My Main Magazines

I am an unashamed magazine connoisseur, but not just for any magazines. I have a real love for longform opinion journal-magazines that offer up analysis and opinions on current affairs from that magical middle ground between technical expertise and complete vernacular. The public intellectuals and public figures who publish in these magazines are usually pretty darn smart, and have both a deep intellectual grasp of the subjects at hand, and a broad cultural-historical understanding gleaned from active life in society, and so are able to translate their ideas into relevant messages capable of informing poor dumb sons of farmboys like me. They do important work, and moreover, their work does not go unnoticed- this intelligentsia articulates the ideas and principles that policy wonks, politicians, businessmen, civil society leaders, and other members of our elite fundamentally talk in. Knowledge, it is true, is power, and those who write with fire in their pens fundamentally shape the debates that shape the policies that shape the world the rest of us inhabit. If you would read a country’s fate, read what its elites are reading and writing.

Without further ado, then, I will go ahead and list my personal favorite thought-journals and magazines and other publications:

The American Interest

An eclectic and relatively centrist-reformist-nationalist publication, TAI publishes across the ideological spectrum everything from cultural commentary to strategic commentary to political analysis in a broad historical context. It’s my favorite magazine out there.

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

A bit further to my left is Democracy Journal. Democracy Journal embodies pragmatic progressivism and publishes essays by all sorts of interesting types.

National Affairs

The self-proclaimed (and deserved) successor to the legendary journal The Public Interest, National Affairs is a thoughtful and fairly wonky journal of policy ideas and philosophical musings on conservative, market-based alternatives to the 20^th Century regulatory state.

The New Atlantis

The landmark conservative journal of science and society, The New Atlantis examines questions at the intersection between science, politics, and public policy.

City Journal

Like National Affairs, City Journal examines post-Great Society alternatives to mid-20^th Century policies- the exception is it looks almost entirely at the municipal level.

First Things

 A conservative Catholic publication, First Things excellently discusses the philosophical dimensions of American public life.

Foreign Affairs

Probably the single best resource for those interested in foreign affairs and strategic issues, Foreign Affairs is one of the oldest thought-journals in circulation and, like The American Interest, a reasonably centrist and nonpartisan outlet.

National Journal

National Journal is another excellent publication dedicated to covering American politics and policy issues. It, too, has no real policy slant, and features authors from across the ideological spectrum.

Orbis

The journal of the legendary Foreign Policy Research Institute, Orbis provides in-depth and scholarly coverage and commentary on major geopolitical trends. Like FPRI in general, it puts the events of the present in geopolitical and historical context.

The New Criterion

A neoconservative publication premised on interpreting the classics of Western Civilization anew in the materialist, postmodern age we inhabit, The New Criterion does excellent work defining cultural conservatism for the 21^st Century.

Breakthrough Journal

A reformist liberal outlet, Breakthrough Journal highlights the work of The Breakthrough Institute, an environmental think-tank committed to articulating and advancing a pro-growth environmentalism called Eco-Modernism. The journal’s essays are always refreshingly pragmatic.

The Brookings Essay

Published by the Brookings Institution, The Brookings Essay is an occasional longform analytic piece on a given topic. It is always an excellent primer.