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The Nation is a weekly United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  periodical devoted to politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
 and culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, self-described as "the flagship of the left
Left-wing politics

In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to Social progressivism and Egalitarianism positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported Political radicalism reform....
." Founded on July 6, 1865 at the start of Reconstruction as a supporter of the victorious North in the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, it is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the US. It is published by the Nation Company, L.P. at 33 Irving Place, New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
.

The Nation has bureaus in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and Southern Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, with departments covering Architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, Art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, Corporation
Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
s, Defense
Defense (military)

Defence has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defence implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armour, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy approaching them to initiate close combat....
, Environment
Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
, Film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, Legal Affairs
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
, Music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, Peace
Peace

Peace is a term that most commonly refers to an absence of aggression, violence or hostility, but which also represents a larger concept wherein there are healthy or newly-healed interpersonal relationship or international relations, safety in matters of social or economic welfare, the acknowledgment of equality and fairness in political re...
 and Disarmament
Disarmament

Disarmament refers to the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament." The American Heritage The context of disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry....
, Poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, and the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
.






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Encyclopedia


The Nation is a weekly United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  periodical devoted to politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
 and culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, self-described as "the flagship of the left
Left-wing politics

In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to Social progressivism and Egalitarianism positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported Political radicalism reform....
." Founded on July 6, 1865 at the start of Reconstruction as a supporter of the victorious North in the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, it is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the US. It is published by the Nation Company, L.P. at 33 Irving Place, New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
.

The Nation has bureaus in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and Southern Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, with departments covering Architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, Art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, Corporation
Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
s, Defense
Defense (military)

Defence has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defence implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armour, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy approaching them to initiate close combat....
, Environment
Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
, Film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, Legal Affairs
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
, Music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, Peace
Peace

Peace is a term that most commonly refers to an absence of aggression, violence or hostility, but which also represents a larger concept wherein there are healthy or newly-healed interpersonal relationship or international relations, safety in matters of social or economic welfare, the acknowledgment of equality and fairness in political re...
 and Disarmament
Disarmament

Disarmament refers to the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament." The American Heritage The context of disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry....
, Poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, and the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
. The circulation
Newspaper circulation

A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Newspaper circulation rates are currently experiencing a downward trend....
 of The Nation is rising and was last placed at 184,296 (2004), more than double the center-left The New Republic
The New Republic

The New Republic is an United States magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000....
, and larger than the neoconservative The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard

The Weekly Standard is a conservatism United States opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It is owned by News Corporation and made its debut on September 16, 1995....
, and the conservative National Review
National Review

National Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City....
. 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 The Nation Associates who donate funds to the periodical above and beyond their annual subscription fees.

The publisher and editor is Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel

Katrina vanden Heuvel born October 7 1959), , is the editor, part-owner, and publisher of the magazine The Nation . She has been the magazine's editor since 1995....
. Former editors include Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky

Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005....
, Norman Thomas
Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading United States socialism, pacifism, and six-time President of the United States candidate for the Socialist Party of America....
 (associate editor), Carey McWilliams
Carey McWilliams (journalist)

Carey McWilliams was an United States author, editing, and lawyer best known for a strong commitment to Progressivism causes. Though born in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, he is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the Japanese American Internment in concentration ca...
, and Freda Kirchwey
Freda Kirchwey

Freda Kirchwey was an United States journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to American liberalism causes. From 1933 to 1955, she was Editing of The Nation magazine....
. Notable contributors have included Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
, Franz Boas
Franz Boas

Franz Boas was a Germans-United States anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"....
, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an United States pastor, activist and prominent leader in the African-American African-American Civil Rights Movement ....
, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Order of Merit , Fellow of the Royal Society , was a British people philosopher, mathematical logic, mathematician, historian, advocate for social reform, and pacifism....
, Barbara Garson
Barbara Garson

