''The Wilson Quarterly'' is a
magazine published by the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The magazine was founded in 1976 by
Peter Braestrup and
James H. Billington
James Hadley Billington (June 1, 1929 – November 20, 2018) was an American academic and author who taught history at Harvard and Princeton before serving for 42 years as CEO of four federal cultural institutions. He served as the 13th Librarian ...
. It is noted for its nonpartisan, non-ideological approach to current issues, with articles written from various perspectives.
From Summer 2012 it has been published online.
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
George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
,
John Updike,
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christopher ...
, and
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
.
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.
When Peter Braestrup left the magazine in 1989 to join Billington at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
, 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
Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the World War II, Second World War, in which ...
.
The magazine continued to focus on public questions, exemplified by the 1998 cluster "Is Everything Relative?" with articles by
E. O. Wilson,
Richard Rorty
Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic ...
, and
Paul R. Gross debating Wilson's claim in ''
Consilience
In science and history, consilience (also convergence of evidence or concordance of evidence) is the principle that evidence from independent, unrelated sources can "converge" on strong conclusions. That is, when multiple sources of evidence are ...
'' 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
Andres or Andrés may refer to:
*Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US
*Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France
*Andres (name)
*Hurricane Andres
* "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7
See also ...
and
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (born December 20, 1950) is a professor at the University of Miami's School of Architecture and an architect and urban planner in Miami, Florida.
Plater-Zyberk is considered to be a representative of the New Urbanism scho ...
offered an early in-depth look at the
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually i ...
and some of the animating ideas behind
Smart Growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood sc ...
.
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
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
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
Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog ''Marginal R ...
to liberal political thinker
Benjamin Barber
Benjamin R. Barber (August 2, 1939 – April 24, 2017) was an American political theorist and author, perhaps best known for his 1995 bestseller, '' Jihad vs. McWorld'', and for 2013's ''If Mayors Ruled the World''. His 1984 book of political ...
. In 2006, ''The Wilson Quarterly'' received an ''
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 General Excellence and in 2011 for International Coverage.
Digital format
In 2012, ''The Wilson Quarterly'' changed to a
digital-only publishing model.
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''.
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).
References
External links
*
Official archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson Quarterly
1976 establishments in Washington, D.C.
2012 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.
Cultural magazines published in the United States
News magazines published in the United States
Online magazines published in the United States
Quarterly magazines published in the United States
Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
Defunct political magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1976
Magazines disestablished in 2012
Magazines published in Washington, D.C.
Online magazines with defunct print editions