The New Republic
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The New Republic (TNR) is an American magazine published twice per month (published weekly before March 2007) and with a circulation between 40,000 and 65,000. The editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz. The current editor is Franklin Foer. Politically, the magazine supports liberal public policies.
Contents |
New format
Starting with the March 19, 2007 issue, the magazine implemented major changes:
- Decreased frequency: the magazine will now be published twice a month, or 24 times a year. This replaces the old plan of publishing 44 issues a year.
- New design and layout: Issues will feature more visuals, new art and other "reader friendly" content.
- More pages and bigger size: Issues will be bigger and contain more pages.
- Improved paper: Sturdier covers and pages.
- Increased newsstand price: Although the subscription prices aren't to change, the newsstand price will increase from $3.95 to $4.95.
Politics
Domestically, the current version of TNR supports a largely centrist to center-left stance on fiscal issues and a more strongly liberal stance on social issues. Editor Franklin Foer describes the magazine as overall center-left, stating that TNR "invented the modern usage of the term liberal, and it’s one of our historical legacies and obligations to be involved in the ongoing debate over what exactly liberalism means and stands for."[3] The magazine's outlook is associated with the Democratic Leadership Council and "New Democrats" like former President Bill Clinton and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who received the magazine's endorsement in the 2004 Democratic primary. These policies, while seeking to achieve the ends of traditional social welfare programs, often use market solutions as their means, and so are often called "business-friendly." Typical of some of the policies supported by both TNR and the DLC during the 1990s were increased funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit program and reform of the Federal welfare system. Supply-side economics, the idea of giving tax cuts to the rich, received heavy criticism from senior editor Jonathan Chait,[4] Moreover, the TNR is strongly in favor of universal health care. On certain high-profile social issues, such as its support of same-sex marriage, TNR could be considered more progressive than the centrist mainstream of the Democratic Party establishment. In its March 2007 issue, The New Republic ran an article by Paul Starr (co-founder of the magazine's main rival, The American Prospect) where he defined the type of modern American liberalism in his article War and Liberalism:
| “ | Liberalism wagers that a state... can be strong but constrained – strong because constrained... Rights to education and other requirements for human development and security aim to advance equal opportunity and personal dignity and to promote a creative and productive society. To guarantee those rights, liberals have supported a wider social and economic role for the state, counterbalanced by more robust guarantees of civil liberties and a wider social system of checks and balances anchored in an independent press and pluralistic society. – Paul Starr, volume 236, p. 21-24 | ” |
Unsigned editorials prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq expressed strong support for military action, citing the threat of WMD as well as humanitarian concerns. Since the end of major military operations, unsigned editorials, while critical of the handling of the war, have continued to justify the invasion on humanitarian grounds, but no longer maintain that Iraq's WMD facilities posed any threat to the United States. In the November 27, 2006, issue, the editors wrote:
| “ | "At this point, it seems almost beside the point to say this: The New Republic deeply regrets its early support for this war. The past three years have complicated our idealism and reminded us of the limits of American power and our own wisdom."[5] | ” |
On June 23, 2006, TNR owner Martin Peretz, in response to criticism of the magazine from the blog Daily Kos, wrote the following as a summary of TNR's stances on recent issues
| “ |
"The New Republic is very much against the Bush tax programs, against Bush Social Security 'reform,' against cutting the inheritance tax, for radical health care changes, passionate about Gore-type environmentalism, for a woman's entitlement to an abortion, for gay marriage, for an increase in the minimum wage, for pursuing aggressively alternatives to our present reliance on oil and our present tax preferences for gas-guzzling automobiles. We were against the confirmation of Justice Alito."[6] | ” |
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States. In its May 2007 issue the magazine ran the editoral, titled "Nice Ass," which points to the humanitarian beliefs of liberals for the recent plight of the American left. In another recent article the TNR hailed Denmark as an example that strong involvement in a country's economy can lead to great prosperity. Such editorials and articles exemplify the liberal political orientation of TNR.
