Arnold Beichman

Who was Arnold Beichman?

Arnold Beichman 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. He spent much of his life as a crusader against communism.

Beichman was born on New York City's Lower East Side, in Manhattan, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He received a BA 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 PhD 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. Beichman is the author of a book on Herman Wouk entitled Herman Wouk: the Novelist as Social Historian.