The New Age was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938), inspired byFabian socialism, and credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited byAlfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief political commentators of the day, such asGeorge Bernard Shaw,H. G. Wells,Hilaire Belloc,G. K. Chesterton andArnold Bennett.
The New Age began life in 1894 as a publication of theChristian socialist movement, but in 1907, as a radical weekly edited byJoseph Clayton, it was struggling.[1] In May of that year, Orage andHolbrook Jackson, who had been running theLeeds Arts Club, took over the journal with financial help fromGeorge Bernard Shaw. Jackson acted as co-editor only for the first year, after which Orage edited it alone until he sold it in 1922.[2][3] By that time his interests had moved towardsmysticism, and the quality and circulation of the journal had declined. According to a Brown University press release, "The New Age helped to shape modernism in literature and the arts from 1907 to 1922".[4][5] It ceased publication in 1938. Orage was also associated withThe New English Weekly (1932–1949), as editor, during its first two years of operation (Philip Mairet took over at his death in 1934).
The magazine began as a journal of Christian liberalism and socialism.[6] Orage and Jackson re-oriented it to promote the ideas ofNietzsche,Fabian socialism and later a form ofguild socialism. ButThe New Age did publish opposing viewpoints and arguments, even on issues upon which Orage had strong opinions. Topics covered in detail included:
On this last point, the editorial line moved from initial support to bitter opposition by 1912. AsThe New Age moved away from Fabian politics, the leaders of theFabian Society,Beatrice andSydney Webb founded the journalTheNew Statesman to counter its effect in 1913, and this, combined with the growing distance between Orage and the mainstream left, reduced its influence. By then, the editorial line supportedguild socialism, expounded in articles byG. D. H. Cole andS. G. Hobson among others. AfterWorld War I, Orage began to support thesocial credit theory ofC. H. Douglas.
The New Age also concerned itself with the definition and development ofmodernism in the visual arts, literature and music, and consistently observed, reviewed and contributed to the activities of the movement.
The journal became one of the first places in England in whichSigmund Freud's ideas were discussed before the First World War, in particular byDavid Eder, an early British psychoanalyst.
The journal appeared weekly, and featured a wide cross-section of writers with an interest in literature and the arts, but also politics, spiritualism and economics.
With its woodprint illustrations reminiscent of artwork by theGerman Expressionists, its mixture of culture, politics, Nietzschean philosophy and spiritualism, and its non-standard appearance,The New Age has been cited as the English equivalent of the German Expressionist periodicalDer Sturm, a journal to which it bore a striking resemblance.