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The Nation

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For other uses, see The Nation (disambiguation).

The Nation
The Nation, cover dated January 2026
EditorD. D. Guttenplan
Former editors
CategoriesPolitics
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherKatrina vanden Heuvel
Total circulation96,000[1] (2021)
First issueJuly 6, 1865; 160 years ago (1865-07-06)
CompanyThe Nation Company, L.P.
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City, U.S.
Websitethenation.com
ISSN0027-8378
OCLC1643268

The Nation is a left-leaning[2] and progressive American monthly magazine.[3] It covers politics and culture. The magazine calls itself “the flagship of the left”.[4] The Nation is considered to be the oldest magazine in the US, publishing articles by various high-profile American academics and activists.[5] Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the magazine.[6]

It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that closed in 1865, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thereafter, the magazine proceeded to a broader topic, The Nation. An important collaborator of the new magazine was its Literary Editor Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of William. He had at his disposal his father's vast network of contacts.[7][8]

The Nation is published by its namesake owner, The Nation Company, L.P., at 520 8th Ave New York, NY 10018. It has news bureaus in Washington, D.C., London, and South Africa, with departments covering architecture, art, corporations, defense, environment, films, legal affairs, music, peace and disarmament, poetry, and the United Nations. Circulation peaked at 187,000 in 2006 but dropped to 145,000 in print by 2010, although digital subscriptions had risen to over 15,000. By 2021, the total for both print and digital combined was 96,000.[9]

History

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Founding and journalistic roots

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The Nation was established on July 6, 1865, at 130 Nassau Street ("Newspaper Row") in Manhattan. Its founding coincided with the closure of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator,[8] also in 1865, after slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; a group of abolitionists, led by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, desired to found a new weekly political magazine. Edwin Lawrence Godkin, who had been considering starting such a magazine for some time, agreed and so became the first editor of The Nation.[7]

Its founding publisher was Joseph H. Richards; the editor was Godkin, an immigrant from Ireland who had formerly worked as a correspondent of the London Daily News and The New York Times.[10][11] Godkin sought to establish what one sympathetic commentator later characterized as "an organ of opinion characterized in its utterance by breadth and deliberation, an organ which should identify itself with causes, and which should give its support to parties primarily as representative of these causes".[10]: 503 

In its "founding prospectus" the magazine wrote that the publication would have "seven main objects" with the first being "discussion of the topics of the day, and, above all, of legal, economical, and constitutional questions, with greater accuracy and moderation than are now to be found in the daily press". The Nation pledged to "not be the organ of any party, sect or body" but rather to "make an earnest effort to bring to discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred".[12]

In the first year of publication, one of the magazine's regular features was The South as It Is.[13] The magazine published eyewitness accounts of the Reconstruction era of southern states.[14]

Among the causes supported by the publication in its earliest days was civil service reform—moving the basis of government employment from a political patronage system to a professional bureaucracy based upon meritocracy.[10]: 503  The Nation also was preoccupied with the reestablishment of a sound national currency in the years after the American Civil War, arguing that a stable currency was necessary to restore the economic stability of the nation.[10]: 503–504  Closely related to this was the publication's advocacy of the elimination of protective tariffs in favor of lower prices of consumer goods associated with a free trade system.[10]: 504 

From 1880s literary supplement to 1930s New Deal booster

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The Evening Post and The Nation, 210 Broadway, Manhattan, New York

In June 1881, The Nation was acquired by journalist Henry Villard.[15] Afterwards, the magazine was printed in conjuction with New York Evening Post (now New York Post), which at the time held liberal views.[16]

After Henry Villard died, the publications were inherited by his son; Oswald Garrison Villard.[17] Villard’s ideology and the editorial stance of The Nation shared many similarities; both were advocating for racial equality and isolationism.[16] In July 1918, Villard announced that The Nation will be separate from the newspaper and stop reprinting articles of the New York Evening Post. Villard made this decision because he believed that reprinting practice gave readers the impression that The Nation was a weekly publication of the New York Evening Post.[18]

