The papers of Norman Podhoretz cover the period 1950-1986 and consist of correspondence, subject material, speeches and writings, printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized into five series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, and Addition.

Norman Podhoretz was educated as a literary critic under such teachers as Lionel Trilling at Columbia University and F. R. Leavis at Cambridge University. Early in his career, Podhoretz was an advocate of left-wing ideology. He was later to break from the predominantly leftist and liberal New York intellectual community and become a leading spokesman for a conservative philosophy, using Commentary as a vehicle for discussing neoconservative ideas. His papers document the development of his career as a writer, editor, and social and political thinker.

Podhoretz throughout his career corresponded with many prominent writers, critics, editors, politicians and other public figures. The bulk of the General Correspondence series is formed from letters in Podhoretz's correspondence files at Commentary that were deemed inappropriate for the magazine's archive maintained by the American Jewish Committee. Letters within the General Correspondence document Podhoretz's involvement in literary and political activities. Among the correspondents are Eldridge Cleaver, Allen Ginsburg, Lillian Hellman, Daniel P.Moynihan, Susan Sontag, Terry Southern, Diana Trilling, and Kurt Vonnegut. There are also letters concerning Podhoretz that were sent as enclosures to him, for example, a letter from Lionel Trilling to Eliot Cohen, then editor-in-chief of Commentary. Although most of the correspondents are represented by only one or two letters, the issues and ambiance of the time are chronicled in these communications.

Topics discussed in the General Correspondence series include censorship of Podhoretz's writing as well as other literary works, endorsement of political candidates, support for political points of view, and discussion of social and cultural issues such as racism and poverty. Podhoretz's philosophical shift can in part be traced through the General Correspondence. Letters related to individual works by him are filed in the Speeches and Writings File series.

Featured in the Subject File is Podhoretz's trip to India, Australia, and Asia in 1973, including a journal containing sketches of people and places encountered in the various countries he visited. His trip to Australia in 1982 to promote The Present Danger is also well documented. Another file in the series concerns Daniel Patrick Moynihan's campaign for the Senate from New York in 1976.

The most extensive series is the Speeches and Writings File including interviews, speeches, undergraduate writings, short stories, articles, and books. Among the undergraduate writings are Podhoretz's notebooks from a course in nineteenth-century British poetry taught by Lionel Trilling. These notebooks are annotated by Trilling. Material from Podhoretz's years at Cambridge includes copies of the English Tripos along with notes, drafts of his thesis on Benjamin Disraeli, and notes from a class on the English moralists. The collection also includes three unpublished short stories written when Podhoretz was in the army.

The Articles subseries in the Speeches and Writings File contains a representative sampling of Podhoretz's literary, social, and political criticism, including a number of unpublished pieces. Drafts, galleys, published copies of articles along with correspondence and research material are often present. Within the Articles file is an expanded version of Podhoretz's thesis on Disraeli that he attempted to have published in Scrutiny in 1953. Included with the essay is F.R. Leavis's critique of the piece. Among the other literary essays in the collection are "Edmund Wilson: The Last of the Patricians," "The Know Nothing Bohemians," "The Adventures of Saul Bellow," "Prurience Subverted, or the Redemption of Candy," "In Defense of Editing," "Camus and His Critics," and "F.R. Leavis: A Reevaluation."

Some of Podhoretz's social and political writings include "Masses, Classes, and Social Criticism," "The New American Majority," and "J'Accuse," along with other articles expounding Podhoretz's neoconservative point of view on subjects such as defense, the Middle East, and Vietnam, most of which appeared in national magazines and newspapers.

Material exists in varying degrees to document the creation, production, and reception of Podhoretz's five published books. In addition to drafts, galleys, and page proofs, the collection includes correspondence from publishers and readers, book reviews, and research material. The correspondence and book reviews impart a sense of how Podhoretz's books were received and how he reacted to the mixed reception he met his works.