The Wilson Quarterly

Last updated
The Wilson Quarterly
Wilson Quarterly.png
Categories Culture, Literature, Politics, Current Events
FrequencyQuarterly
Circulation 70,000
First issue1976
Final issueSummer 2012 (print)
Company Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
CountryUnited States
Based in Washington, D.C.
LanguageEnglish
Website
ISSN 0363-3276
OCLC 743409751

The Wilson Quarterly is a magazine published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The magazine was founded in 1976 by Peter Braestrup and James H. Billington. It is noted for its nonpartisan, non-ideological approach to current issues, with articles written from various perspectives. [1] From Summer 2012 it has been published online.

Contents

History

The first issue appeared in Autumn 1976 and established two of the magazine's signature features. Article "clusters" explore different facets of a subject, often with contrasting points of view. Early subjects ranged from the exploration of space to the new revisionist history of the New Deal, with writers including Walt W. Rostow, Rem Koolhaas, George F. Kennan, John Updike, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa. [2] The magazine also includes individual essays. The Wilson Quarterly's other signature feature is its "In Essence" section, which distills more than two dozen notable articles selected from hundreds of scholarly journals and specialized publications.

The magazine has gone through various format changes over the years, and between 1983 and 1990 it was published five times a year. It is also published quarterly. [2]

When Peter Braestrup left the magazine in 1989 to join Billington at the Library of Congress, he was succeeded by Jay Tolson, the magazine's literary editor. Tolson added a successful poetry section designed to introduce readers to significant poets of the past and present. The section was initially co-edited by Joseph Brodsky and poet laureate Anthony Hecht.

The magazine continued to focus on public questions, exemplified by the 1998 cluster "Is Everything Relative?" with articles by E. O. Wilson, Richard Rorty, and Paul R. Gross debating Wilson's claim in Consilience that all branches of knowledge will eventually be unified by a biological understanding of human life. In "The Second Coming of the American Small Town" in 1992, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk offered an early in-depth look at the New Urbanism and some of the animating ideas behind Smart Growth.

When Tolson left in 1999, Steven Lagerfeld was named editor. Lagerfeld had also worked under founding editor Peter Braestrup, joining the staff in 1981. In keeping with the times and the focus of the Woodrow Wilson Center, the magazine looked increasingly overseas, filling the period around the beginning of the Iraq War with distinctive clusters on American empire, foreign writers' views of the United States, the history of Iraq, and World War IV. Other topics have ranged from the role of competition in American life to the ideas of traffic "guru" Hans Monderman. Recent writers have spanned the spectrum from conservative economist and blogger Tyler Cowen to liberal political thinker Benjamin Barber. In 2006, The Wilson Quarterly received an Utne Reader Independent Press Award for General Excellence [3] and in 2011 for International Coverage. [4]

Digital format

In 2012, The Wilson Quarterly changed to a digital-only publishing model. [2] The Summer 2012 (Volume 36, No. 3) issue was the last to be printed. Existing print subscribers were not transferred to the new digital subscription model, but rather were transferred to Pacific Standard subscriptions.

In October 2014, under editor Zack Stanton, it was awarded "Best Relaunch" and "Best Overall Design" in the 2014 EPPY Awards given by Editor & Publisher Magazine . [5] Richard Solash became the publication's editor in April 2017 and in October 2017, on the strength of its Arctic-themed issue, the publication was awarded an EPPY in the category of "Best Digital Magazine" (less than 1 million monthly visitors).

Related Research Articles

<i>The American Prospect</i> American liberal policy magazine

The American Prospect is a daily online and quarterly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., The American Prospect says it "is devoted to promoting informed discussion on public policy from a progressive perspective."

<i>In These Times</i>

In These Times is an American politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published in Chicago, Illinois. It was established as a broadsheet-format fortnightly newspaper in 1976 by James Weinstein, a lifelong socialist.

<i>Utne Reader</i> Magazine

Utne Reader is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and DVDs.

<i>Tikkun</i> (magazine)

Tikkun is a quarterly interfaith Jewish left-progressive magazine and website, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion, and history in the English language. The magazine has consistently published the work of Israeli and Palestinian left-wing intellectuals, but also included book and music reviews, personal essays, and poetry. In 2006 and 2011, the magazine was awarded the Independent Press Award for Best Spiritual Coverage by Utne Reader for its analysis of the inability of many progressives to understand people's yearning for faith, and the American fundamentalists' political influence on the international conflict among religious zealots. The magazine was founded in 1986 by Michael Lerner and his then-wife Nan Fink Gefen. Since 2012, its publisher is Duke University Press. Beyt Tikkun Synagogue, led by Rabbi Michael Lerner, is loosely affiliated with Tikkun magazine. It describes itself as a "hallachic community bound by Jewish law".

