History: USA: Pubs: Politics (1944 - 1949)
Introduction to
Politics(1944 - 1949)
Politics was a liberal/social-democratic journal founded and edited by Dwight Macdonald from 1944 to 1949. Macdonald had previously been editor at Partisan Review from 1937 to 1943, but after falling out with its publishers, quit to start Politics as a rival publication, first on a monthly basis and then as a quarterly.
Politics published essays on politics and culture and included among its contributors James Agee, John Berryman, Bruno Bettelheim, Paul Goodman, C. Wright Mills, Mary McCarthy, Marianne Moore, Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, and Hannah Arendt.The journal reflected Macdonald's interest in European culture. He used Politics to introduce US readers to the thinking of the French philosopher Simone Weil, publishing several articles by her, including "A Poem of Force", her reflections on the Iliad. He also printed work by Albert Camus. Another European, the Italian political and literary critic Nicola Chiaromonte, was also given space in the journal.
Politics was also Macdonald's vehicle for his repeated and energetic attacks against Henry Wallace and his 1948 Progressive Party campaign for President.