The Publisher

Henry Luce and His American Century

Bibliographic Data

ID7869875
AuthorsJ L Baughman (University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume97
Issue4
Pages1167-1167
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jahist/jaq071
OpenAlexW2323285891
LanguageEN
Citations received20

When Henry R. Luce died in 1967, he was the most influential publisher in the United States. Yet his reputation—then and later—was greatly affected by his magazines’ tendency to convey his enthusiasm for the Republican party and the Cold War; it is no exaggeration to say that he infuriated several generations of liberal readers. That fury distorted some of the earliest attempts to come to terms with Luce after his death. In The Publisher, Alan Brinkley offers a decidedly measured approach. The first author to have access to Luce's personal and family correspondence, Brinkley presents a much fuller portrait than any previous biographer. The son of American missionaries in China, Luce entered magazine publishing largely at the urging of Briton Hadden, a Yale University classmate and friend. In 1922 Hadden persuaded Luce to help him start Time, a weekly magazine that offered a guided summary of the most important news. Brinkley credits Hadden for Time’s success as a distinctive editorial product, with Luce essentially serving as the magazine's business manager. When Hadden died suddenly in 1929, however, Luce not only assumed control of Time but also oversaw an ambitious expansion, which included the launching of Fortune, a lavish business monthly, in 1930 and Life, a hugely popular picture weekly, in 1936

Art · Art history · Enthusiasm · Literature · Publishing · Theology · Australian History and Society · Canadian Identity and History · Classics · History · Literature and Culture Studies · Philosophy

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