Nathan Glazer was born in New York City on February 25, 1923, the youngest of seven children. According to his autobiographical contribution to Authors of Their Own Lives (1990), his parents, Louis (a tailor) and Tillie (Zacharevich) Glazer, reared their children in an environment of Jewish eclecticism: "socialist, but not too socialist; Orthodox, but not too Orthodox, friendly to Palestine, but not a Zionist; Yiddish-speaking, but not a Yaiddishist." Glazer married Ruth Slotkin on September 26, 1943. They had three children, Sarah, Sophie, and Elizabeth, before divorcing in 1958. Glazer's second marriage was to Sulochana Raghavan, a researcher, on October 5, 1963.

In 1940, Glazer entered City College of New York as a history major. During his time there, Glazer joined the student Zionist organization and soon became the editor of its national newspaper Avukah Student Action. Just past twenty, Glazer was deeply affected by this experience. It offered him the opportunity to associate with the intellectual...