Barbara Garson is an American playwright, author and social activist.Garson is best known for the play MacBird, a notorious 1966 counterculture drama/political parody of MacBeth that sold over half a million copies as a book and had over 90 productions world wide....
, H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken , was an United States journalist, essayist, magazine editing, satire, acerbic Social criticism of American American way and Culture of the United States, and a student of American English....
, Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal is an United States novelist, screenwriter, playwright, essayist, short story writer and politician. Early in his career he wrote the ground-breaking The City and the Pillar , which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality....
, Edward Said
Edward Said

Edward Wadie Sa?d Royal Society of Literature was a Palestinian American Literary theory, cultural critic, and an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights....
, Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens is a United Kingdom-born, United Kingdom and United States author, journalist and literary critic. Currently living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair magazine, The Atlantic, World Affairs , The Nation , Slate , Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets....
, Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an United States journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of journalism where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories....
, Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes, was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance....
, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American attorney at law, author, lecturer, political activism, and perennial candidate for presidency as an independent candidate for President of the United States in United States presidential election, 2004 and United States presidential election, 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000....
, James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)

James Arthur Baldwin was an United States novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist.Most of Baldwin's work deals with racism and human sexuality issues in the mid-20th century in the United States....
, Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg

Clement Greenberg was an influential United States art critic closely associated with Modern art in the United States. In particular, he militant critic the Abstract Expressionism movement and was among the first critics to praise the work of painter Jackson Pollock....
, Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden

Thomas Emmet Hayden is an United States social and political activism and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s....
, Daniel Singer, I.F. Stone, Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxism theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin....
, George Orwell
George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an England author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, an intense dislike of totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language....
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
, James K. Galbraith
James K. Galbraith

James K. Galbraith is an United States economist who writes frequently for mainstream and liberal publications on economic topics....
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck III was an American literature. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937....
, Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American self-trained historian and author. She became best known for The Guns of August, a history of the prelude and first month of World War I....
, Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an United States architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
, Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt was an influential Germany-Jewish political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she always refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theory because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an United States expatriate poetry, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist poetry movement in the first half of the 20th century....
, Henry James
Henry James

Henry James, Order of Merit , son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an United States author....
, Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre , commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre , was a French existentialism philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism....
 and John Beecher
John Beecher

John Beecher was an activist poet, writer and journalist who wrote about the Southern United States during the Great Depression and the American Civil Rights Movement....
.

Regular columns

In 2008, the journal ran a number of regular columns. The longest-running of these contributors had written their columns for over 20 years.

  • "Beat the Devil" by Alexander Cockburn
    Alexander Cockburn

    'Alexander Claud Cockburn' , born 6 June 1941, is an Irish-American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972....
  • "The Liberal Media" by Eric Alterman
    Eric Alterman

    Eric Alterman is a American liberalism#Liberal consensus.2C 1970 to the present day American journalist, author, media critic, wikt:Blogger, and educator, possibly best known for the political weblog named Altercation, which was hosted by MSNBC from 2002 until 2006, moved to Media Matters for America until December 2008, and is n...
  • "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" by Patricia J. Williams
    Patricia J. Williams

    Patricia J. Williams is a prominent law critic and a proponent of critical race theory, an offshoot of 1960s social movements that emphasizes Race as a fundamental determinant of the United States legal system....
  • "Subject to Debate" by Katha Pollitt
    Katha Pollitt

    Katha Pollitt is an American feminist poet, essayist and critic....
  • "Beneath the Radar" by Gary Younge
    Gary Younge

    Gary Younge is a British journalist and author, born to immigrant parents from Barbados. Younge read French and Russian at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh....
  • "Look Out" by Naomi Klein
    Naomi Klein

    Naomi Klein is a Canada journalist, author and Activism well known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization....
  • "Deadline Poet" by Calvin Trillin
    Calvin Trillin

    Calvin Marshall Trillin is an United States journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction....
  • The Nation cryptic crossword
    Cryptic crossword

    Cryptic crosswords are crossword of a special type: one in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as in several other Commonwealth of Nations nations, including, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malta and India....
     by Frank W. Lewis
  • "Minority Report" by Christopher Hitchens
    Christopher Hitchens

    Christopher Eric Hitchens is a United Kingdom-born, United Kingdom and United States author, journalist and literary critic. Currently living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair magazine, The Atlantic, World Affairs , The Nation , Slate , Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets....
     ran from 1982 to 2002.