History
The New Republic was founded by Herbert Croly and Walter Lippmann, who published the magazine's first issue on November 7, 1914. The magazine's politics were progressive, and as such concerned with coping the great changes brought about by America's late-19th Century industrialization. Among the most important of these was the emergence of the U.S. as a Great Power on the international scene, and in 1917 TNR urged America's entry into World War I on the side of the Allies.
An important by-product of World War I was the Russian Revolution, and during the inter-war years the magazine was generally positive in its assessment of the Soviet Union and its communist government. This changed with the start of the Cold War, though, as TNR moved towards positions more typical of mainstream American liberalism. During the 1950s it was critical of both Soviet foreign policy and domestic anti-communism, particularly McCarthyism. During the 1960s the magazine opposed the Vietnam War, but was also often critical of the New Left.
In 1975 the magazine was bought by Harvard lecturer Martin Peretz, who effected the transformation of TNR into its current incarnation. Peretz was a veteran of the New Left who had broken with that movement over its support of various Third World liberationist movements, particularly the PLO. Under Peretz TNR has advocated both strong U.S. support for Israel and a muscular U.S. foreign policy. During the 1980s the magazine generally supported President Reagan's anti-Communist foreign policy, including provision of aid to the Contras. It has also supported both Gulf Wars and, reflecting its belief in the moral efficacy of American power, intervention in "humanitarian" crises, such as those in Bosnia and Kosovo during the Yugoslav wars.
Domestically, TNR supports policies first associated with the Democratic Leadership Council and such "New Democrats" as former-President Bill Clinton. These policies, while seeking to achieve the ends of traditional social welfare programs, often use market solutions as their means, and so are often called "business-friendly". Typical of some of the policies supported by both TNR and the DLC during the 1990s were increased funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit program and reform of the Federal welfare system.
Given its support of a strong U.S. foreign policy, The New Republic is thus in this area a classically neoconservative magazine. However, overall, the stronger claim to that political designation is held by The Weekly Standard, which is edited by William Kristol, son of neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol.
Famous contributors
Ordered by period and within period by name:
1910s-1940s
- John Dewey, essayist
- Walter Lippmann, editor and founder
- Henry A. Wallace, editor and former Vice President
- Virginia Woolf, essayist and film critic
1950s-1960s
- Hannah Arendt, political scientist
- Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian
- Philip Roth, author
1980s-1990s
- Fred Barnes
- Jeane Kirkpatrick[7]
- Joshua Muravchik[7]
- Eric Breindel[7]
- Jacob Heilbrunn[7]
- Irving Kristol[7]
- Edward Luttwak[7]
- Michael Ledeen[7]
- Ronald Radosh[7]
- Robert Kagan[7]
- Charles Krauthammer[7]
1990s-present
- Fouad Ajami, professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University
- Scott Thomas Beauchamp, freelance writer, soldier
- Paul Berman, essayist, author
- Simon Blackburn, philosopher
- Jonathan Chait, senior editor
- Niall Ferguson, historian
- Stephen Glass, reporter fired by TNR for submitting fabricated stories, dramatized in the 2003 film Shattered Glass
- Matt Groening, illustrator and The Simpsons creator
- Johann Hari, British writer
- John Judis, essayist
- Tony Judt, historian
- Michael Oren, historian and author
- Camille Paglia, essayist
- Dale Peck, literary reviewer
- George Pelecanos, author
- Steven Pinker, cognitive linguist and Harvard professor
- Richard Posner, federal judge
- Amartya Sen, economist
- Samanth Subramanian, India's best quizzer and journo
- Lee Siegel, cultural critic
- Michael Walzer, philosopher, essayist, author
- Alan Wolfe, public intellectual
- Gordon S. Wood, historian
- James Wood, literary critic
Trivia
- Lisa Simpson is a portrayed as a subscriber to The New Republic for Kids
See also
Resources
- Wickenden, Dorothy (1994). The New Republic Reader. ISBN 0-465-09822-3
External Links
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The New Republic. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this Wikinfo article is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. |
