A tip of The Scrapbook homburg to our friends at the New Criterion, which embarks on its 35th year with a special issue this month.
In an introductory essay, the editors remind readers that the New Criterion‘s “longevity . . . is itself noteworthy. Serious cultural periodicals tend not to be long lived.” Which is certainly true: Its model-precursor, T. S. Eliot’s influential Criterion, ceased publication after 16 years. But that’s only half the story: The importance of the New Criterion is not its endurance but its influence, and the critical role it plays at the intersection of art and politics.
In the Internet age it is easy to forget that, in 1982, when Hilton Kramer and Samuel Lipman introduced a monthly journal dedicated to chronicling culture and the life of the mind, with a special interest in explaining and defending the civilization of the West, there were very few outlets where such perspectives were welcome. Indeed, in American intellectual life, “Western Civ” was under assault in those days—from deconstruction and postmodernism—just as it is threatened by multiculturalism and identity politics and attacks on free speech today. Then as now, the academy was in full retreat, or complicit in the intellectual fads of the age; and then as now, the New Criterion played a critical role in linking the past to the present, in illuminating the life of the mind, in championing the cultural and spiritual foundations of our civilization.
Which is not to say that reading the New Criterion has been duty rather than pleasure. Thanks to the labors of helmsman Roger Kimball (who was managing editor at the founding) and team, it fulfills its singular mission with a signature candor and vigor, with humor and passion, with deep learning and a sharp eye, well-tuned ear, and the courage to say what needs to be said about a culture, and tradition, under assault. So here’s to three-and-a-half decades—and more!
