The Nation is a weekly leftist periodical devoted to politics and culture. Founded on July 6, 1865 as a classical liberal publication, it is the oldest weekly in the United States. It is published by the Nation Company, L.P. at 33 Irving Place, New York City. The Nation has bureaus in Budapest, London, and Southern Africa and departments covering Architecture, Art, Corporations, Defense, Environment, Films, Legal Affairs, Music, Peace and Disarmament, Poetry, and the United Nations. The circulation of The Nation is rising and was last placed at 184,296 (2004), surpassing the neoliberal The New Republic, the neoconservative The Weekly Standard, and the conservative National Review (circulation 155,584). The Nation magazine has lost money every year of operation and is sustained by a group of almost 28,000 donors called the Nation Associates who donate funds to the periodical above and beyond their annual subscription fees.

The publisher of The Nation is Victor Navasky. It is edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel. Former editors include: Carey McWilliams. Notable past contributors to The Nation include Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader, and French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre.

Regular columns

• "Beat the Devil" by Alexander Cockburn
• "The Liberal Media" by Eric Alterman
• "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" by Patricia J. Williams
• "Subject to Debate" by Katha Pollitt
• "Look Out" by Naomi Klein
• "Deadline Poet" by Calvin Trillin

Notable Events

The Nation Washington D.C. bureau editor, David Corn broke the Valerie Plame leak scandal in the summer of 2003 in the pages of The Nation after noting that journalist Robert Novak's blowing of the spy's cover in a newspaper column could be a possible felony.

In a widely publicized and vocal break with the magazine, former columnist Christopher Hitchens left The Nation when it published a large number of letters from readers, who, Hitchens claimed, blamed America for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In 1997, MacArthur Foundation money was contributed to the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting through a MacArthur "genius grant" program, which was then headed by Catharine Stimpson , a member of The Nation magazine's Nation Institute Board.

History

Abolitionists founded The Nation in July 1865 on "Newspaper Row" at 130 Nassau Street in Manhattan. At the time, Joseph H. Richards was the publisher and E.L. Godkin was the editor. The magazine would stay at Newspaper Row for the next ninety years.

In 1881, newspaperman-turned-railroad-baron Henry Villard 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 Post's headquarters at 210 Broadway. Ironically, the New York Evening Post would later morph into the Rupert Murdoch-owned right-wing tabloid the New York Post, while The Nation is known for its progressive politics.

In 1918, Henry's Villard's son, Oswald Garrison Villard, 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 progressive orientation.

New Nation publisher Hamilton Fish and then-editor Victor Navasky moved the weekly to 72 Fifth Avenue in June 1979. In June 1998, the periodical had to move to make way for condominium development. The current offices of The Nation are now at 33 Irving Place.

Mission

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. (from The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865)

Editorial Board

Norman Birnbaum, Richard Falk, Frances FitzGerald , Eric Foner, Philip Green, Lani Guinier, Tom Hayden, Randall Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Elinor Langer, Deborah W. Meier, Toni Morrison, Richard Parker, Michael Pertschuk, Elizabeth Pochoda, Marcus G. Raskin, David Weir, and Roger Wilkins.

External links

• The Nation website
• The Nation masthead

The Nation is also the name of daily newspapers in Pakistan and Thailand.

The Nation was also a left-wing newspaper in the United Kingdom, which was merged into the New Statesman in 1931.

The Nation was also an Irish newspaper. See: The Nation.

For the township in Ontario see The Nation, Ontario.