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 October 2002 cover | |
| Acting Managing Editor | David Boddiger |
|---|---|
| Categories | Politics,culture |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Founder | Robert M. La Follette, Sr. |
| Founded | 1909; 116 years ago (1909) (asLa Follette's Weekly) |
| First issue | 1929; 96 years ago (1929) (asThe Progressive) |
| Company | Progressive, Inc. (a non-profit corporation) |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Language | English |
| Website | progressive.org |
| ISSN | 0033-0736 |
| OCLC | 531780706 |
The Progressive is a left-leaning American magazine and website covering politics and culture. Founded in 1909 by U.S. senatorRobert M. La Follette Sr. and co-edited with his wifeBelle Case La Follette, it was originally calledLa Follette's Weekly and thenLa Follette's.[1] In 1929, it was recapitalized and had its name changed toThe Progressive.[1][2][3] For a period,The Progressive was co-owned byLa Follette family andWilliam Evjue's newspaperThe Capital Times.[3] Its headquarters are inMadison, Wisconsin.[4]
The publication coverscivil rights andcivil liberties-related topics, immigrant issues,environmentalism,criminal justice reform, and democratic reform.[5] Its current acting and managing editor isDavid Boddiger.[6] Previous editors included La Follette Sr., Belle Case La Follette, their sonRobert Jr.,William Evjue, Morris Rubin,Erwin Knoll, Matthew Rothschild,Bill Lueders andRuth Conniff.
On the first page of its first issue, La Follette wrote this introduction to the magazine:
In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable. Our great industrial organizations [are] in control of politics, government, and natural resources. They manage conventions, make platforms, [and] dictate legislation. They rule through the very men elected to represent them. The battle is just on. It is young yet. It will be the longest and hardest [battle] ever fought for Democracy. In other lands, the people have lost. Here we shall win. It is a glorious privilege to live in this time, and have a free hand in this fight for government by the people.[5]
Some of the campaignsLa Follette's Weekly engaged in were non-intervention in World War I,[2] opposition to thePalmer Raids in the early 1920s, and calling for action against unemployment during theDepression. La Follette's wife,Belle, edited the publication's women's section, and also wrote articles for the publication condemningracial segregation.[1] An early associate editor was the writerHerbert Quick.[7]
During the 1940s,The Progressive adopted ananti-Stalinist view of theSoviet Union.[8][9]
During the early 1940s, the magazine argued that the United States should stay out ofWorld War II.[2] Following theattack on Pearl Harbor,The Progressive declared its support for the American war effort.[2] However,The Progressive also condemned the dropping of the atom bomb onHiroshima, in contrast to bothThe Nation andThe New Republic's support for the bombing.[8]The Progressive reprinted an essay fromThe Christian Science Monitor byRichard Lee Strout, arguing that by using the bombs, "The United States has incurred a terrible responsibility to history which now, unfortunately, can never be withdrawn".[8]
In 1947,The Progressive's editors announced they were suspending publication. However, after readers raised $40,000 to save the magazine,The Progressive returned as a monthly magazine issued as a non-profit venture.[1][2]
In the 1950s,The Progressive criticizedMcCarthyism, although the magazine agreed that the U.S. government had the right to blacklist members of theCommunist Party.[1]The Progressive issued a special issue criticizing McCarthy,McCarthy: A Documented Record in 1954; sections from the issue were read aloud in theU.S. Senate, and it became the magazine's best-selling issue.[2][10]The Progressive also criticized U.S. nuclear policy and clandestineCIA activity in this period.[1]
In the 1960s, the magazine published five articles byMartin Luther King Jr. andJames Baldwin'sopen letter, "My Dungeon Shook - Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation", the first section ofThe Fire Next Time.The Progressive also denouncedU.S. involvement in Indochina.[1]
In 1984,The Progressive published "Behind the Death Squads" byAllan Nairn, a critique ofU.S. policy in El Salvador.[2]
The Progressive opposed thePersian Gulf War, accusing theGeorge H. W. Bush administration of rejecting any options for peaceful negotiation of the crisis. While condemningSaddam Hussein's government for its abuse ofhuman rights, it accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy for not taking action against other governments that also abused human rights.[11] The magazine also opposed thesecond Iraq War.[12]
In 1979,The Progressive gained national attention for its article byHoward Morland, "TheH-bomb Secret: How we got it and why we're telling it", which the U.S. government suppressed for six months because it contained classified information. The magazine prevailed in a landmarkFirst Amendment case ofprior restraint,United States v. Progressive, Inc..[1]
Located a few blocks from theWisconsin State Capitol,The Progressive coveredthe protests that began in February 2011 in response toGovernor Scott Walker'sWisconsin budget repair bill.Madison Magazine namedThe Progressive's political editorRuth Conniff as one of its Editors' Choice in 2011 for her "frontline dispatches from inside and outside the State Capitol and the courtroom across the street".[13]
For its 100th year in print, the magazine published a book featuring "some of the best writing inThe Progressive from 1909 to 2009"[14] titledDemocracy in Print, published by theUniversity of Wisconsin Press.
With a fall to 27,000 subscribers in 1999, in April 2004, following theIraq War,The Progressive's circulation reached a record 65,000.[14] By 2010, circulation had settled near 47,000.[15]
The Progressive solicits gifts, grants, and sponsorships, publicizing donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per calendar year, according to its website.[16]
Throughout the years,The Progressive has published articles byJane Addams,James Baldwin,Louis Brandeis,Noam Chomsky,Clarence Darrow,John Kenneth Galbraith,Charles V. Hamilton,[17]Nat Hentoff,Seymour Hersh,[17]Molly Ivins,June Jordan,Helen Keller,Martin Luther King Jr.,Sidney Lens,[18]Jack London,Milton Mayer,A.J. Muste,George Orwell,Marcus Raskin,[18]Bertrand Russell,[19]Edward Said,Carl Sandburg,Upton Sinclair,Lincoln Steffens,I.F. Stone,Norman Thomas,George Wald,[18]James Wechsler[17] andHoward Zinn.
It has also publishedliberal politicians such asRuss Feingold,J. William Fulbright,Dennis Kucinich,George McGovern,Bernie Sanders,Adlai Stevenson, andPaul Wellstone.[20]
The Progressive, an anti-Stalinist monthly
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