<i>MIT Technology Review</i>

MIT Technology Review is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as The Technology Review, and was re-launched without "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey. In September 2005, it was changed, under its then editor-in-chief and publisher, Jason Pontin, to a form resembling the historical magazine.

<i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i> Newspaper

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals. A subscription is required to read some articles.

<i>No Depression</i> (magazine) Roots music magazine

No Depression is a quarterly roots music journal with a concurrent online publication. In print, No Depression is an ad-free publication focused on long-form music reporting and deep analysis that ties contemporary artists with the long chain of American roots music. In April 2020, No Depression introduced digital versions of their print journal. While the print journal remains ad-free, the digital versions include roots-music-related advertisements. Its journal contributors include roots music artists as well as professional critics and reporters, photographers, illustrators, and artists.

<i>Yes!</i> (U.S. magazine) Nonprofit independent publisher

YES! is a nonprofit, independent publisher of solutions journalism. YES! was founded by David Korten and Sarah van Gelder; Christine Hanna, founder and former co-director of Seattle Good Business Network, is the executive director.

Current Biography is an American monthly magazine published by the H. W. Wilson Company of The Bronx, New York, a publisher of reference books, that appears every month except December. Current Biography contains profiles of people in the news and includes politicians, athletes, businessmen, and entertainers. Published since 1940, the articles are annually collected into bound volumes called Current Biography Yearbook. A December issue of the magazine is not published because the staff works on the final cumulative volume for the year. Articles in the bound volumes correct any mistakes that may have appeared in the magazine and may include additional relevant information about the subject that became available since publication of the original article. The work is a standard reference source in American libraries and the publisher keeps in print the older volumes. Wilson also issues cumulative indexes to the set, and an online version is available as a subscription database.

Communities: Life in Cooperative Culture is a quarterly magazine published by the Global Ecovillage Network - United States. It is a primary resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities in North America. Articles and columns cover practical "how-to" issues of community living as well as personal stories about forming new communities, decision-making, conflict resolution, raising children in community, and sustainability.

<i>Virginia Quarterly Review</i> American literary magazine

The Virginia Quarterly Review is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This "National Journal of Literature and Discussion" includes poetry, fiction, book reviews, essays, photography, and comics.

<i>Boston Review</i> American magazine

Boston Review is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form is a "forum", featuring a lead essay and several responses. Boston Review also publishes an imprint of books with MIT Press.

<i>The American Scholar</i> (magazine) Quarterly literary magazine

The American Scholar is the quarterly literary magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, established in 1932. The magazine has won fourteen National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors from 1999 to present, including awards for General Excellence. Additionally, the magazine has won four Utne Independent Press Awards from Utne Reader, most recently in 2011 in the category "Best Writing".

<i>Gnosis</i> (magazine) Magazine of Western esoteric traditions

Gnosis was an American magazine published from 1985 to 1999 devoted to the Western esoteric tradition.

<i>Michigan Quarterly Review</i> American literary magazine

The Michigan Quarterly Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

<i>The Common Review</i>

The Common Review was the literary magazine of the Great Books Foundation.

<i>Rain Taxi</i> Book review and literary organization

Rain Taxi is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, Rain Taxi maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings, and publishes chapbooks through its Brainstorm Series. Rain Taxi's mission is “to advance independent literary culture through publications and programs that foster awareness and appreciation of innovative writing.” As of 2008, the magazine distributes 18,000 copies through 250 bookstores as well as to subscribers. The magazine is free on the newsstand. It is also available through paid subscription. Structurally, Rain Taxi is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. It sells advertising at below market rates, much of it to literary presses.

Peter Braestrup was a correspondent for The New York Times and The Washington Post, founding editor of the Wilson Quarterly, and later senior editor and director of communications for the Library of Congress. Retiring from journalism in 1973, he founded the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Wilson Quarterly, and in 1989 moved to the Library of Congress.

Steven Lagerfeld is the former editor of The Wilson Quarterly, the flagship publication of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which he led from 1999 until winter 2014.

<i>Kyoto Journal</i>

Kyoto Journal is a quarterly magazine based in Kyoto, Japan. Its subtitle, Perspectives from Asia, reflects its commitment to "local voices, from all over Asia" and "ideas that illuminate cultural differences in a positive way, that promote intercultural understanding via specifics, not generalities." In addition to its four main editors, the magazine is staffed by a team of interns and over 30 contributing editors spread throughout Asia. Its diverse readership and list of contributors has been described by former editor Stewart Wachs as a "psychographic" community. Since its founding, the magazine has been entirely produced by volunteers.

References

  1. "The Wilson Quarterly". The Idealist. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Roig-Franzia, Manuel (6 September 2013). "Wilson Center may sell or fold its esteemed Wilson Quarterly, as readership declines". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  3. "Utne Independent Press Awards Nominees — 2006".
  4. "Utne Independent Press Award Winners 2011".
  5. "Editor & Publisher Magazine announces winners of the 2014 EPPY Awards".