Chronicles (magazine)

Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Charlemagne Institute and associated with paleoconservative views.^[1][2][3][4] 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.^{[5][6][7][8][8]}

Chronicles

July 2007 cover
Editor	Paul Gottfried
Frequency	Monthly
Founded	1977; 48 years ago (1977)
Country	United States
Website	chroniclesmagazine.org

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.^[9]

In its first decade, the magazine grew to some 5,000 subscribers, according to E. Christian Kopff.^[10]

The magazine became a monthly publication in 1982. In 1984, Thomas Fleming joined as managing editor. Fleming had previously co-founded Southern Partisan magazine.^[6][6][11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13] 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.^[14] Writers associated with the magazine have also been described as "Neo-Agrarian conservatives".^[1][15]

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.^[16] The executive editor at the time was Aaron D. Wolf, who passed away in 2019.^[16][8][17]

Srđa Trifković serves as a longtime editor for foreign affairs.^[18] In 2021, Paul Gottfried was appointed as interim editor, a role he continues to hold.^{[citation needed]}

Editors

• Leopold Tyrmand 1977–1985^[19][10]
• Thomas Fleming 1985–2021
• Paul Gottfried (acting) since 2021