| Named after | Rockford College |
|---|---|
| Merged into | Charlemagne Institute |
| Successor | Charlemagne Institute |
| Formation | 1976 (49 years ago) (1976) |
| Founder | John A. Howard |
| Founded at | Rockford, IL |
| Dissolved | 2018 (7 years ago) (2018) |
| Type | nonprofit |
| 36-3062112 | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose | cultural advocacy |
| Headquarters |
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| Budget | Revenue: $467,026 Expenses: $1,148,857 (FYE June 2016)[1] |
TheRockford Institute was anAmerican conservative think-tank associated withpaleoconservatism, based inRockford, Illinois.[2] Founded in 1976, it ran the John Randolph Club[3] and published the magazineChronicles. In 2018 the Rockford Institute merged with theCharlemagne Institute (renamed fromIntellectual Takeout in 2018), which became the new publisher ofChronicles.[4] The Charlemagne Institute describes itself as "leading a cultural movement to defend and advance Western Civilization, the foundation of our American republic."[5]
Chronicles, the Rockford Institute, and since 2018 the Charlemagne Institute have been described as central to the paleoconservative intellectual movement.[6]Chronicles peaked in the 1990s[7] and helped shape the paleoconservative revival that accompaniedPatrick Buchanan's 1992 and 1996presidential campaigns.[8] At its peak, it had 15,000 subscribers.[7] As of September 2016 there were 6,700 subscribers.[9]
The Rockford Institute was founded in 1976 byRockford College president John A. Howard as a response to American social changes of the 1960s.Allan Carlson served as president until 1997. He and Howard left to found TheHoward Center for Family, Religion and Society which opposesabortion,divorce, and homosexuality, promoting instead the "child-rich, married parent" family,[10] an offshoot of the Rockford Institute.[2] It was located inRockford, Illinois.
Thomas Fleming, editor ofChronicles, succeeded Carlson as president of the Rockford Institute. The institute also retained the Ingersoll Prize,[2] which the Rockford Institute had established in 1983 to honor conservative thinkers.[11] Fleming, a founding member of theLeague of the South, was described as aneo-Confederate by theSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).[12]
In 1988 the institute andRichard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor, invitedCardinal Ratzinger to give a lecture in New York in January.[13] On 5 May 1989 Neuhaus and his Religion and Society Center were evicted from the institute's New York office after he complained about what he said were "the racist and anti-Semitic tones" ofChronicles.[2][14] The charge, which was supported by other leading conservatives, was denied by the institute.[15] They said the office, called Rockford East, was closed for budgetary reasons and because of concerns that Neuhaus was not following institute policies.[15] The split was seen by leading conservatives as a sign of the division between the paleoconservative and the neo-conservative elements of the movement.[16][17]
The John Randolph Club (1989–1995) was a project of the Rockford Institute to promote alliances between paleoconservatives andpaleolibertarians.[18] The club has been described asneo-Confederate, promotingsecession, and favoring white Southerners.[19] Founding members included the radical libertarianMurray Rothbard,Jared Taylor of the white nationalist journalAmerican Renaissance, the white nationalistPeter Brimelow, the writerSamuel Francis, and the journalist and politicianPat Buchanan.[19] It was named forJohn Randolph (described by the historianQuinn Slobodian as "a slaveholder whose catchphrase was 'I love liberty, I hate equality'").[19]Chronicles promoted the club's activities.[18]
In 2018 the Rockford Institute merged with the Charlemagne Institute (renamed from Intellectual Takeout in 2018), which became the new publisher ofChronicles.[4] As of 2021[update] Devin C. Foley is listed as the Charlemagne Institute's chief executive officer.[20]
Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Rockford Institute. Its full current name isChronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. The magazine is known for promoting anti-globalism, anti-intervention, and anti-immigration stances within conservative politics, and is considered one of the leadingpaleoconservative publications.[21][22][independent source needed]
As of 2017[update], the executive editor was Aaron D. Wolf[23] and, as of 2012[update],Srđa Trifković was editor for foreign affairs.[24] Contributors over the years have included the conservative activist Peter Gemma.[25][better source needed] As of 2021[update], its website namesPaul Gottfried as its Interim Editor-in-Chief and Edmund Welsch as Executive Editor, and was hosted by (and listed as a programme of) the Charlemagne Institute.[26][20]
In 2000,James Warren ofThe Chicago Tribune calledChronicles "right-leaning" and wrote, "There are few publications more cerebral". He described aChronicles article criticizing the finances ofDonald Trump, who was then considering aReform Party presidential campaign.[27]
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describedChronicles in 2017 as "a publication with strong neo-Confederate ties that caters to the more intellectual wing of the white nationalist movement",[28] and in another article said it was "controversial even among conservatives for its racism and anti-Semitism".[29]
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