History

Abolitionists founded The Nation in July 1865 on "Newspaper Row
Park Row (Manhattan)

Park Row is a street located in the Financial District, Manhattan of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Square, Manhattan and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New York City Hall....
" at 130 Nassau Street in Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
. At the time, Joseph H. Richards was the publisher and E.L. Godkin, a classical liberal critic of nationalism
Nationalism

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
, imperialism
Imperialism

Imperialism has two meanings; one describing an action and the other describing an attitude.#Action: Imperialism is the practice of extending the power, control or rule by one country over areas outside its borders....
, and socialism
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
 , was the editor. The magazine would stay at Newspaper Row for the next ninety years. Wendell Phillips Garrison
Wendell Phillips Garrison

Wendell Phillips Garrison was an United States editor and author.He was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, a son of William Lloyd Garrison....
, son of William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent United States abolitionism, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United States....
, was literary editor of the periodical from 1865 to 1906.

In 1881, newspaperman-turned-railroad-baron Henry Villard
Henry Villard

Henry Villard was an United States journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway....
 acquired The Nation and converted it into a weekly literary supplement for his daily newspaper the New York Evening Post. The offices of the magazine were moved to the Evening Posts headquarters at 210 Broadway. The New York Evening Post would later morph into a tabloid: the New York Post
New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continually as a daily, although -- like most other papers -- its publication has been interrupted by labor actions....
 was a left-leaning afternoon tabloid under owner Dorothy Schiff
Dorothy Schiff

Dorothy Schiff was an owner and then publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob H. Schiff....
 from 1939 to 1976, and has been a conservative
Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social term whose meaning has changed in different countries and time periods, but which usually indicates support for the status quo or the status quo ante....
 tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, Order of Australia, Order of St. Gregory the Great , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born International Mass media business magnate....
 since that time, while The Nation became known for its left-liberal politics.

In 1918, Henry Villard's son, Oswald Garrison Villard
Oswald Garrison Villard

Oswald Garrison Villard was an United States of America journalist. He provided a rare direct link between the classical liberal anti-imperialism of the late 19th century and the Conservatism in the United States "Old Right" of the 1930s and 1940s....
, took over as editor of the magazine and sold the Evening Post. He remade The Nation into a current affairs publication and gave it a liberal
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
 orientation. Villard's takeover of The Nation prompted a roughly 50 year monitoring of the magazine by the FBI. The FBI had a file on Villard since 1915. Almost every editor of The Nation from Villard's time to the 1970s was looked at for "subversive" activities and ties. When Albert Jay Nock
Albert Jay Nock

Albert Jay Nock was an influential United States libertarianism author, educational theorist, and society critic of the early and middle 20th century....
, not long later, published a column criticizing Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was an United States Trade union leader and a key figure in Labor history of the United States. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as the AFL's president from 1886-1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924....
 and trade unions for being complicit in the war machine
War Machine

War Machine is a Character , a comic book superhero from the Marvel Comics Marvel Universe. The character first appeared in Iron Man #118 ....
 of the First World War, The Nation was briefly suspended from the U.S. mail.

During the late 1940s and again in the early 1950s, a merger was discussed among Kirchwey - on The Nations side (later McWilliams when he took over) - and Michael Straight of The New Republic
The New Republic

The New Republic is an United States magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000....
. The two magazines were very similar at that time - both were left of center (The Nation further left than TNR); both had circulations around 100,000 (TNR had a slightly higher circulation); and both lost money - and it was thought that the two magazines could unite and make the most powerful journal of opinion.

During this period, Paul Blanshard
Paul Blanshard

Paul Beecher Blanshard was a controversial author, lawyer, and Humanist was born 27 August 1892 in Fredericksburg, Ohio - as was a twin brother, Brand Blanshard....
 was an associate editor of the The Nation and served during the 1950s as that magazine's special correspondent in Uzbekistan. His most famous writing was a series of articles attacking the Roman Catholic Church in America as a dangerous, powerful and undemocratic institution.

