Concept

New Statesman

Overview

The New Statesman (known from 1931 to 1964 as the New Statesman and Nation) is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members of the socialist Fabian Society, such as George Bernard Shaw, who was a founding director. The longest-serving editor was Kingsley Martin (1930–1960), and the most recent editor was Jason Cowley, who assumed the post in 2008 and left in 2024.

In the 2020s, the magazine is a print–digital hybrid. According to its self-description, it has a modern liberal and progressive political position. Jason Cowley, the magazine's former editor, has described the New Statesman as a publication "of the left, for the left", but also as "a political and literary magazine" with "sceptical" politics.

The magazine has recognised and published new writers and critics, as well as encouraging major careers. Its contributors have included John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, Christopher Hitchens, and Paul Johnson. Historically, the magazine was jocularly referred to as The Staggers – an example of Oxford "-er" undergraduate slang. The nickname is used as the title of its rolling politics blog.

Circulation was at its highest in the mid-1960s at 93,000. The magazine encountered substantial difficulties in the following decades as readership fell, but it was growing again by the mid-2010s. In 2020, the certified average circulation was 36,591. Traffic to the magazine's website that year reached a new high with 27 million page views and four million distinct users. Associated websites have included CityMetric (defunct since 2020), Spotlight and NewStatesman Tech. In 2018, New Statesman America was launched.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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The last of these four movements was the rise of Islam. In these four cases, the primal need of food and drink was enough to set events in motion; but as this need could only be satisfied by conquest, the four secondary passions must have very soon come into play. In the conquests of modern industrialism, the secondary passions have been almost wholly dominant, since those who directed them had no need to fear…
Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
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Hence arises a tone of cynicism among elected representatives, and a feeling that no man can retain his position in politics without deceit. This is as much the fault of the democracy as of the representatives, but it seems unavoidable so long as the main thing that all bodies of men demand of their champions is flattery. However the blame may be apportioned, the evil must be recognized as one which is bound to…
Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom
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Admiral Hall, when unveiling the Press War Memorial in October 1920, declared that the work done was unique in kind, and that without the help of the Press the operations of his Department could not have been carried out with success. As the War dragged on, the numbers employed at the Press steadily declined; the demands of Government as steadily increased; the shortage of materials of all kinds became more and more…
Oxford University Press, Some Account of the Oxford University Press, 1468-1921
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Philosophers who discussed New Statesman

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Northeastern University – London

Place in the tradition

Part of Atheism.

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