benho's Full Review: Harper's Magazine Subscription
My cousin, doctoral student in urban studies, and I, doctoral student in economics, share a friendly difference of opinions. Public policy-wise, we disagree on just about everything. For Christmas, she bought me a subscription to Harper’s, I countered with a gift subscription to the magazine that best represents my world-view, The Economist[1]. I have now received three issues of Harpers’. Here are my thoughts.
Harper’s is a monthly news analysis/general interest magazine with a stunningly long history that dates back to before the civil war (1850). Unlike the packed prose that fills each week’s issue of the Economist, brimming with news from every corner of the world, Harper’s is a restrained affair, with deep discursive tracts and less cramped pages, printed on heavy paper and richly illustrated with random well-reproduced reproductions of modern art (as opposed to the quirky subtle humor one finds in the stock photos that pepper the Economist).
I would be remiss with regard to my cousin for not mentioning that the current Editor in Chief, Lewis Lapham is widely considered to be among the best grammarians of all users of the English language.
The magazine can largely be dissecting into three parts, the features, the main stories, and the assorted departments. The most famous feature is the Harper’s Index—the precursor to “By the Numbers” section that Time stole from Newsweek that stole it from Harper’s—where you learn facts like “The number of states where Walmart is the biggest employer: 21” or “The amount the U.S. Air Force spent on cowboy hats: $4,896.” The features section largely contains little snippets of poetry or text found from collected sources such as the instruction manual for USDA meat inspectors, or a 19th century American pamphlet on how to host a Communist rally, complete with possible dances and a recipe for punch. The funniest thing I have read in quite some time with the entire actual U.N. translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into Nigerian pidgin English. For example,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear
becomes:
Since e be like say, dem no see our right as any ting and dem come de do dem as dem like, dis come make people de behave like say dem be animals, dis come vex everibodi, so tay, dem come talk say everi human being must go get their freedom,
The main articles each month tend to be long, expert, in-depth, and discursive. Recent topics range from the War in Iraq, the Washington Consensus of economic policy, Renaissance architecture, and the anthropology of human social evolution. Expertly written on fascinating topics, but alas, on subjects economic or political, Harper’s tends to be blinded by its own political sensibilities. More on this in a sec.
The magazine always ends with a new piece of short fiction, and then book reviews written by the likes of John Updike. A neat tidy consistent format that is quite a satisfying read.
As the social psychologists Lord, Ross and Lepper famously showed, bias is in the eye of the beholder. Which is why the New York Times is simultaneously called left-wing tripe symptomatic of the liberal media, and right-wing patsies of corporate interests. Thus my opinion is not entirely to be trusted, though I try to be as objective as possible. Harper’s plainly does not. Lewis Lapham himself is particularly guilty of bias, typically writing on the incalculable evil that is George Bush, and the evil of anyone who might support him. A good illustration might be Thomas Frank’s article on the federal budget in the June 2003 issue. Granted, the federal budget is largely filled with propaganda, as is any document ever written by a politician, and it is useful to dig through the chaff. However, the response is equally propagandistic. Just like Clinton’s recent infuriatingly stupid statement that he has never met anyone intelligent who supports the dividend tax cut, I assure you that nearly any respected economist you will ever talk to (the vast majority of whom vote Democrat), from Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, to the apotheosized Alan Greenspan, will not come out against the dividend tax cut, because they know that the double taxation of corporate income is a gross inefficiency of the system. Now, most economists would worry about the increased deficits, and the increased inequality, and thus many if not most would suggest offsetting tax increases in other areas, the wisdom of a dividend tax cut is largely unquestioned. Thus, while Frank happily cites economists when they are contrary to the Bush opinion, he blithely ignores economic opinion when it suits him and instead panders to what most Harper’s readers want to hear.
A brief glance at the other reviews posted thus far seems that readers buy it, hook, line and sinker. Their preconceptions are stroked and their dogma never challenged. ‘tis a shame, really, yet endemic.
However, Harper’s ideas are still always interesting, and always well considered and thus I read on. And when the topic shifts to other less controversial matters, Harper’s is among the best. Thus I heartily recommend Harper’s, but only if you read it with a skeptical eye, as professed by The Economist. Better yet, subscribe to both and decide yourself.
Somehow, I will have to find a way to fit Harper’s in among the other five magazines I get. At least it’s a monthly, and a relatively inexpensive monthly at that. And anything that has articles from the civil war quoted in my history books is pretty darn cool.
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[1] To see my opinion tangentially about the Economist, you can see:
Offering quality fiction and nonfiction commentary on politics, literature, culture, and science, Harper's Magazine is an eclectic blend of essays, fi...More at Magazineline
Harper's magazine is an award-winning journal of opinion and thought. Harper's magazine balances coverage of political, social, economic and cultural ...More at Magazines.com
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