The Nation, 72 Fifth Ave, New York NY 10011, Tel: 212-242-8400 (editorial), 800-333-8536 (subs). $48/year (47 issues).

Founded in 1865, The Nation is the oldest and most prominent left-of- center magazine in the U.S. Like today's left, the 1990s Nation is literate, hip, skeptical, and contentious -- and perhaps a bit remote from everyday concerns like trying to make the rent.

The magazine's front section features national and international news and commentary. Investigative articles appear on an irregular basis -- not often enough, given their generally high quality. Some of The Nation's many star columnists also do investigative work. Christopher Hitchens, for instance, was an early theorist of a possible 1980 back-channel deal between Reagan insiders and Iran (the famous "October Surprise").

Like other left publications, The Nation goes in for long-running controversies that often turn personal. (See, for example, the flap over Oliver Stone's film "JFK" that began with attacks by Hitchens and fellow columnists David Corn and Alexander Cockburn.) The magazine's ample "Books and the Arts" section has its loyalists (I'm one, I guess), but probably strikes many readers as infuriatingly specialist.

-- Steve Badrich

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