Ramparts Magazine (1962-1975)

Founded by a rich convert, Ramparts magazine was envisaged as a monthly Church-and-secular-affairs magazine for moderately hip Catholic lay people. By a twist of fate, the magazine fell into the hands of journalist (and former Catholic-school problem child) Warren Hinckle, who became its editor. What happened next is subject to interpretation. According to the revisionist line of former editors Peter Collier and David Horowitz, the magazine fell into a maelstrom of radical chic: glamorizing Leninist dictators, falling for crank assassination theories, and building up a Black Panther Party consisting of common criminals. (See their grim, sometimes convincing Destructive Generation.) Hinckle’s If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade, freely acknowledges 60s excesses — but sticks up for the questions the New Left asked, if not always for the answers it provided. Hinckle’s book also sparkles with humor and charity. What’s indisputable is that Ramparts broke scoop after scoop (see the annotation to Hinckle’s book).

— Steve Badrich

Source PIR

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