Radical America
| Radical America
|
|
|---|---|
| description | American political magazine |
| Area of Expertise | politics and society |
| language | English |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| First edition | 1967 |
| attitude | 1999 |
| founder | Paul Buhle and Mari Jo Buhle |
| Frequency of publication | bi-monthly |
| Sold edition | 4,100 copies |
| Widespread edition | 3,600 copies |
| Article archive | Brown University Library Center for Digital Archives (sketchy) |
| ISSN (print) | 0033-7617 |
Radical America was a left-wing political magazine in the United States. The founders were the historians Paul Buhle and Mari Jo Buhle , two activists of the student organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). For the first few years, from 1967 to about 1970, Radical America was an unofficial theoretical organ of the SDS, with early editions subtitled An SDS Journal of the History of American Radicalism . During the 1970s and 1980s, the paper turned to the New Left . As a result of a decline in posts by academics in the 1990s, the magazine was discontinued in 1999.
founding
Radical America was founded in 1967 by members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The founding editors were Paul Buhle and Mari Jo Buhle , then students of history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and later professors at Brown University . The printing was initially carried out on the matrix printer of a member of the Industrial Workers of the World who lived with a fellow student of the Buhles. From 1970 the printing took place at an anarchist collective in Detroit , Michigan . During the first few years Radical America was an unofficial organ of the SDS. The anarchist poet Dan Georgakas , co-founder of Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers , gave the magazine special importance because it brought an academic background to the student and labor movement that was often denied intellectual substance.
Originally, Radical America subscriptions were sold to SDS members across the country at a low cost of $ 2 for five issues per year, with regular pricing of $ 3, or 50 cents for a single issue. The Buhles moved to Boston , Massachusetts in 1971 and relocated the magazine to their new place of residence. At this point, Radical America was already independent from the SDS. In 1973 they withdrew from the editorial office.
Content
In its first few years, the magazine devoted itself intensively to the history of the American left. The concerns of the working class and the fight against racial segregation , which still exists in the United States , occupied a large part. Political activism such as supporting a rental strike in New York City and Latin America solidarity were other focal points. The publisher Paul Buhle's enthusiasm for experimentation was evident in the first issue of 1969, which appeared under the title Radical America KOMIKS and consisted exclusively of comics . This edition reached a circulation of 30,000 copies and attracted the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , but without any consequences for the publishers. Looking back, Buhle named the underground comics, the history of the black labor movement and the history of the women's movement as the most important content for the time he was working as editor. The newspaper had represented the vision of a movement that did not want to infiltrate the political state, but instead wanted to replace it, and which aimed for a future with self-responsible action instead of social democratic or communist bureaucracy.
From 1970, when the SDS was separated, a much broader range of topics was implemented, and each issue also had a focus on content. These included the peace movement, the fight against racism, social justice and the women's movement. A concrete example was the criticism of the practice of countering racial segregation in the education system by assigning school locations, some of which are far away ("busing"). Gay themes and rock music were included as themes in the 1980s. By the end of the decade, many academic writers left the journal, which ultimately led to its discontinuation in 1999.
Edition
The number of copies to be published annually by the magazine was 4,100 monthly copies from November 1981 to October 1982, of which 2,330 were sent by post. 1270 booklets were sold individually. Only four editions with a special focus on content, including KOMIKS from 1969, achieved significantly higher print runs and generated economic profit. The paper was financed to a considerable extent by donations, and only survived more than three decades because the authors and employees received no remuneration.
literature
- Paul Buhle (Ed.): History and the New Left. Madison, Wisconsin, 1950-1970 . Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1990.
Web links
- Radical America. The Magazine Stand , Brown University Library Center for Digital Archives, numerous editions in PDF format.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Derek Seidman: An Interview with Paul Buhle . CounterPunch , March 8, 2004, accessed January 5, 2018.
- ^ Dan Georgakas (Ed.): Series editor's preface . In: Paul Buhle: From the Knights of Labor to the New World Order . Garland, New York 1997, pp. Ix, ISBN 0-8153-2225-9 .
- ^ A b c Paul Buhle and Salar Mohandesi: The Search for a Useable Past: An Interview with Paul Buhle on Radical America . Viewpoint Magazine , March 2, 2015, accessed January 5, 2018.
- ^ A b c Radical America, 1967-1999 , Brown University Library Center for Digital Archives, accessed January 5, 2018.
- ↑ John P. Demeter: Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation . In: Radical America , 1982, Volume 16, No. 4/5, p. 41, Online PDF .