Martin Peretz '59, editor in chief of The New Republic magazine, has the kind of presence that grows more intimidating with time. He speaks in a deep, gravelly voice that can be heard traveling from his diaphragm into his throat. Dressed in a hunter green button-down shirt tucked neatly into his belted slacks with his silvery hair slicked across the back of his head, Peretz uses big hand gestures and well-timed bits of comic wit to narrate his personal life and professional career.Speaking to an audience of about 60 Brandeis students and faculty in Olin-Sang Auditorium last Thursday, Peretz-who received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Brandeis in 1989-described the path to his 25-year career at a magazine now known for its unique balance of liberal politics and conservative foreign policy.

"I have been a ghostwriter, in a certain way, to the history of the last 35 years, to American politics and society, simply by my editorship," he said.

After working as a professor of social studies at Harvard University for over 30 years, Peretz purchased The New Republic in 1974 and quickly became editor of the magazine. Though he remains editor, Peretz sold his ownership of the magazine to CanWest Global Communications two years ago.

Peretz's speaking style is a combination of subtle arrogance and genuine interest in his audience. In one sense, he's so comfortable with himself that he doesn't need to engage anybody's trust. (When his cell phone rang in the middle of the presentation, Peretz waved off faculty's scrambling attempts to shut it off: "It'll stop.") On the other hand, moments when he loses himself in reminiscing about the old days give him a more grandfatherly air than you'd think would surround one of the most powerful figures in publishing. (After interrupting his lecture with a brief biography of Franklin Foer, the magazine's current editor, Peretz suddenly lost his train of thought: "Where am I?")

Peretz gives off a sense of mature pragmatism, no longer bothering to coat his judgment of his intellectual abilities with modesty. He told the audience about his motivations for leaving academia:

"For a while, I thought, 'God, I have an 800-page book in me.' And it didn't come. For a while, I thought, 'I'm really good at 12,000 word essays.' And I'm not."

At some point, Peretz told the audience, he discovered his niche in journalism. "My métier," he said, "is really 1,000 words."

Peretz joked about his rise to editor of the magazine.

"I did have to work my way up at The New Republic," he said, the slightest hint of a smile breaking an otherwise serious expression. "After a long, long search for an editor, I chose myself."

Still, Peretz denied any regrets about the decision. "It was the easiest choice," he said. "I had no bad conscience."

With Peretz's editorship came significant developments in The New Republic's structure, as well as in the political views it espoused. In place of the magazine's pro-Soviet Union political stance of the 1930s and 1940s, Peretz created a publication that was consistently anti-Communist and anti-radical. Color, cartoons and cleverly artistic covers appeared in place of dry, witless politics.

The magazine "was a dull, butcher-block publication" before Peretz's term, Prof. Steven Whitfield (AMST) said. "Everything about the magazine breathed dull. . It was a different magazine when [Peretz] took over." He said that Peretz offered the magazine an "enlarged sense of what you could say about people and how you could say it and how cynically."

Beyond his role as editor of the magazine, Peretz sees himself as instrumental in defining the goals of the Democratic Party. Among his reasons for purchasing the magazine, Peretz cited Senator George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign.

"I thought George McGovern was a moral and intellectual," he paused, "disaster. McGovern's slogan was 'Come Home, America.' That was his literal slogan. That seemed to me to be symptomatic . of his isolationism, his sympathy with world revolution. I bought The New Republic to somehow fight the battle in the Democratic Party."

Whitfield said, "Something had to be done to reshape the Democratic Party [after McGovern's candidacy.] The New Republic was very important in doing that."

Throughout his editorship, Peretz has shown little inhibition in departing from the stereotypical liberal movement. Most notably, the publication supports a more conservative foreign policy, particularly its conservative stance toward Israel.

A self-proclaimed Zionist, Peretz discussed his pro-Israel ideologies.

"There are so many states which are built on such dicey foundations. And here is a people who actually gave definition and content to the very idea of a nation. It's very strange to me that people should question it."

The magazine also shocked some of its readership when it expressed support for the Iraq War (although most of the magazine's writers have since retreated from their positions).

"We're still in trouble with a lot of our readers," Peretz said regarding the publication's position on the war. "We're a slightly different kind of liberal."

For Peretz, his experiences at Brandeis helped create the political curiosity and willingness to challenge authority that have characterized his journalistic career. Yet, talking about the evolution of Brandeis' Jewish community, Peretz lamented the replacement of intellectualism with religious conviction.

"Almost everyone was Jewish," Peretz said of the student body while he attended Brandeis. "But this was an era in which Jewish life was very contentious, driven from all sides."

"Jews were defined by their quizzical instincts-not their dogmatic instincts," he added later. ("Is that right?" he asked, pointing to Whitfield, who nodded in agreement.)

"It was evident that [Peretz] was very intelligent; he knew what he was talking about," Ron Kendler '09 said. "But he also had a down to earth, very personable style."

Peretz was clever, quick to self-criticize, but nonetheless nostalgic in reflecting on the beginnings of his Brandeis career. He'd initially planned to attend Harvard University, he said; Brandeis was more of a backup plan. Still, he showed a quick glimpse of sentimentality talking about his alma mater.

"I had one safety school," he told the audience. "And it was Brandeis. And I never regretted being here.