Irving Kristol has been a key figure at such magazines as Commentary , Encounter , and The Reporter . He is currently co-editor of The Public Interest magazine and Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban Values at New York University. He presented this article as a lecture at St. John’s Church in LaFayette Square, Washington, D.C., on October 12 last. It was the first address in the American Enterprise Institute’s videotaped “Distinguished Lecture Series” on the approaching bicentennial, and it is printed here by permission of that nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.
