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BOOK: Annotations: A Guide to the Independent Critical Press, 3rd Edition
Edited by Marie F. Jones - 750 pages (Alternative Press Center)
Reviewed by Holly Day
This is an absolutely essential guide to anyone interested in alternative press publications, especially ones with a political or cultural bent. Where books like Writer’s Market and their associated writing magazines do a pretty good job rounding up all the mainstream culture magazines in North America, their sections on publications like these are usually on the slim side, and would suggest that there are now more plumbing magazines in the U.S. than left wing political publications.
A quick flip through these pages, though, reveals that the independent publisher is still alive and well in North America and the world beyond. There are listings for modern Marxist publications, alternative education and parenting journals, controversial history publications, radical environmental journals, and lots of "watchdog" publications created for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on local and worldwide political figures and military installations. Really, it’s a great comfort to know that while the independent press isn’t as widespread and strong as it was in the 1970s and 1980s, it is still out there, making its presence felt.
More than just being a simple roundup of various publications, though, this book is reading material in itself. So much detail is packed into each page regarding each journal that one finds themselves reaching for the ol’ checkbook to begin lifelong subscriptions to certain publications—which is about the only way to get many of these magazines, since they’re not carried by any of the distributors that work with the usual suspect chain bookstores. Publication focus, issue summaries and themes, and even quality of writing is discussed in these lengthy reviews—and, for those out there who cruise books like this looking for work, editorial contact information, Web sites, and email addresses are included with each summary. There’s also a lengthy section on which publications sell ad space and at what cost, readership numbers, and which magazines publish product reviews (music, books, etc.). There’s even an alphabetical roundup of notable columnists and contributors from some of the bigger cultural and political magazines, and where their work appears.
As stated in the introduction of the book, written by Free Press founder Robert W. McChesney, with the recent lifting of ownership limits a company can have on radio stations, newspapers, and publishing houses in this country, the truly independent and non-commercial press in the United States is in serious decline. "These publications are like the Book People in Fahrenheit 451," writes McChesney. "They remind us of the vitality and importance of ideas, of critical thought, as our conglomerate media marinate our brains in a pickle jar of hypercommercialism, banality and vulgarity." Cruise through a copy yourself, then head on down to your local chain bookstore and ask the owner why they don’t carry copies of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Co-Op America Quarterly, or Left History in their stacks.
© 2007 - Holly Day