There is much talk in the chattering class about a supposed fracture between the social right and economic conservatives. Will populists and traditionalists break with limited-government Republicans who prize markets? The work of Harvard sociologist Nathan Glazer, who died Saturday at age 95, is a reminder that the priorities of the two groups overlap and reinforce one another more than many acknowledge.

Glazer—like the rest of the City College-affiliated writers dubbed the “New York intellectuals”—started out as a radical...