Notes On Publication
Mission Statement
The aim of The American Prospect is to contribute to a renewal of America's democratic traditions by presenting a practical and convincing vision of liberal philosophy, politics, and public life. We publish articles for the general reader that attempt to break through conventional understanding and creatively reframe public questions. Ours is not a magazine of complaint, of angry gestures, or of private irritations. It is a magazine of public ideas, firmly committed -- however unfashionably -- to a belief in public improvement. America can do much good, and it can do much better.
The American Prospect was launched in 1990 by Paul Starr, Robert Kuttner, and Robert B. Reich. Originally a quarterly, it shifted to bimonthly publication in 1996 and most recently to biweekly in 1999. The Prospect is available on newsstands, by subscription, and online. It is published by The American Prospect, Inc., an independent nonprofit organization established by the magazine's founders. We are also proud to host and produce the Moving Ideas Network, a disseminator of the leading research from over 60 progressive policy organizations.
The American Prospect does not back individual political candidates, nor does it attempt to achieve unanimity or consistency among its writers. It seeks to provide a forum for working through the heated controversies and hard choices that vex its editors and writers as much as other Americans. The magazine, however, generally reflects moral and political commitments that are broadly identified with the liberal and progressive traditions in America.
The impetus for founding The American Prospect came from the conservative ascendancy of the past two decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, many older liberal publications grew tired or ambivalent. Meanwhile, vigorous, well-financed conservative publications, think tanks, and communication networks developed. New circumstances required liberals and progressives to rethink much that they had taken for granted, but they also required new energy and new institutions with a strong, positive sense of their own -- and America's -- mission.
The original 1989 prospectus for the magazine said:
The American Prospect will be written for the broadly educated reader. It will avoid both technical jargon and sloganeering. We want not simply clear and readable writing but writing that combines force and ease. ... It will be a journal of reasons, reflections, controversies, cases, analysis, memory, vision.
Those continue to be the ideals we set for The American Prospect today.
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