Editing New Left Review

{{Short description|British bimonthly journal (founded 1960)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox journal
| title = New Left Review
| cover = New Left Review Front cover 140-141.png
| discipline = [[Politics]]
| abbreviation = New Left Rev.
| editor = Susan Watkins
| publisher = New Left Review Ltd
| country = [[United Kingdom]]
| frequency = Bimonthly
| history = 1960–present
| impact = 1.967
| impact-year = 2018
| website = https://newleftreview.org
| link1 = https://newleftreview.org/search
| link1-name = Online archive
| link2 =
| link2-name =
| ISSN = 0028-6060
| eISSN =
| OCLC = 1605213
| LCCN = 63028333
}}
The '''''New Left Review''''' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective.

== History ==
=== Background ===
As part of the emerging British "[[New Left]]" in the late 1950s, a number of journals were launched to carry commentary on matters of [[Marxist]] theory. One of these was ''The Reasoner'', founded by historians [[E. P. Thompson]] and [[John Saville]] in July 1956.<ref name=Birchall>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/birchall/1980/xx/nlr.html |author=Ian Birchall|title=The autonomy of theory—A short history of ''New Left Review'' (Autumn 1980) |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=29 June 2014}}</ref> Three quarterly issues were produced.<ref name=Birchall /> The publication was expanded and further developed from 1957 to 1959 as ''[[The New Reasoner]]'', with an additional ten issues produced.<ref name=Birchall /> ''The New Reasoner'' distanced itself from the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] and [[USSR]] in the wake of [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s February 1956 "[[Secret Speech]]" on the [[Joseph Stalin's cult of personality|Stalinist cult of personality]], and the Soviet repression of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Uprising]] in November 1956.<ref name=Birchall />

Another radical journal of the period was the ''[[Universities and Left Review]]'', a publication started in 1957 with less allegiance to the British communist tradition.<ref name=Birchall /> This journal was youth-oriented and [[pacifism|pacifist]] in nature, expressing opposition to the militaristic rhetoric of the [[Cold War]], voicing strong disagreement with the 1956 [[Suez War]], and supporting the burgeoning [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] (CND).<ref name=Birchall />

=== Establishment ===
''New Left Review'' was established in January 1960 when ''The New Reasoner'' and ''Universities and Left Review'' merged their Boards.<ref name=history>{{cite web |title=A Brief History Of New Left Review 1960–2010 |url=https://newleftreview.org/pages/history |website=New Left Review |access-date=15 December 2023}}</ref> The first [[editor-in-chief]] of the merged publication was [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]].<ref name=history /> The early ''New Left Review'' style, featuring illustrations on the cover and in the interior layout, was more irreverent and free-flowing than the publication's later issues, which tended to be more sombre and academic.<ref name=Birchall /> Hall was succeeded as editor in 1962 by [[Perry Anderson]].<ref name=history />

In 1993, nineteen of the members of the editorial committee resigned, citing a loss of control over content by the Editorial Board/Committee in favour of a Shareholders' Trust, which they argued was undemocratic. The Trust—composed of [[Perry Anderson]], his brother [[Benedict Anderson]], and [[Ronald Fraser (historian)|Ronald Fraser]]—said that a change was necessary for the financial sustainability of ''New Left Review''.<ref>{{cite web |website=www.wengewang.org |url=http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=17413 |title=Resignations from the Editorial Board of New Left Review(1993)&#124;万象视野 - 中国文革研究网 |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223221743/http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=17413 |archive-date=23 February 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The journal was relaunched in 2000, and Perry Anderson returned as editor until 2003.<ref name=history />

===Since 2008===
''New Left Review'' closely followed the [[financial crisis of 2007–2008]] as well as its aftermath and its global political repercussions. A 2011 essay by [[Wolfgang Streeck]], titled "The Crises of Democratic Capitalism",<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Crises of Democratic Capitalism |last=Streeck |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Streeck |date=September-October 2011 |journal=New Left Review |issue=71 |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii71/articles/wolfgang-streeck-the-crises-of-democratic-capitalism}}</ref> was called "the most powerful description of what has gone wrong in western societies" by the ''[[Financial Times]]''{{'}}s contributor [[Christopher Caldwell (journalist)|Christopher Caldwell]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Christopher|last=Caldwell|url=https://www.ft.com/content/1a505772-1114-11e1-a95c-00144feabdc0#axzz1e6K3NCbC |title=The protests failed but capitalism is still in the dock|newspaper=[[The Financial Times]]|date=19 November 2011}}</ref>

