Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
One of the great highlights of my trip to America was the chance to meet at last my colleagues at City Journal, whom I'd never before met in the flesh. I confessed to editor Brian Anderson at that meeting that while some young women fantasize about becoming movie stars or ballerinas, my childhood dream had been to write for City Journal--an admission that surely marks me as a weirdo par excellence, but you know, I am what I am.
My first City Journal idol was Heather MacDonald, whose work about crime in New York struck me as the model of what such writing should be. How to Train Cops, for example, combines everything I think admirable in investigative journalism--it's investigative, for one, it's not armchair analysis; it's riveting, and it teaches the reader many things he did not know and forces him to consider an entirely new point of view. My new idol at City Journal is Nicole Gelinas, who is much younger than I'd imagined; I had assumed that someone who wrote with such authority would be some species of austere dowager empress, but I was quite wrong. Her work has been the gold standard of analysis on the financial meltdown. If you read only one article on the subject, let it be Surveying the Wreckage. There are more wonderful writers at City Journal than I could name, but above all, there is an editorial seriousness about the magazine: It is committed to noble journalistic values that are by and large disappearing.
So it was a delight to discover that my fantasies about the place were absolutely accurate. (How often can one say that?) The meeting spoiled me, really, because after that all subsequent conversations in America seemed flat and lifeless--our Ricochet gathering apart, of course. Everyone was funny, too. I wish I could remember the dialogue from the interchange about the '70s, because it really cracked me up, but all I can remember is the last line: "No, the seventies were great." It was all in the delivery. You had to be there, I guess.
I was glad I was. The existence of places like the City Journal conference room is another reason I can't quite get behind the fashion of predicting America's complete and imminent demise. Not when we've still got so many bright people who know how to think straight and really have a good time doing it.
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
Claire Berlinski:
So it was a delight to discover that my fantasies about the place were absolutely accurate. (How often can one say that?)
Glad to hear it. 'Cuz I've got a mad crush on City Journal, too.
City Journal is so more crushable than Justin Bieber.
Edited on Sep 14, 2010 at 11:34amAug '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
Best magazine in the US. Favorite gift for good friends. Beautiful wrapping for such brilliance.
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
Claire, I'm jealous! I'm a huge fan of City Journal. I've met Heather in person -- she's great -- but haven't met most of the others. Perhaps when we have our NYC Rico cocktail party?
Edited on Sep 14, 2010 at 11:47amMay '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
I recently subscribed and I was truly amazed. I had read articles online but the entire magazine is superb. And it is just gorgeous. I carried the summer edition around with me for a week, showing it off to people and pointing out the beauty of the cover, the classic black & white pages and the quality of the paper. Brilliant publication!
Jun '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
City Journal is superb. Published quarterly, it complements the other great American conservative journals: The Weekly Standard (weekly), The National Review (bi-weekly), The New Criterion (arts and culture from a conservative perspective—monthly), and Commentary (monthly). Anyone who says that conservatism lacks thoughtful, intellectually vibrant commentary needs to spend time with these excellent journals.
Claire mentions Heather Mac Donald and Nicole Gelinas (both leading lights of City Journal). I would add its editor, Brian Anderson, and other wonderful commentators like Guy Sorman (a Frenchman who writes perceptively about American economic issues), Theodore Dalrymple (otherwise known as Anthony Daniels, who writes on culture, among other things), and our own Andrew Klavan and Claire Berlinski.
It also has a great website.
Edited on Sep 14, 2010 at 1:05pmJul '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
I second that, tabula rasa. I would add that I also enjoy receiving Imprimis in the mail too.
Jul '10
Re: Anecdotes from America, Part II: In Praise of City Journal
Add The Claremont Review of Books to the list above, and you're pretty much in periodical heaven.