WE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
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Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
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Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
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Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
You cannot have a viable political movement if it doesn't have its own press.
Twenty-five Years of In These Times
1976-2001: From Jimmy Carter to Osama Bin Laden, highlights from the most important stories and most intriguing voices to have appeared in our pages.
Anniversary Greetings
Thanks to our friends and supporters.
Appealing to Reason
Back Talk
The real toy story.
Back on the air at Pacifica.
India and Pakistan inch closer to war over Kashmir.
No Relief
Behind Argentina's economic meltdown.
The World Economic Forum is coming to New York.
Under the Radar
Bush quietly thwarts environmental regulations.
Private Schooling
Edison Inc. bids to take over Philadelphia education.
Kathleen Zellner: Freedom Fighter.
Follow the Money
BOOKS: It makes the world go 'round.
Not So Innocent
BOOKS: Arthur Schnitzler, sexual neurosis and the bourgoisie.
FILM: Ali and Black Hawk Down
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January 18, 2002
Appealing to Reason
Weinstein’s newspaper did resemble the Appeal—in its Midwestern sensibilities
and populist tone, in its orientation toward the labor movement and electoral
politics, in its commitment to avoid sectarianism and foster open debate. And
much like the Appeal—which challenged the robber barons of the Industrial
Revolution—this newspaper was being launched, as Weinstein would recall
a few years later, at a time when “Americans were beginning to lose faith,
not just in a particular politician or administration, but in the existing system.” When the first issue of In These Times appeared on November 15, 1976—just
40 cents for a 24-page tabloid—the staff saw itself at the vanguard of
a new majority. As a new new left grew and prospered, they reasoned, so would
the newspaper. Oops. The left didn’t grow or prosper. Instead of riding the wave to mass
appeal, In These Times has struggled to keep its head above water. Yet
against the odds—and the newspaper-cum-magazine has been published during
some dark days for the American left—In These Times has survived,
even thrived, for 25 years. How did we make it this far? Though relatively new to the staff, I feel qualified to answer that question,
having spent the better part of the past year editing an essay collection—Appeal
to Reason: The First 25 Years of In These Times (forthcoming from Seven
Stories Press)—to mark the magazine’s silver anniversary. I combed
through the archives, reading thousands of articles from each of the more than
900 issues we’ve published over the years. While searching for the best
articles to excerpt in the book, I began to understand why—when so many
other publications have come and gone—In These Times has persevered. In These Times has never wavered from its essential mission, as Weinstein
succinctly put it in the very first editorial, “to speak to corporate capitalism
as the great issue of our time.” It may no longer be hailed as “the
independent socialist newspaper” on the masthead, but In These Times
has maintained a remarkably consistent worldview and never relinquished its
vision of nurturing a viable progressive movement with broad, popular appeal. This dedication to a pluralistic, pragmatic left has been exemplified in the
diversity of our contributors (and readers): socialists and Democrats, liberals
and anarchists, journalists and academics, greens and union members, even the
occasional conservative or Silicon Valley tycoon. In These Times has
always committed its limited resources to honest (not objective) journalism,
upholding the traditions of its muckraking predecessors, challenging the conventional
wisdom, and refusing to follow the agenda of political hacks or PR flacks. While the magazine has given numerous young writers their first opportunities—and
many veteran journalists a chance to write about events and ideas that matter
free from ideological constraints—In These Times often has been
defined by the trio of David Moberg, Salim Muwakkil and Joel Bleifuss. Their
writing has set the high standards for what an In These Times story should
be: clear, concise, provocative, exhaustively reported. These are the qualities you’ll find in every issue, whether the article
is written by old friends—from Pat Aufderheide to G. Pascal Zachary—or
newer voices like David Graeber and Naomi Klein. Of course, all of our writers
have been aided by a succession of talented, hardworking editors, a creative,
resourceful art staff (especially Jim Rinnert, who has been here for more than
two decades), and the truly underappreciated business department. But most importantly, these 25 years would have been impossible without the
support of our readers, donors and sustainers. Your loyalty and generosity allow
In These Times to continue its increasingly important work. Here’s
to all of you. Happy anniversary. |
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WE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
hen James Weinstein moved to Chicago in 1976, he set out to create a fiercely
independent journal that would inform, educate and critically analyze an emerging
popular movement on the American left. A historian by trade, Weinstein modeled
his newspaper on the Appeal to Reason, a socialist weekly that boasted
more than 750,000 subscribers at its peak around 1912 and featured the writing
of Upton Sinclair, Mother Jones and Eugene Victor Debs.