As the 1932 U.S. presidential election approached, The Nation saw no real choice between Hoover and Roosevelt, and it urged readers to vote for Socialist Party of America candidate Norman Thomas. Oswald Villard wrote: "So I insist, the man who votes for either Hoover or Roosevelt is the one who is throwing away his vote... He is again postponing the peaceful revolution which Woodrow Wilson said in 1912 was on the horizon." The magazine did, however, endorse Roosevelt in the next three elections.[19]

Oswald Villard welcomed the New Deal and supported the nationalization of industries—thus reversing the meaning of "liberalism" as the founders of The Nation would have understood the term, from a belief in a smaller and more restricted government to a belief in a larger and less restricted government.[20][21] Villard sold the magazine in 1935 to "The Nation Fund, Inc", a nonprofit corporation established by banker Maurice Wertheim.[22] In 1937, Wertheim sold The Nation to editor Freda Kirchwey, who said she bought it because she intended to turn the magazine into a "voice of leftism".[23]

Almost every editor of The Nation from Villard's time to the 1970s was looked at for "subversive" activities and ties.[24] When Albert Jay Nock published a column criticizing Samuel Gompers and trade unions for being complicit in the war machine of the First World War, The Nation was briefly suspended from the US mail.[25]

World War II and early Cold War

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The magazine's financial problems in the early 1940s prompted Kirchwey to sell her individual ownership of the magazine in 1943, creating a nonprofit organization; Nation Associates, out of the money generated from a recruiting drive of sponsors. This organization was also responsible for academic affairs, including conducting research and organizing conferences, that had been a part of the early history of the magazine. Nation Associates became responsible for the operation and publication of the magazine on a nonprofit basis, with Kirchwey as both president of Nation Associates and editor of The Nation.[26]

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Nation repeatedly called on the United States to enter World War II to resist fascism, and after the US entered the war, the publication supported the American war effort. Furthermore, unlike other leftist publications and organizations which followed a close Stalinist line in keeping with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, The Nation supported American intervention in the war before Operation Barbarossa.[27] It also supported the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.[27]

In the 1950s, The Nation was attacked by critics as "pro-communist" because of its advocacy of détente with the expansionist Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin, and its criticism of McCarthyism.[11] One of the magazine's writers, Louis Fischer, resigned from the magazine afterwards, claiming The Nation's foreign coverage was too pro-Soviet.[28] Despite this, Diana Trilling pointed out that Kirchwey did allow anti-Soviet writers, such as herself, to contribute material critical of Russia to the magazine's arts section.[29]

During McCarthyism (the Second Red Scare), The Nation was banned from several school libraries in New York City and Newark,[30] and a Bartlesville, Oklahoma, librarian, Ruth Brown, was fired from her job in 1950, after a citizens committee complained she had given shelf space to The Nation.[30] In 1957, Fidel Castro wrote an article for The Nation, titled; “What Cuba’s Rebels Want”. A year later, the magazine published an article discussing the possibility of US invading Cuba; it predicted the Bay of Pigs invasion.[14]

In 1955, George Kirstein replaced Kirchway as magazine owner.[31] James J. Storrow Jr. bought the magazine from Kirstein in 1965.[32]

1970s to 2024

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See also: Nation Magazine v. United States Department of Defense

On the eve of the 1968 U.S. presidential election the magazine argued that the choice between Nixon and Humphrey was such a bad one that voters should stay home.[33] In June 1979, The Nation's publisher Hamilton Fish moved the magazine to 72 Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan.[4] The Nation's current adress is 33 Irving Place in New York.[34]

In 1977, a group organized by Hamilton Fish V bought the magazine from the Storrow family.[35] In 1985, the magazine was sold to for undiscosed amount to "The Nation Co", headed by millionare Arthur Carter and two former owners of The Nation.[36]

In March 1991, The Nation together with Center for Constitutional Rights sued Department of Defense for allegedly violating First Amendment and Fifth Amendment for creating press pools during Gulf War. Judge Leonard B. Sand ruled the case moot.[37] In 1995, veteran editor Victor Navasky and a group of investors that included Paul Newman acquired the magazine. Navasky became the magazine's publisher and editorial director.[38] In 1995, Katrina vanden Heuvel succeeded Navasky as editor of The Nation.[39] In 2005, she became the magazine's editor and publisher.[40]

"In an era of instant, 140-character news cycles and reflexive toeing of the party line, it’s incredible to think of the 150-year history of The Nation. It’s more than a magazine - it’s a crucible of ideas forged in the time of Emancipation, tempered through depression and war and the civil-rights movement, and honed as sharp and relevant as ever in an age of breathtaking technological and economic change."

