''In These Times'' is an American politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. It was established as a broadsheet-format fortnightly newspaper in 1976 by James Weinstein, a lifelong

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

. It investigates alleged corporate and government wrongdoing, covers international affairs, and has a cultural section. It regularly reports on labor, economic and racial justice movements,

environmental issues Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

grassroots democracy Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization. Grassroots organizations can have a va ...

, minority communities, and the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

. Weinstein was the publication's founding editor and publisher; its current publisher is Christopher Hass. , it had a circulation of over 50,000. As a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, the magazine is financed through subscriptions and donations.

History

In 1976, Weinstein, a historian and former editor of ''Studies on the Left'', launched the politically progressive journal ''In These Times''. He sought to model the newsweekly on the early-20th-century socialist newspaper the '' Appeal to Reason''. For some time, its tagline was 'The Socialist Newsweekly'. "We intend to speak to

corporate capitalism In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview A large proportion of the economy of the United States and its labour mark ...

as the great issue of our time, and to socialism as the popular movement that will meet it" he told the ''

Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' on the eve of the first issue's release. While Weinstein himself was involved with both the

New American Movement The New American Movement (NAM) was an American New Left multi-tendency socialist and feminist political organization established in 1971. The NAM continued an independent existence until 1983, when it merged with Michael Harrington's Democrati ...

and the

Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC; ) was a democratic socialist organization in the United States. The DSOC was founded in 1973 by Michael Harrington, who had led a minority caucus in the Socialist Party of America and disag ...

, he wanted the journal to be independent of any one

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

or faction. Thus, over the years it has published a wide variety of contributorsfrom anarchists, to

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

members, to

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to Left-w ...

s. During the 1980s, the publication became well known for its investigative reporting of the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...

. It has since broken stories on the deliberate destruction of Iraqi water treatment plants by US forces during the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

(1990-1991),

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, and on the emergence of

mad cow disease Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...

. During the 1980s, and up to 1992, it was a biweekly newspaper and a democratic-socialist competitor to the ''

National Guardian ''The National Guardian'', later known as ''The Guardian'', was a left-wing independent weekly newspaper established in 1948 in New York City. The paper was founded by James Aronson, Cedric Belfrage and John T. McManus in connection with the 194 ...

'', which was a biweekly newspaper that was closer to

Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various c ...

. Senior editor Silja J. A. Talvi won two

National Council on Crime and Delinquency Evident Change, formerly the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), is an American nonprofit social research organization. NCCD was organized by fourteen probation officers who met at Plymouth Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 1 ...

PASS Awards (2005, 2006) for her reporting on the impact of three strikes sentencing on

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

men, and on the trend toward privatization of the prison system. The magazine was awarded the ''

Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) 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 ...

'' Independent Press Award for Best Political Coverage in 2006.

Contributors

Two of the magazine's longest-running columns are Salim Muwakkil's ''The Third Coast'', covering race relations, and Susan J. Douglas's ''Back Talk'', a critical review of the mass media. David Moberg has reported on labor and

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

for the magazine since its inception in 1976.

Joel Bleifuss Joel Bleifuss is an American journalist. He was the editor and publisher of ''In These Times'', a Chicago-based news magazine founded in 1976 by James Weinstein. During Bleifuss's tenure, the magazine published articles and columns by members ...

was editor from the mid-1980s until April 2022. More stories from his column, ''The First Stone'', have been included in Project Censored's "Top 25 Censored Stories of the Year" than of any other journalist. Other columnists include H. Candace Gorman, Laura S. Washington and Terry J. Allen. Senior editors include Allen, Patricia Aufderheide, Douglas, Moberg, Muwakkil and David Sirota. Notable contributors to the magazine have included: *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

* Alexander Cockburn *

Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and awar ...

Norman Finkelstein Norman Gary Finkelstein (; born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist, activist, former professor, and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is a g ...

Laura Flanders Laura Flanders (born 5 December 1961) is an English broadcast journalist living in the United States who presents the weekly, long-form interview show ''The Laura Flanders Show''. Flanders has described herself as a "lefty person". The brother ...

* Annette Fuentes * Juan Gonzalez * David Graeber *

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...

Miles Harvey Miles Harvey is an American journalist and author. He is best known for his 2000 book, ''The Island of Lost Maps'', which recounted the story of a Floridian named Gilbert Bland, who stole old and precious maps from libraries across America. H ...

* Doug Ireland * John Judis * Garrison Keillor *

Naomi Klein Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...

Robert W. McChesney Robert Waterman McChesney (; born December 22, 1952) is an American professor notable in the history and political economy of communications, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor ...

Rick Perlstein Eric S. Perlstein (born September 3, 1969) is an American historian and journalist who has garnered recognition for his chronicles of the post-1960s American conservative movement. The author of five bestselling books, Perlstein received the 200 ...

* Jeffrey St. Clair * Jane Slaughter * James Thindwa * Michael VanRooyen *

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

Joan Walsh Joan Maureen Walsh (born September 18, 1958) is a liberal American political pundit and journalist. Walsh is national affairs correspondent for ''The Nation,'' and was previously an on-air political analyst at CNN and MSNBC. She produced the 2 ...

* Fred Weir *

Paul Wellstone Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A ...

* Slavoj Žižek

References

External links

* , the magazine's official website (a portion of its content is available free of charge; yearly subscriptions are available for the full print edition)
Fire on the Prairie

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

(active 2003–2006) with interviews and speeches from progressive leaders {{authority control 1976 establishments in Illinois Alternative magazines Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States News magazines published in the United States Political magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1976 Magazines published in Chicago Progressivism in the United States Social democratic organizations Socialism in Illinois Socialist magazines

History

Contributors

See also

References

External links