The New Republic records

The New Republic is an American magazine of intellectual commentary and opinion of politics, culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann, and Walter Weyl and financially backed by Dorothy Payne Whitney and Willard Straight, who had majority ownership. The first issue was published on November 7, 1914, and the magazine leaned liberal and progressive from this point until the 1960s, when its political commentary began shifting towards the centrist and conservative. In the early decades, the commentary tended to be positive regarding socialism, the Soviet Union, until after World War II and the departure of editor Henry A. Wallace, when it began to track mainstream American liberalism. The publication critiqued the Soviet regime as well as anti-communist McCarthy-ism in the United States, and opposed the Vietnam War. Topics popular in the magazine during its early decades were women's suffrage and equal rights, labor unions, and workers' rights.

Martin Peretz purchased the magazine in March 1974, becoming the editor in 1975 when he fired former owner and editor Gilbert A. Harrison. He remained editor-in-chief until 2012. Michael Kinsley, a neoliberal, held the editor post form 1979-1981 and 1985-1989, alternating with the more leftleaning Hendrik Hertzberg (1981-1985, 1989-1991). In the 1980s, there was general support in the publication for Ronald Reagan’s anticommunist policy. It was also during this time when the magazine introduced the “back of the book” section, which included literary, cultural and arts articles edited by Leon Wieseltier. During his tenure, Peretz shifted the magazine's perspective to be highly pro-Israel, and was accused of being anti-Muslim and sexist during his deacdes as editor-in-chief of the magazine.

Andrew Sullivan, a gay conservative from Britain, was the editor from 1991-1996, leaning the position of the publication towards the right, though many writers remained liberal or neoliberal. Sullivan invited Charles Murray to contribute a lengthy article based on The Bell Curve, which had explicitly racist content. Articles by Elizabeth McCaughey regarding the Clinton administration’s healthcare plans caused controversy, as did plagiarism accusations against Ruth Shalit and the falsified information accusations toward Stephen Glass, who started his career at the magazine as a fact checker.

David Greenberg and Peter Beinart served jointly as editors for a portion of 1996, with Michael Kelly serving for a brief stint in 1996-1997. Charles Lane held the role of editor from 1997-1999. It was during this time that Glass’s falsified and made up reporting became public; though Lane guided the magazine out of a tumultuous era, he resigned when he learned Martin Peretz sought to replace him. Peter Beinart took over the role, serving as editor from 1999-2006 and overseeing the magazine as it added blogs to its online presence. In 2006, Franklin Foer took on the editing post.

Martin Peretz, Roger Hertog and Michael Steinhardt, along with Canadian conglomerate CanWest, owned the magazine up until February 2007, when Peretz sold his share to CanWest. He then bought it back in March 2009 with a group of investors when CanWest was nearing bankruptcy. Foer remained editor throughout this period, and Peretz editor-in-chief. It was during this era that the magazine went to being published twice a month, so twenty-four rather than forty-four issues per year. In 2010, they adjust downwards again. There was also a redesign in 2007 to include more visuals and art, and replaced the typeface, while the issues became larger and with more pages. The website was also redesigned.

In March 2012, the co-founder of Facebook Chris Hughes purchased the majority stake and became Editor-in-Chief. The magazine shifted to a more cultural and visual focus, without an editorial in every issues. Gabriel Snyder became the editor in late 2014, and the magazine went down to ten issues a year and relocated its offices to New York, with a goal of becoming a digital-media company. This caused a crisis amongst the editorial staff and contributing editors; literary editor Leon Wieseltier resigned in protest, and the following days saw the resignature of executive editors, culture writers and editors, and thirty-six or thirty-eight contributing editors. The December 2014 issue had to be suspended. The magazine then returned to twenty issues per year.

In early 2016, Hughes put the company up for sale, and it was purchased by Win McCormack, who named Eric Bates as editor. J.J. Gould then held the editor post from 2017-2018. In November 2017, publisher Hamilton Fish V. resigned during workplace misconduct accusations. The magazine continued to experience tumult, with Kerrie Gillis stepping in as published in February 2019 and Chris Lehmann as editor in April 2019; within months Lehmann’s work faced multiple scandals relating to the hiring of an Inequality Editor as well as the publication of Dale Peck’s op-ed “My Mayor Pete Problem.” This op-ed was retracted, but Lehmann departed in March 2021, replaced by Michael Tomasky.

Sources: "The New Republic," Wikipedia entry, accessed May 3, 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic; "The New Republic". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Jul. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-New-Republic. Accessed 3 May 2022; as well as the records in this collection.