In 2015, The Nation celebrated its 150th anniversary with a documentary film by Academy Award–winning director Barbara Kopple, which analyzed the magazine's history.[42] The Nation also held a celebration in St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, which was attended by Tony Kushner, Bill de Blasio, Walter Mosley and Michael Moore.[43] To mark the anniversary, former US President Barack Obama wrote a letter praising The Nation but noting that he disagreed with some of the magazine's points.[41] Editor of The Nation, D. D. Guttenplan wrote a biography of the magazine entitled The Nation: A Biography (The First 150 Years). History News Network said that the biography "has played, and continues to play, an important role in U.S. history, society, and politics".[44]

On January 2016, The Nation endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for President for the third time in its history. The editorial board professed; "Voters can trust Sanders because he doesn’t owe his political career to the financial overlords of the status quo. Freed from these chains of special interest, he can take the bold measures that the country needs".[45] On June 15, 2019, Heuvel stepped down as editor; D. D. Guttenplan, the editor-at-large, took her place.[46]

On February 23, 2022, The Nation named Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara its new president. In an interview, Sunkara said that he believes liberalism and socialism need to form a coalition to ensure progress and him becoming a president of The Nation was one way towards this goal.[6] In December 2023, Sunkara announced the magazine would be switching from a biweekly format to a larger monthly publication.[3]

Finances

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Print ad pages declined by 5% from 2009 to 2010, while digital advertising rose 32.8% from 2009 to 2010.[47] Advertising accounts for 10% of total revenue for the magazine, while circulation totals 60%.[48] The Nation has lost money in all but three or four years of operation and is sustained in part by a group of more than 30,000 donors called Nation Associates, who donate funds to the periodical above and beyond their annual subscription fees. This program accounts for 30% of the total revenue for the magazine. An annual cruise also generates $200,000 for the magazine.[48] Since late 2012, the Nation Associates program has been called Nation Builders.[49]

In 2023, the magazine had approximately 91,000 subscribers, roughly 80% of whom pay for the print magazine. Adding sales from newsstands, The Nation had a total circulation of 96,000 copies per issue in 2021, earning the majority of its revenue from subscriptions and donations, rather than print advertising.[3]

Poetry

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Since its creation, The Nation has published significant works of American poetry,[50][51] including works by Hart Crane, Eli Siegel, Elizabeth Bishop, and Adrienne Rich,[50] as well as W. S. Merwin, Pablo Neruda, Denise Levertov, and Derek Walcott.[51]

In 2018, the magazine published a poem entitled "How-To" by Anders Carlson-Wee which was written in the voice of a homeless man and used black vernacular. This led to criticism from writers such as Roxane Gay because Carlson-Wee is white. The Nation's two poetry editors, Stephanie Burt and Carmen Giménez Smith, issued an apology for publishing the poem, the first such action ever taken by the magazine.[50] The apology itself became an object of criticism also. Poet and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt called the apology "craven" and likened it to a letter written from "a reeducation camp".[50] Grace Schulman, The Nation's poetry editor from 1971 to 2006, wrote that the apology represented a disturbing departure from the magazine's traditionally broad conception of artistic freedom.[51]

Regular columns

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The magazine runs a number of regular columns:

