Please Recommened (And Classify) Political Magazines
November 17, 2015 4:11 PM   Subscribe

Quarterly Essay is mentioned here and sounds really interesting. I've read The American Interest, The Economist and Foreign Affairs while stuck in airports, and currently subscribe to Z Magazine. What other political / current affairs exist and how would they be described (format / political position)?
posted by andrewcooke to Society & Culture (20 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
There's Utne Reader. An old room mate subscribed, she used to joke about guys in gray suits and really shiny black shoes coking around the neighborhood, i.e., pretty much on the left end of the spectrum.
posted by rudd135 at 4:31 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: If you like Z... Mother Jones does some really good political reporting. They are left-almost-radical-but-not-quite. I've always liked the Economist because it really covers the world and is critical of the US even though it's a bit Libertarian (in a "go go free market!" way) leaning. There's this big chart at Wikipedia if you want to check what ratings people are giving magazines versus what Wikipedia thinks of them.
posted by jessamyn at 4:38 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


Since I lean leftist/radical, I'm fairly sure everything I read is in that scope.

Guernica Mag / Online
Al Jazeera America / Online

I personally love the two above, because they cover issues that I care about, from the perspectives of marginalized people, and have some stunning editorials. They also both cover well-known news events in more depth and coverage than the major broadcasting networks, which is also what I look for in a publication. I'm not a fan of the moderate-libertarian bias that most mainstream media publications cover, since I find them rather shallow and lacking context of deeper historical understanding.
posted by yueliang at 4:42 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


OK, here's the full range:

The Nation — far left

The New Republic — liberal (sometimes miscategorized because people are thinking of former incarnations or confusing it with National Review; I assure you, it's decidedly liberal)

The American Prospect — liberal

The Atlantic — liberal-ish? (not as overtly ideological as the above)

Reason — libertarian

National Review — conservative (I assume you're pretty liberal since you subscribe to Z, but I recommend National Review to anyone as the best source for "What are some of the smartest conservatives out there saying about this?")

Commentary — conservative

I also recommend checking out the links in the left-hand sidebar of Arts & Letters Daily, under "Magazines."
posted by John Cohen at 4:47 PM on November 17, 2015 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: (Thanks for the answers so far) I guess the WIkipedia article is the big list, so maybe I should be more specific in my interests, which are for long-form, thought-provoking pieces. I am not so bothered what the political slant is (and actually won't be renewing my Z-mag subscription). That's why the Quarterly Essay piqued my interest - one long article per issue (but I'm not in Australia and not Australian).

(The Salisbury Review is one I am interested in, largely because I enjoyed an annoying article by Roger Scruton, for example)
posted by andrewcooke at 4:48 PM on November 17, 2015


My rather hazy memory is that Quarterly Essay was started partly because there wasn't another publication like it - something longer than a magazine piece, but shorter than a book. I'd love to see more like it, because lots of the book-length non-fiction about current events that I read seems like a good idea stretched too thin for the sake of making it long enough to be a book.
posted by une_heure_pleine at 5:28 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


John Cohen's suggestion of looking through Arts & Letters Daily is basically what I did 15 years ago.

I'm actually a bit ashamed to say I like the new New Republic. The American Prospect is a pretty good liberal mag. Slate, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker are generalist magazines, but with good political coverage.

As a somewhat quirky conservative myself, if recommend the American Conservative over National Review or the Weekly Standard, although the latter two are more mainstream. Front Porch Republic is occasionally good, assuming you're ok with online publications and not just physical paper.

Foreign Policy has done some good stuff recently.

Maclean's, the Walrus, Der Spiegel, the Spectator, and the New Statesman are good international mags.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:31 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Jacobin. Socialist.
posted by thirdletter at 5:36 PM on November 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I think you would like n+1
posted by littlewater at 5:52 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Baffler: Criticism (co-founded by Thomas Frank of What's the matter w/ Kansas fame)
In These Times: Social Justice/Anti-corporate
posted by zenon at 6:32 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Haha Roger Scruton is annoying!


Do you like the New York Review of Books? LRB? Times Literary Supplement?

(The New York Review in particular is a favorite of mine. A rather special institution.)

They are all broadly in the long-form "arts and letters" category. Much of what they publish is nominally book review, but they are really more review essays, not like the book reviews that appear in the dailies. Often the book(s) under review are simply the starting point for some argument.

NYRB has a sort of New York-New England pre-New-Left-ish editorial perspective, but is not doctrinaire and has an interesting range of writers.

LRB is a bit more Marxist.

TLS I don't read enough to say.
posted by grobstein at 6:35 PM on November 17, 2015 [4 favorites]


My AskMe looking for Quarterly Essay-esque works might be somewhat pertinent.
posted by zamboni at 8:53 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think that Jacobin is more post-left, anarchistish, than it is socialist.
posted by PinkMoose at 10:18 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


I always enjoy the New Statesman. Weak left-ish in terms of politics. First half of the mag is politics and current affairs; back half is arts and culture. I enjoy both halves equally.

It is of course pretty much the mirror image of the Spectator - which I don't personally read. Spectator flirts a bit more with deliberate controversy and lefty-baiting, which doesn't do much for me. A few interesting columnists though (I like Isabel Hardman), and occasionally a few articles that are really worth the time to read. Still don't think I'd buy it or subscribe though.
posted by bifter at 1:37 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


NYRB is terrific. LRB is pretty good, too.
posted by persona au gratin at 3:14 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


For UK (and occasional EU) stuff, Private Eye seems to have some very good sources in local and state-level politics. It also manages to inject just the right level of sharp, British satirical wit, too.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 3:54 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


Harper's, "a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts", is my favorite. Super classy, writing is long-form and thought provoking. Reads neutral to my eye but in reality leans left.
posted by Polychrome at 6:04 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: thanks folks. i did subscribe to lrb for a long time (didn't list it in the question because i was afraid it would push things too far away from politics). which may explain why, after poking around, i think i may try n+1 next.
posted by andrewcooke at 3:54 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


I like the New Internationalist but then I'm a rotten socialist at heart.
posted by longbaugh at 2:13 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: oh, that brings back memories. i did subscribe to them once, nearly 20 years ago. thanks.
posted by andrewcooke at 3:19 AM on December 24, 2015


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