
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- American columnists
- American male non-fiction writers
- American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Columbia College (New York) alumni
- Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- Hoover Institution people
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- Writers from California
- Writers from New York City