In recent years, writer [[Benjamin Kunkel]] has served as a member of the ''New Left Review'' editorial committee,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theartistsinstitute.org/artists/sept-dec-2017/benjamin-kunkel/ |title=Benjamin Kunkel |publisher=The Artists Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321195454/http://theartistsinstitute.org/artists/sept-dec-2017/benjamin-kunkel/ |date= |archive-date=21 March 2023}}</ref> while Oliver Eagleton is on the editorial staff.<ref name="Eagleton 2024">{{cite web | title=Oliver Eagleton profile | website=Substack | date=30 January 2024 | url=https://substack.com/@olivereagleton | access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref>

== Abstracting and indexing ==
In 2003, ''New Left Review'' was ranked 12th by [[impact factor]] on a list of the top 20 political science journals in the world.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210136 |title=On the use and abuse of bibliometric performance indicators: A critique of Hix's 'global ranking of political science departments' |journal=[[European Political Science]] |volume=6 |issue=3 |page=306 |year=2007 |last1=Erne |first1=Roland|hdl=10197/12877 |s2cid=143994719 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> By 2018, however, the ''[[Journal Citation Reports]]'' rated it 51st out of 176 journals in the category "Political Science", with an impact factor of 1.967.<ref name=WoS>{{cite book |year=2019 |chapter=Journals Ranked by Impact: Political Science |title=[[Journal Citation Reports|2018 Journal Citation Reports]] |publisher=[[Thomson Reuters]] |edition=Social Sciences |series=[[Web of Science]]}}</ref> In 2023, the citation database [[Scopus]] placed ''New Left Review'' in the 69th percentile, 214th out of 706 "Political Science and International Relations" journals, with a citation score of 2.2.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/27760 |title=Scopus preview - New Left Review |publisher=Scopus |access-date=7 February 2025}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Ian Birchall|Birchall, Ian]], [https://isj.org.uk/new-left-review-the-search-for-theory/ "New Left Review: The Search for Theory"], ''[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]]'', Issue 115, 2 July 2007
* Blackledge, Paul (2004). ''Perry Anderson, Marxism and the New Left'', Merlin Press.
* [[stefan Collini|Collini, Stefan]]. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/13/new-left-review-stefan-collini "A Life in Politics: The New Left Review at 50"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 13 February 2010.
* {{Cite journal |last1=Derbyshire |first1=Jonathan |title=New Left Review 61 |journal=[[New Statesman]] |volume=139 |issue=4988 |page=50 |date=15 February 2010 |issn=1364-7431 |id={{EBSCOhost|48028651}} }}
* [[Jeremy Harding|Harding, Jeremy]], [https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n03/jeremy-harding/on-nlr "On 'NLR{{'"}}], ''[[London Review of Books]]'', Vol. 47, No. 3, 20 February 2025.
* {{Cite journal |last1=Kagarlitsky |first1=Boris |title=The suicide of {New Left Review} |journal=International Socialism |issue=88 |pages=127–133 |date=2000 |issn=0020-8736 |id={{EBSCOhost|ALTP252882}} }}
* {{cite book|last=Lin|first=Chun|title=The British New Left|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=1993|isbn=0-7486-0422-7}}
* [[Nikil Saval|Saval, Nikil]]. [https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-8/reviews/new-left-review-1962-present/ "New Left Review, 1962–Present"], ''[[n+1]]'', 6 October 2009.
* Thompson, Duncan (2007). ''Pessimism of the Intellect? A History of New Left Review'', Merlin Press.
* {{Cite journal |last1=Wiener |first1=Jon |title=New Left Review at 50 |journal=[[The Nation|Nation]] |volume=290 |issue=11 |pages=7–8 |date=22 March 2010 |issn=0027-8378 |id={{EBSCOhost|48386356}} }}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|https://www.newleftreview.org}}
* [https://www.newleftreview.es/''Website of Spanish Issue'']
* [https://banmarchive.org.uk/new-reasoner/ ''The New Reasoner'' Archive of Contents], Amiel Melburn Trust Internet Archive
* [https://banmarchive.org.uk/the-reasoner/ ''The Reasoner'' Archive of Contents], Amiel Melburn Trust Internet Archive
* [https://banmarchive.org.uk/universities-left-review/ ''Universities & Left Review'' Archive of Contents], Amiel Melburn Trust Internet Archive
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140223221743/http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=17413 Text of the March 1993 resignation of the majority of the editorial committee.]

{{British New Left}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Left Review}}
[[Category:1960 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Bi-monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1960]]
[[Category:Magazines published in London]]
[[Category:New Left]]
[[Category:Political magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Socialist magazines]]
[[Category:Political science journals]]
[[Category:Bimonthly journals]]
[[Category:Marxist journals]]