NATION, THE

n.

U.S. weekly journal of opinion, the oldest continuously published U.S. periodical.

Founded in 1865 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Edwin L. Godkin (1831–1902) as a reformist publication, it was sold to the New York Evening Post in 1881 and was a weekly edition of the paper until 1914. While Oswald Garrison Villard (1872–1949) was owner and editor (1918–34), it moved decisively to the political left and has remained there under subsequent owners and editors, as during its outspoken opposition to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In circulation it is one of the largest intellectual journals in America.