Regular columns in the past have included:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Nation Media Kit 2022" (PDF). The Nation. January 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  2. ^ Spike, Carlett (December 9, 2016). "'What's bad for the nation is good for The Nation'". Columbia Journalism Review.
  3. ^ a b c Dwyer, Kate (December 11, 2023). "The Nation Magazine to Become Monthly". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Knick, Dawson (December 3, 2019). "Why Isn't This Landmarked?: 72 Fifth Avenue, Appleton & Co. Headquarters". Village Preservation.
  5. ^ Gonzalez, Juan (April 1, 2015). "Started by Abolitionists in 1865, The Nation Magazine Marks 150 Years of Publishing Rebel Voices". Democracy Now!.
  6. ^ a b Fedorov, Andrew (March 7, 2022). "A Radical Takes Over as President of The Nation". The Fine Print.
  7. ^ a b Fettman, Eric (2009). "Godkin, E. L.". In Vaughn, Stephen L. (ed.). Encyclopedia of American Journalism. London: Routledge. p. 200. ISBN 9780415969505.
  8. ^ a b The Anti-Slavery Reporter, August 1, 1865, p. 187.
  9. ^ "The Nation Media Kit 2022" (PDF). The Nation. January 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Fuller, Harold de Wolf; Moore, John Bassett; Hamilton-Gordon, John; Knecht, M. Marcel; Koo, V. K. Wellington; Morgan, Edwin Vernon; Shatsky, B. E.; Thwing, Charles F. (April 19, 1917). "Supplement: Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Dinner" (PDF). The Nation. Vol. 104, no. 2704 (published April 26, 1917). Section II, pp. 502–503. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
    1. ^ This supplement comprises a transcript of speeches given at the event, and authors are listed in the order in which their speeches appear. The first speech (pp. 502–503) was attributed simply to "The Editor," but identified as Harold de Wolf Fuller in a photograph caption following this section.[10]: Section III 
    2. ^ Speech by John Bassett Moore, pp. 503–504
  11. ^ a b Aucoin, James (2008). "The Nation". In Vaughn, Stephen L. (ed.). Encyclopedia of American Journalism. New York: Routledge. pp. 317–8. ISBN 978-0-415-96950-5.
  12. ^ Richards, Joseph H. (July 6, 1865). "Founding Prospectus". The Nation. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015.
  13. ^ Dennett, John R. (2010). The South As It Is: 1865–1866. University of Alabama Press.
  14. ^ a b Mehren, Elizabeth (March 20, 1986). "A Journalistic Love-In for The Nation Magazine". Los Angeles Times.
  15. ^ Simkin, John (September 1997). "The Nation (US)". Spartacus Educational.
  16. ^ a b Donald, Watt (2021). "Analysis: The Unity of America". EBSCO.
  17. ^ "Oswald Garrison Villard Letters". Syracuse University. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
  18. ^ "VILLARD IS READY TO SELL POST STOCK". The New York Times. July 31, 1918. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
  19. ^ Heuvel, Katrina Vanden (1991). The Nation 1985 - 1990. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 112,113. ISBN 1-56025-001-1.
  20. ^ Carey McWilliams, "One Hundred Years of The Nation." Journalism Quarterly 42.2 (1965): 189–197.
  21. ^ Dollena Joy Humes, Oswald Garrison Villard: Liberal of the 1920s (Syracuse University Press, 1960).
  22. ^ "THE NATION TO BE SOLD.; Non-Profit Foundation to Be in Control, Villard Says". The New York Times. April 27, 1935. ISSN 0362-4331.
  23. ^ "The Press: State of the Nation". Time Magazine. March 1, 1943.
  24. ^ Kimball, Penn (March 22, 1986). "The History of The Nation According to the FBI". The Nation: 399–426. ISSN 0027-8378.
  25. ^ Wreszin, Michael (1969). "Albert Jay Nock and the Anarchist Elitist Tradition in America". American Quarterly. 21 (2). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 173. doi:10.2307/2711573. JSTOR 2711573. It was probably the only time any publication was suppressed in America for attacking a labor leader, but the suspension seemed to document Nock's charges.
  26. ^ Alpern, Sara (1987). Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation. President and Fellows of Harvard College. pp. 156–161. ISBN 0-674-31828-5.
