Chronicles (magazine)

{{Short description|US paleoconservative political magazine}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

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{{Infobox magazine

| title = Chronicles

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| image_file = Chronicles magazine July 2007.png

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| image_caption = July 2007 cover

| editor = Paul Gottfried

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| frequency = Monthly

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| founded = {{start date and age|1977}}

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| country = United States

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| website = {{URL|https://chroniclesmagazine.org/}}

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}}{{Conservatism US}}

Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Charlemagne Institute and associated with paleoconservative views.{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Paul V. |title=The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2003 |location=United Kingdom}}{{Cite book |last=Hawley |first=George |title=Making Sense of the Alt-Right |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2017 |location=United States}}{{Cite web |last=Whalen |first=Eamon |date=June 28, 2023 |title=Breitbart exposed a right-winger's racist texts. How did we even get here? |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/breitbart-just-exposed-a-right-wingers-racist-texts-how-did-we-even-get-here/ |access-date=2023-09-21 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Dougherty |first=Michael Brendan |date=2016-01-19 |title=How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996 |url=https://theweek.com/articles/599577/how-obscure-adviser-pat-buchanan-predicted-wild-trump-campaign-1996 |access-date=2023-09-21 |website=The Week}} Its full current name is Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. It was founded in 1977 by the Rockford Institute. Today, the journal is published by the successor organization Charlemagne Institute. Since 2021, Paul Gottfried is the editor-in-chief.Editorial Team – Chronicles, https://chroniclesmagazine.org/editorial-team/{{Cite book |last=Prince |first=K. Michael |title=Rally 'round the Flag, Boys! South Carolina and the Confederate Flag. |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=2004 |isbn=9781570035272 |location=United States |pages=54}}''

History

In the first years since inception in 1977, the magazine was an anticommunist bi-monthly called Chronicles of Culture, edited by Leopold Tyrmand (1920–85), pen name of Jan Andrzej Stanislaw Kowalski, a Polish novelist and co-founder of the Rockford Institute who had previously written for The New Yorker.{{cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E5DF1738F931A15750C0A963948260 | title=Leopold Tyrmand, 64, Editor Who Emigrated From Poland | work=The New York Times| date=1985-03-22 | access-date=2015-01-19 | author=Obituary }}

In its first decade, the magazine grew to some 5,000 subscribers, according to E. Christian Kopff.[http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1059&theme=home&page=1&loc=b&type=cttf/ "A brief history of Chronicles" by E. Christian Kopff], First Principles Journal ([https://web.archive.org/web/20171107210404/http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1059&theme=home&page=1&loc=b&type=cttf/ Wayback machine link])

The magazine became a monthly publication in 1982. In 1984, Thomas Fleming joined as managing editor. Fleming had previously co-founded Southern Partisan magazine.{{Cite book |last=Sebesta |first=Edward |title=Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction |last2=Hague |first2=Euan |last3=Beirich |first3=Heidi |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780292779211 |pages=29–33}}{{Cite book |last=Lowndes |first=Joseph |title=A Field Guide to White Supremacy. |publisher=University of California Press |year=2021 |editor-last=Belew |editor-first=Kathleen |location=United States |pages=276 |chapter=From Pat Buchanan to Donald Trump |editor-last2=Gutierrez |editor-first2=Ramon A.}}

By 1989, the subscription list had grown to nearly 15,000. Fleming published works by authors including Sam Francis, Clyde N. Wilson, Paul Gottfried, and Chilton Williamson Jr. The magazine has covered topics such as U.S. nationalism, culture, and political philosophy.{{Cite book |last=Lowndes |first=Joseph |title=A Field Guide to White Supremacy. |publisher=University of California Press |year=2021 |editor-last=Belew |editor-first=Kathleen |location=United States |pages=276 |chapter=From Pat Buchanan to Donald Trump |editor-last2=Gutierrez |editor-first2=Ramon A.}}

The magazine’s political visibility increased in the early 1990s during Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential campaigns. In later years, its circulation saw changes, dropping from nearly 15,000 to about 6,000 by the late 1990s.

Joseph Scotchie, who has written for Chronicles, described it in 1999 as emphasizing anti-intervention in foreign policy, opposition to globalism, and skepticism toward mass immigration.PaleoConservatives: New Voices of the Old Right, by Joseph Scotchie, 1999, pgs. 1–75. In 2000, James Warren of The Chicago Tribune called Chronicles "right-leaning" and wrote, "There are few publications more cerebral". He referenced a Chronicles article analyzing the finances of Donald Trump, who was then considering a presidential campaign with the Reform Party.James Warren. "[https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-02-25-0002250349-story.html Chronicles Trumps Donald's Aspirations]", The Chicago Tribune, 25 February 2000. Retrieved 8 September 2019. Writers associated with the magazine have also been described as "Neo-Agrarian conservatives".{{Cite book |last=Winchell |first=Mark Royden |title=Reinventing the South: Versions of a Literary Region. |publisher=University of Missouri Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780826265098 |location=United States |pages=118}}

In the 2000s, the magazine faced financial challenges. According to its own account, it received a large bequest in 2008 from Hannelore Schwindt, a German-American donor who had previously submitted an article.By its own account in the Aaron Wolf obituary: "Scott Richert related a story that began with Aaron receiving in late 2006 an article submission from Egon Tausch entitled Gott Mit Uns. It described the history and subculture of German immigrants in Texas. ... The article appeared in the August 2007 edition. A few weeks later, Hannelore Schwindt, a native German who had married a Texas German, sent a small donation to Chronicles. When she died a year and a half later, her will left the magazine several million dollars."{{Cite web |date=June 2019 |title=Aaron D. Wolf: A Man of Faith and Family |url=https://chroniclesmagazine.org/in-memoriam/aaron-d-wolf-a-man-of-faith-and-family/ |access-date=2023-09-14}} The executive editor at the time was Aaron D. Wolf, who passed away in 2019.{{Cite web |date=October 2, 2017 |title=Meet Jessica Vaughan, the anti-immigrant movement's representative at tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on DACA |url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/02/meet-jessica-vaughan-anti-immigrant-movement%E2%80%99s-representative-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-senate-judiciary |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Garrett Hardin |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/garrett-hardin |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}

Srđa Trifković serves as a longtime editor for foreign affairs.{{cite news|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/foreign-affairs-editor-for-chronicles-magazine-srdja-trifkovic-predicts-that-following-croatias-accession-to-the-european-union-eu-last-month-there-will-be-no-further-enlargement-for-many-years-to-come-219412441.html|title=Foreign affairs editor for Chronicles magazine, Srdja Trifkovic|date=August 13, 2013|agency=PR Newswire}} In 2021, Paul Gottfried was appointed as interim editor, a role he continues to hold.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

= Editors =

  • Leopold Tyrmand 1977–1985{{cite web | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E5DF1738F931A15750C0A963948260 | title=Leopold Tyrmand, 64, Editor Who Emigrated From Poland | work=The New York Times| date=1985-03-22 | access-date=2015-01-19 | author=Obituary }}
  • Thomas Fleming 1985–2021
  • Paul Gottfried (acting) since 2021

References