A Pedagogue's Progress
Saturday, March 17, 2007
 
Publications I subscribe to

These are the journals and magazines that I subscribe to and get delivered to both my real and virtual mailboxes.

Journal of Modern History -- Published quarterly, the JMH covers European history from the early modern period to the present and helps me stay in touch (barely) with trends and developments in historical scholarship.

Newsweek -- Mostly read by my dad. We used to subscribe to Time, but found Newsweek to be meatier. Fareed Zakaria is always worth a read.

The American Scholar -- To be honest, I preferred the Scholar under Anne Fadiman, who kept the journal out of partisan politics and focused on publishing essays. The new man at the helm, Robert Wilson, has expanded its focus to include political pieces resembling those in the Atlantic and New Republic. Most of these pieces are very good, but I can get them elsewhere.

The Atlantic Monthly -- I love its unpredictability and eclecticism: Vatican politics, Iraq, computer games, food. Christopher Hitchens and James Fallows are superb.

The Economist -- Unmatched in breadth, it helps me keep abreast of political affairs throughout the world. I don't read the stuff on business and finance though.

The New Criterion
-- Conservative cultural review whose format hasn't changed at all since its founding. Though predictably dogmatic on a number of issues (like postmodernism), its authors write superbly and aren't afraid to flaunt their erudition. I also get this for free.

The New Republic
-- The publication whose political position I agree with the most at the present time. Although more political than the Atlantic, its cultural and literary sections are equally as good.


Comments:

Hi,

As a fellow lover of the Atlantic Monthly--Benjamin Schwarz is another notable writer I feel--I can't help but come out of the woodwork to gush in the most fanboyish way. It's a pity it isn't as famous here as the Economist is (well arguably the Economist is famous everywhere).

Speaking of The Economist, by missing out on the finance and economics sections you're missing out on a great deal. They're easily some of the best sections in the whole magazine (or newspaper, as the staff would call themselves); besides being relatively accurate (unlike the current affairs, which sometimes can feel more like assertion than real reporting), they tend to be some of the most readable, eloquent, and in the inimitable Economist fashion, wide-ranging but concise, columns on economics geared towards the casual reader. Or at least I found it so when I was studying econs in jc; and even in NS now, I still do.

Just how do you get The New Criterion (they publish some excellent reviews and poetry I find) for free?

-Singaporean lurker who dreams of getting his poetry published in Atlantic one day (I must say I like the quality of writing on your blog, so don't feel as if no one appreciates style!)

 
Yes, how could I forget Benjamin Schwarz? His book reviews are superb, and he isn't afraid to tackle stuff that normally only specialists read -- like this immense scholarly tome on medieval economic history that he once profiled.

I know I should be reading the entire Economist, but I just find finance and economics a little...boring. Not my cup of tea, alas!

Aha, how do I get TNC for free? Well, you see, on my other blog (dartobserver.blogspot.com, which is updated far less frequently these days), I used to link to TNC articles a lot. It also happens that Managing Editor James Panero and former Assistant Editor Stefan Beck are Dartmouth alumni -- Stefan and I are in the same year and were also in the same Chaucer class together. So when I ran into James during Homecoming in 2003, he was gracious enough to give me a free subscription.

Thanks for the kind words and for reading the blog. You write very well -- and you're still in NS!

 
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