''Inquiry Magazine'', sometimes titled ''Inquiry: A Libertarian Review'', was a

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

magazine published from November 1977 to 1984. It was originally published by the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

, then later transferred to the Libertarian Review Foundation.

History

''Inquiry Magazine'' was founded in 1977 as part of the Cato Institute, in an effort by libertarian donor Charles Koch and Cato president Ed Crane to build

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

institutions for the libertarian movement. Williamson Evers was its first editor. After Evers was ousted as editor in a dispute with Crane, Glenn Garvin took over in 1980.

Doug Bandow Douglas Bandow (born April 15, 1957) is an American political writer working as a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Bandow regularly writes on military non-interventionism, and is a critic of NATO enlargement. Background Bandow obtained h ...

served as editor from 1982 until the magazine's closure in 1984. At different points in its history, its editorial staffers included Frank Browning, Jonathan Marshall, Mark Paul,

Ralph Raico Ralph Raico (; October 23, 1936 – December 13, 2016) was an American libertarian historian of European liberalism, and a professor of history at Buffalo State College.Jack Shafer Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1951 is an American journalist who wrote about media for ''Politico'' until June 2024. Prior to joining ''Politico'', he worked for ''Reuters'', wrote and edited for ''Slate'', and edited two city weeklies, ''Washi ...

. Its poetry editor was Dana Gioia. In the early 1980s, Koch and Crane grew dissatisfied with the publishing efforts they supported, which included ''Inquiry Magazine'' and the ''Libertarian Review''. They decided to stop publishing the ''Libertarian Review'' and move ''Inquiry Magazine'' from the Cato Institute to the control of the separately managed Libertarian Review Foundation at the beginning of 1982. With the June 1982 issue, ''Inquiry Magazine'' was retitled ''Inquiry: A Libertarian Review''. The magazine's circulation had always been low and had declined below 10,000. Citing financial concerns, Koch and Crane closed the magazine in 1984. The magazine originally was published biweekly from 1977 to 1978, then switched to semi-monthly, with about 20 issues per year in its first four and a half years of publication. In 1982 it switched to monthly publication, then went to 10 issues a year in 1984. The final issue was published in July 1984. During its run, it made available bound collections of issues from its first four volumes ('77–'78, '78–'79, '79–'80, '80–'81).

Audience and viewpoints

Established along with Cato, ''Inquiry'' was initially a journal of investigative reporting and libertarian-oriented opinion. The magazine was aimed at libertarians and at liberals and

leftists Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

critical of state power. It featured regular columns by

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. F ...

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

and

Thomas Szasz Thomas Stephen Szasz ( ; ; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. A dis ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

, foreign reporting by

Penny Lernoux Penny Lernoux (January 6, 1940 – October 9, 1989) was an American educator, author, and journalist. She wrote critically of United States government and Papal policy toward Latin America. Life and works Lernoux was born into a comfortabl ...

, and CIA exposes by such writers as David Wise and Fred Landis. It included extensive cultural coverage as well, including reviews by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

and film criticism by Stephen Harvey.

References

External links

* {{LCCN, 78640648 Libertarian magazines published in the United States Cato Institute Defunct political magazines published in the United States Libertarianism in the United States Magazines established in 1977 Magazines disestablished in 1984 Magazines published in Washington, D.C.