The Week

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Cover of U.S. edition from December 16, 2005.

The Week is the name taken by three weekly newsmagazines founded in the United Kingdom. All three iterations of the magazine were noted for a witty, trenchant and political review of events^{[citation needed]}, and employed an approach that summarizes and contextualizes news and opinion writing from other publications.

[edit] History

Marxist journalist Claud Cockburn launched the first The Week as a newsletter in the spring of 1933, after he enrolled in the Spanish Civil War. It focused on the rise of fascism, in a style that anticipated Private Eye and won a wide readership, according to Cockburn's son^[1]. Jessica Mitford attributed the journal's influence to its use of undercover sources^[2]. It ceased publication shortly after the war ended^[3].

Ken Coates and Pat Jordan refounded The Week sometime before 1965 [1]. They were Marxist members of the Labour Party connected to the New Left Review, to which Cockburn contributed. It provided a socialist critique of Harold Wilson's government, and shed light on Britain's involvement in the Vietnam War. Jordan edited the newspaper until 1968, when Jordan co-operated with Tariq Ali in relaunching The Black Dwarf. At that time, The Week became a monthly magazine, called International, which was published by the International Marxist Group.

The Week (ISSN 1362-3435) was re-started in England by Jolyon Connell and Jeremy O'Grady in 1995. It provides nonpartisan review of the week's most important news, as well as coverage of the arts, business, and health and science. Its motto is "All you need to know about everything that matters". The Week is currently published in both UK and U.S. editions by Dennis Publishing Ltd.. An American edition (ISSN 1533-8304) was launched in April 2001.

[edit] References

^ My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect, from a June 2005 article on the CounterPunch website
^ A Fine Old Conflict, quoted in Spartacus Educational
^ Spartacus Educational, an ad-supported website providing resources for history teachers