New Society (magazine)

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New Society was a left-of-centre British weekly political magazine founded in 1962 [1]. Its focus was the social sciences, which were just becoming 'accepted' as a respectable academic area at that time. This also meant that a booming jobs market in the area soon produced a good advertisement income-flow.

It was modelled to a certain extent on the already-flourishing New Scientist magazine, which had been founded in 1952 [2] and did for the sciences what New Society aimed to do for the social sciences. However, New Society was less successful and had a shorter life-span.

New Society was acquired in 1988 by the New Statesman, which merged the editorial teams and for the following eight years was renamed New Statesman and Society, before reverting to its former name.[[3]]

Notable members of staff or contributors included:

• Timothy Raison (Editor 1962-68)
• Paul Barker (Editor 1968-86)
• Reyner Banham
• John Berger
• Richard Boston
• David Cooper
• Frank Parkin
• Ray Gosling
• Caroline St John-Brooks
• Jeremy Lawrence
• David Lipsey
• Colin MacInnes
• George Melly
• Richard Neville
• Peter Hall
• Melanie Phillips
• Cedric Price
• Dennis Potter
• Robert Taylor
• Michael Young

[edit] Bibliography

• Paul Barker (1972) One for Sorrow, Two for Joy: Ten Years of "New Society", Allen and Unwin, ISBN 0-04-300041-X
• Paul Barker (ed) (1977) Arts in Society (reprint: 2006, Five Leaves Publications, ISBN 1-905512-07-4) - contains essays by John Berger and Angela Carter, among others