The new publication would have been called The Nation and New Republic. Kirchwey was the most hesitant, and both attempts to merge failed. The two magazines would later take very different paths, with The Nation having a higher circulation and The New Republic moving more to the right.

New Nation publisher Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish V

Hamilton Fish V is an American publisher, politician, and philanthropist. He has been known under varying numerals because several of his antecedents went by the name "Hamilton Fish, Jr." for much of their lives, including his father and grandfather....
 and then-editor Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky

Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005....
 moved the weekly to 72 Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)

Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA. Between 34th Street and 59th Street , it is also one of the premier shopping streets in the world, often compared to Oxford Street in London,...
 in June 1979. In June 1998, the periodical had to move to make way for condominium
Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is a form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights associated with the individual ownership...
 development. The offices of The Nation are now at 33 Irving Place in the Gramercy
Gramercy, Manhattan

Gramercy, a real-estate term extending fashionable Gramercy Park, is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, focused around Gramercy Park, a private park between East 20th and 21st Streets at the foot of Lexington Avenue ....
 neighborhood.

Important Articles

  • Civil War
    American Civil War

    The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
     veteran and novelist John William De Forest
    John William De Forest

    John William De Forest was an American soldier and writer of realistic fiction, best known for his American Civil War novel Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty....
     contributed an article titled "The Great American Novel" (9 January 1868), calling for a uniquely American realist approach to literature. The idealization of capturing the national zeitgeist
    Zeitgeist

    Zeitgeist is a German language expression literally translated: Zeit, time; Geist, spirit, meaning "the spirit of the age and its society"....
     has since become a staple of American Literature
    American literature

    American literature refers to written or literature produced in the area of the United States and Colonial America. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States....
    , with many authors stating that their ultimate goal is to write the Great American Novel
    Great American Novel

    The "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that most perfectly represents the spirit of life in the United States at the time of its writing....
    .
  • In the December 20th, 1919 edition, The Nation published a letter from famed anthropologist Franz Boas
    Franz Boas

    Franz Boas was a Germans-United States anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"....
     in which he criticized four then-unnamed anthropologists for their actions acting as spies in South America for the American government. This action was highly significant in the anthropological community, as it was the first public act in opposition to this type of activity by anthropologists. The composition and subsequent publication of this letter resulted in the censure of Mr. Boas by the American Anthropological Association
    American Anthropological Association

    Founded in 1902, the American Anthropological Association is the world?s largest professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology....
    , and his removal from the AAA's governing council. (Boas, Franz. "Scientists as Spies." The Nation. 20 December 1919. Pg. 797.)
  • The Nation uncovered evidence of "torture and massacres" during the occupation of Haiti
    Haiti

    Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
    . The article led to a Congressional investigation and the independence of Haiti. (Seligmann, Herbert J. "The Conquest of Haiti." The Nation. 10 July 1920.)
  • The October 18, 1958, issue was dedicated entirely to Fred J. Cook's
    Fred J. Cook

    Fred James Cook was an investigative journalism whose prime years of reporting spanned from the 1950s to the late 1970s. His 1964 expos?, The FBI Nobody Knows, was central to the plot of one of Rex Stout's most popular Nero Wolfe novels, The Doorbell Rang ....
     exposé of the FBI. (Cook, Fred J. "The FBI." The Nation. 18 October 1958. Pg. 222-280.)
  • The June 24, 1961, issue was also dedicated to an article by Cook about the CIA
    Central Intelligence Agency

    The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
    . (Cook, Fred J. "The CIA." The Nation. 24 June 1961. Pg. 529-572.)
  • The Nation was the first US publication to report on what would later become the Bay of Pigs invasion
    Bay of Pigs Invasion

    The Bay of Pigs Invasion, was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro....
    . (Editors. "Are We Training Cuban Guerrillas?" The Nation. 19 November 1960. Pg. 378-379.)
  • A special report by Jamie Lincoln Kitman in the March 20, 2000, issue reported on efforts by Standard Oil
    Standard Oil