  27. ^ a b Boller, Paul F. (c. 1992). "Hiroshima and the American Left". Memoirs of An Obscure Professor and Other Essays. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 0-87565-097-X.
  28. ^ Alpern, Sara (1987). Freda Kirchwey, a Woman of the Nation. Boston: Harvard University Press. pp. 162–5. ISBN 0-674-31828-5.
  29. ^ Seaton, James (1996). Cultural Conservatism, Political Liberalism: From Criticism to Cultural Studies. University of Michigan Press. p. 71. ISBN 0-472-10645-7.
  30. ^ a b Caute, David (1978). The Great Fear: the Anti-Communist purge under Truman and Eisenhower. London: Secker and Warburg. p. 454. ISBN 0-436-09511-4.
  31. ^ "KIRCHWEY REGIME QUITS THE NATION; Weekly's Editor - Publisher Turns It Over to Carey McWilliams, G. C. Kirstein". The New York Times. September 15, 1955. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  32. ^ Sibley, John (December 27, 1965). "NATION MAGAZINE SOLD TO PRODUCER; Storrow Taking Over Liberal Weekly From Kirstein for an Undisclosed Price POLICY TO BE RETAINED Staff Also Will Be Kept, New Owner Says -- First Editor Began in 1856". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  33. ^ Heuvel, Katrina Vanden (1991). The Nation 1865-1990 (First ed.). New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 274. ISBN 1-56025-001-1.
  34. ^ "Nation: Alternative Press Center". Alternative Press Center. May 8, 2026.
  35. ^ Carmody, Deirdre (December 23, 1977). "Nation Magazine Sold to Group Led by Hamilton Fish". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  36. ^ "The Nation magazine was sold to The Nation Co". Los Angeles Times. December 25, 1995.
  37. ^ "Historic Case: The Nation Magazine v. Department of Defense". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
  38. ^ "Paul Newman Part Of Group Buying Nation". The Spokesman-Review. January 14, 1995.
  39. ^ Forgash, Emily (January 31, 2023). "'Titan of progressive media': Former Journalism School professor Victor Navasky has died at 90". Columbia Daily Spectator.
  40. ^ Hamm, Theodore (January 8, 2005). "Katrina vanden Heuvel with Theodore Hamm". Brooklyn Rail.
  41. ^ a b Gold, Hadas (March 23, 2015). "Barack Obama praises The Nation". Politico.
  42. ^ "'Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. March 4, 2015.
  43. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (July 15, 2015). "The Mayor, a Filmmaker and More as The Nation Wraps Up 150th Anniversary Celebration". New York Times.
  44. ^ Shaffer, Robert (September 18, 2015). "Review of D.D. Guttenplan's "The Nation: A Biography (The First 150 Years)"". History News Network.
  45. ^ Gold, Hadas (January 14, 2016). "The Nation endorses Bernie Sanders". Politico. ISSN 0027-8378.
  46. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (April 8, 2019). "Katrina vanden Heuvel to Step Down as Editor of The Nation". The New York Times.
  47. ^ Steve Cohn. "min Correction: The Nation Only Down Slightly in Print Ad Sales, Up in Web". MinOnline. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  48. ^ a b Peters, Jeremy W. Peters (November 8, 2010). "Bad News for Liberals May be Good News for a Liberal Magazine". The New York Times.
  49. ^ Katrina vanden Heuvel (December 28, 2012). "Introducing The Nation Builders". The Nation.
  50. ^ a b c d Jennifer Schuessler, A Poem in The Nation Spurs a Backlash and an Apology, New York Times (August 1, 2018).
  51. ^ a b c Grace Schulman, "The Nation Magazine Betrays a Poet—and Itself" (Opinion), The New York Times (August 6, 2018).
  52. ^ Melissa Harris-Perry. "Sister Citizen". The Nation. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  53. ^ Navasky, Victor (July 25, 2012). "Alexander Cockburn: He Beat the Devil". The Nation. Archived from the original on September 13, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  54. ^ Hiar, Corbin (April 24, 2009). "Kai Bird: The Nation's Foreign Editor". Hiar learning. Wordpress. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
  55. ^ "Out of Left Field Cryptics". leftfieldcryptics.com. Retrieved October 18, 2021.

Further reading

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