The Dorchester Review

The Dorchester Review is a semi-annual, semi-academic journal[2] of history and historical commentary founded in 2011 and published in Ottawa, Canada. The magazine describes itself as a non-partisan but "robustly polemical" outlet for "elements of tradition and culture inherent to Canadian experience that fail to conform to a stridently progressivist narrative."[3]

The Dorchester Review
EditorsC.P. Champion, Michael R. Jackson Bonner, James W. J. Bowden, F.H. Buckley, Donal Lowry, Philip Marchand, John Pepall, Phyllis Reeve, Alastair Sweeny[1]
CategoriesHistory and culture
FrequencySemi-annual
Circulation800
FounderC.P. Champion (1970-)
First issueJune 1, 2011 (2011-06-01)
CountryCanada
Based inOttawa
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.dorchesterreview.ca
ISSN1925-7600

Contents

Dorchester Review in Chapters, Calgary, 2013

The magazine, which styles itself as "a captivating journal of history and historical commentary,"[4] is named after Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, Governor of the Province of Quebec and British North America. The choice of "a bewigged British soldier, an ... unapologetic colonial governor from the pre-democratic era" is intended to underscore the journal's belief that "history consists of more than a parade of secular modern progressives."[3] Its core readership consists of 50% professionals and businesspeople, 10% academics, 15-20% politicians, and 20-25% eclectic readers.[5] In design, shape, and size the publication closely resembles the cold war-era Encounter (magazine) as it appeared between 1970 and 1980, including content sections like "Men & Ideas," "Notes & Topics" and "Points of the Compass."[6]

Editorial stance

National Post columnist Barbara Kay described the Dorchester Review as "politically incorrect and iconoclastic" writing which resists "the prevailing progressivist view that historians must choose between a right and wrong side of history," without catering to a specific ideology. Jonathan Kay has described it as "the only high-level publication in Canada that examines our history and traditions without even a passing nod to academic fashions and identity politics."[5] Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was observed reading the journal in Canada's House of Commons, contributing to its image as a right-wing publication.[5] Founding editor C.P. Champion is a former senior advisor to Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney, and the author of The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964-1968 (MQUP, 2010) and Relentless Struggle: Saving the Army Reserve 1995-2019,[7] [8] published by Durnovaria Press, which Champion founded in 2019. The link between the periodical and the publishing label is suggested by the name, Durnovaria, which was "the [Latin] name of the Roman town of Dorchester." Champion was described in 2013 as "probably the most important Conservative historian in Canada today" by the Toronto Review of Books.[9]

The Review has been attacked by one member of the alt-right for being insufficiently alarmed by large-scale immigration. Ricardo Duchesne faulted Australian contributor Gregory Melleuish as an example of how "Conservatives self-deceive themselves into believing what they dislike because they are afraid of leftist repercussions."[10]

The Literary Review of Canada cited The Dorchester Review among works that "might...prompt readers to rethink the way in which not all liberals are Liberals and not all conservatives sound like the Conservatives."[11]

See also

References

  1. Masthead of Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2020 (print edition).
  2. A journal is "a periodical presenting articles on a particular subject," cf. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/journal
  3. "The Dorchester Review — About". The Dorchester Review. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  4. https://twitter.com/DorchesterRev
  5. "The Dorchester Review — the little magazine that can". National Post. 24 May 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  6. Cf. Encounter archive: https://www.unz.com/print/Encounter/Contents/?Period=1977 and inside, https://www.unz.com/print/Encounter-1972jun-00045/
  7. Gil Taylor (19 September 2019). "The battle to save the Canadian Forces' army reserve". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  8. Col Wolfgang W. Riedel (Spring 2020). "Book Review". Canadian Military Journal. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  9. https://www.torontoreviewofbooks.com/2013/05/the-history-wars-in-canada%7Ctitle=The History Wars in Canada|author=Mark Sholdice|work=Toronto Review of Books|date=5 May 2013|accessdate=8 May 2020}}/
  10. Ricardo Duchesne (26 July 2018). "Self-Deception Is Intrinsic To Conservative Support For Diversity". Council of European Canadians. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  11. Jerry White (June 2013). "Political Inheritance". Literary Review of Canada. Retrieved 17 December 2017.

Notable contributors

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