An Archive For Buckley, Kristol, and Podhoretz Interviews?

In the summer and fall of 2000, I interviewed William F. Buckley, Irving Kristol, and Norman Podhoretz for an article I was writing for Lingua Franca. The article where Buckley compared capitalism to sex (both boring), Kristol complained that there was no one on the right with the political imagination of Marx, and Podhoretz (who I never quoted) cited a list of resentments so long it would make the Underground Man blush.

I have four cassette tapes from those interviews that I would like to have transcribed and also converted to audio files that could be posted on the web. I’m hoping there’s an archive somewhere that might be interested, so I don’t have to pay for this. But I’m also prepared to pay someone if necessary.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Feel free to email me at corey.robin@gmail.com.

 

7 Comments

  1. John Maher July 16, 2014 at 12:09 pm | #

    Kristol’s comments are unworthy of preservation in general. So toss that tape.

  2. Paul H. Rosenberg July 16, 2014 at 12:11 pm | #

    “and Podhoretz (who I never quoted) cited a list of resentments so long it would make the Underground Man blush”

    You’ve been holding out on us for FOURTEEN YEARS???

  3. Roquentin July 16, 2014 at 1:04 pm | #

    In Anti-Oedpus, Deleuze and Guattari had this famous line that :

    “The truth is that sexuality is everywhere: the way a bureaucrat fondles his records, a judge administers justice, a businessman causes money to circulate; the way the bourgeoisie fucks the proletariat; and so on. And there is no need to resort to metaphors, any more than for libido to go by way of metamorphoses. Hitler got the fascists sexually aroused. Flags, nations, armies, banks get a lot of people aroused.”

    It does not surprise me that Buckley felt similarly about capitalism and sex.

  4. normanbirnbaum July 16, 2014 at 1:30 pm | #

    Dear Corey The Briscoe Library at UT Austin (director Don Carleton) has a very extensive American history and politics archive, papers of C Wright Mills and myself, Perhaps they would be interested…..Buckley went to Yale, Podhoretz to Columbia, Kristol to CCNY I think—other possivbilities……regards and how do you survive the sickening self 4righteousness PS Library of Congtress???

    The Bfriso

  5. BillR July 18, 2014 at 7:37 pm | #

    An academic archive site that, funding provided, might be able to add a section on Neocons as well. Noam Chomsky once collected quotes of these scintillating thinkers on the Untermenschen that could easily grace a pamphlet handed out to (virtual) visitors to such an archive.

  6. GerardO July 19, 2014 at 3:33 am | #

    Buckley, Kristol & Podhoretz — not on the same day, surely. If I interviewed those three in the same calendar year I’d be taking massive doses of Prozac right now.

  7. Mitchell Freedman July 20, 2014 at 9:45 am | #

    I always loved that article because of what Buckley said about the late Michael Harrington. As a Harrington acolyte, I was stunned when I read that article back in the day. But it showed me that Buckley deeply respected Harrington (who appeared a few times on Buckley’s show, Firing Line) and recognized that Harrington’s worldview had been vanquished to a point where even Buckley, as a victor, had recognized what was lost in that victory.

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