    Standard Oil was a predominant United States integrated petroleum producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio Corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations until it was broken up...
     (now Exxon
    ExxonMobil

    The Exxon Mobil Corporation, or ExxonMobil, is an United States petroleum and natural gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D....
    ), GM
    General Motors

    General Motors Corporation , founded in 1908, is the world's second-largest automaker after Toyota, ranked by 2008 global unit sales. GM was the global sales leader for 77 consecutive calendar years from 1931 to 2008....
     and DuPont
    DuPont

    E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company is an United States chemical industry that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuth?re Ir?n?e du Pont....
     to cover up the dangers of lead additives (used for anti-knock purposes) in gas. (Lincoln Kitman, Jamie. "." The Nation. 20 March 2000. Pg. 11-44.)
  • A series of articles by Bill Mesler revealed that a projectile made of depleted uranium
    Depleted uranium

    Depleted uranium is uranium primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238 . Natural uranium is about 99.27 percent U-238, 0.72 percent uranium-235, and 0.0055 percent uranium-234....
     used in the first Iraq war
    Gulf War

    "Persian Gulf War" and "First Gulf War" redirect here. For other uses, see Persian Gulf War .The Persian Gulf War was a United Nations-authorized military conflict between Iraq and a Coalition of Gulf War from 34 nations commissioned with expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait of Kuwait in August 1990....
     was more radioactive, deadlier and affected more soldiers than the Pentagon
    The Pentagon

    The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, Virginia. As a symbol of the Military of the United States, "the Pentagon" is often used Metonymy to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
     admitted. (Mesler, Bill. "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet." The Nation. 21 October 1996. Pg. 11-14.; "Pentagon Poison: The Great Radioactive Ammo Cover-Up." The Nation. 26 May 1997. Pg. 17-22.; "The Gulf War's New Casualties." The Nation. 14 July 1997. Pg. 19-20.)
  • The Nation has revealed relationships between Nazi Germany
    Nazi Germany

    Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
     and several corporations - including Bertelsmann
    Bertelsmann

    Bertelsmann AG is a transnational mass media corporation founded in 1835, based in G?tersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,397 workers ....
    , Ford Motor Company
    Ford Motor Company

    The Ford Motor Company is an United States multinational corporation and the world's List of automobile manufacturers#World Motor Vehicle Production by Manufacturer based on worldwide vehicle sales, following Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen Group....
    , and Kodak
    Eastman Kodak

    Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational corporation public company which produces imaging and photography materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing....
    . (Silverstein, Ken. "." The Nation. 24 January 2000. Pg. 11-16.; Fischler, Hersch. Friedman, John. "Bertelsmann's Nazi Past." The Nation. 28 December 1998. Pg. 6-7.; Friedman, John S. "." The Nation. 26 March 2001. Pg. 7, 23.)
  • The Nation printed several articles about the Whitewater
    Whitewater (controversy)

    The Whitewater controversy was an United States political controversy that began with the real estate dealings of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton and their associates, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s....
     investigation against Bill Clinton
    Bill Clinton

    William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office....
     including an article revealing a conflict of interest involving Kenneth Starr
    Kenneth Starr

    Kenneth Winston Starr is an United States lawyer and former judge and solicitor general who was appointed to the Office of the Independent Counsel to investigate the suicide death of the deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater controversy land transactions by U.S....
     and the Resolution Trust Corporation. (Conason, Joe. Waas, Murray. "Troubled Whitewater." The Nation. 18 March 1996. Pg. 13-18. Graves, Florence. "Starr and Willey: The Untold Story." The Nation. 17 May 1999. Pg. 11-23. Dreyfuss, Roberts. "Collateral Damage: The Personal Costs of Starr's Investigation." The Nation. 27 July/3 August 1998. Pg. 11-18.)
  • Columnist Naomi Klein wrote an article that revealed a conflict of interest concerning James A. Baker III
    James Baker

    James Addison Baker, III is an United States attorney, politician, political administrator, and political advisor.He served as the White House Chief of Staff in President of the United States Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H....
    , who was appointed envoy to Iraq and was in charge of handling their national debt. (Klein, Naomi. "." The Nation. 1 November 2004. Pg. 13-20.)
  • Freelance reporter Joshua Kors conducted a six month investigation into the discharging of soldiers from the military by misdiagnosing them with "personality disorder." Because personality disorder is a pre-existing condition, these soldiers are given no benefits or future health coverage through the military, and, in some cases, forced to give back their enlistment bonus. (Kors, Joshua. "." The Nation. 9 April 2007. Pg. 11-18.)
  • David Corn
    David Corn

    David Corn is an American political journalist and author, and is chief of the Washington bureau for Mother Jones . He has worked as the Washington editor for The Nation and has also appeared regularly on Fox News Channel and National Public Radio....
    , The Nations Washington Editor, broke the Valerie Plame
    Valerie Plame

    Valerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, and the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C....
     leak scandal in the summer of 2003 in the pages of the magazine after noting that Robert Novak
    Robert Novak

    Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak is syndicated columnist, journalist and conservative politicial commentator who writes the longest-running current U.S....
    's blowing of the CIA operative's cover in a newspaper column could be a possible felony
    Felony

    A felony is a serious crime in the United States and previously other common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors....
    .


Mission

According to The Nations founding prospectus of 1865, "The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the 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."

Editorial Board

In 2008, The Nation editorial board included Deepak Bhargava, Norman Birnbaum
Norman Birnbaum

Norman Birnbaum is an American sociologist. He is an emeritus professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a member of the editorial board of The Nation....
, Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich is an American feminist, Democratic socialism and activism. She is a widely read columnist and essayist, and the author of nearly 20 books....
, Richard Falk, Frances FitzGerald
Frances FitzGerald

See also Frances Fitzgerald Frances FitzGerald is an United States journalist and author. She is primarily known for her acclaimed journalistic account of the Vietnam War....
, Eric Foner
Eric Foner

Eric Foner is an United States historian. He has been a faculty member in the department of history at Columbia University since 1982 and writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party , African American biography, Reconstruction era of the United States, and historiography....
, Philip Green
Philip Green (author)

Philip Green is the author of Deadly logic: the theory of nuclear deterrence. Retrieving democracy: in search of civic equality, Equality and democracy, and Cracks in the pedestal: ideology and gender in Hollywood....
, Lani Guinier
Lani Guinier

File:Guanier_3.jpgLani Guinier is an American civil rights scholar. The first black people woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier's work includes professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions,...
, Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden

Thomas Emmet Hayden is an United States social and political activism and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s....
, Randall Kennedy
Randall Kennedy

Randall L. Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein professor at Harvard Law School. He is also a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Association....
, Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich ....
, Elinor Langer, Deborah Meier
Deborah Meier

Deborah Meier is often considered the founder of the modern small schools movement. After spending several years as a kindergarten teacher in Chicago, Philadelphia and then New York City, in 1974, Meier became the founder and director of the alternative Central Park East school, which embraced progressive ideals in the tradition of John Dewe...
, Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison , is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic poetry themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon , and Beloved , which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988...
, Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky

Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005....
, Pedro Antonio Noguera, Richard Parker
Richard Parker

Richard Parker may refer to:...
, Michael Pertschuk
Michael Pertschuk

Michael Pertschuk is a consumer advocate, author and former government official. He served as consumer counsel and later chief counsel and staff director to the U.S....
, Elizabeth Pochoda, Marcus G. Raskin, Andrea Batista Schlesinger
Andrea Batista Schlesinger

Andrea Batista Schlesinger is currently the Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute....
, David Weir
David Weir (journalist)

David Weir is a journalist, consultant, and a blogger on media for BNET. He's written for The Economist, HotWired, L.A. Weekly, Mother Jones , The Nation, New West, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and others....
, and Roger Wilkins
Roger Wilkins

Roger Wilkins is an African American civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist....
.

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