History of NEQ

Editor's note: the following can also be found at The New England Quarterly's Wikipedia page.

Origins and Inception

Launched in 1928, The New England Quarterly, or NEQ, was founded "for the benefit of those who are interested in the history of civilization in New England; and in the hope of making them more numerous." The Quarterly's agenda was twofold. Led by maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison, social historian Arthur M. Schelsinger Sr., and literature professor Kenneth Ballard Murdock, all of Harvard, NEQ sought to counter attacks by critics such as H.L. Mencken, who ridiculed New England's cultural heritage as "the root of everything anemic, moralistic, bigoted, and otherwise defective in the American soul." At the same time, the editors hoped to deflate the self-satisfied rhetoric of the region's cultural chauvinists. As the first issue's Editorial Announcement proclaimed:

There is much talk of the Puritan tradition in American letters; of the provinciality of New England's artistic ideals; of the greatness of what is called the New England Renaissance; of the baneful or beneficient influence of the northeastern states upon American culture. Much talk, much sound and fury... Something should be done for the reader who is weary of sweeping formulations of the New England spirit, denunciations of the mysteriously stifling effects of Puritan ancestry, and effusions dictated by faith in the ennobling virtue of a drop of Pilgrim blood.

Seeking to elevate the study of New England, through serious, thoughtful inquiry, NEQ was at once both revisionist and idealistic. It was also strongly influenced by an emergent new trend in the humanities: American studies. Sympathetic to the movement's desire to overcome the prejudice against homegrown artistic productions then pervading "tradition-bound" history and literature departments, the Quarterly, in the words of one historian, "joined in the quest for a distinctive national culture."

From an institutional perspective, the new journal was profoundly indebted to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (CSM). Founded in 1892 to spread knowledge and awareness of the region's "colonial ancestors," from the start CSM served not only as a major sponsor of the Quarterly's endeavors but also as a collaborator and colleague in the journal's intellectual mission.

The 1930s

Conscious of its reliance on donations, NEQ strived to become self-sustaining. By 1930 it had acquired 515 subscribers, a respectable number for a scholarly publication but one that could not underwrite financial independence; for that, the January 1931 editorial estimated, the quarterly would need 1,200 paid subscriptions. Nevertheless, with the help of an annual subsidy (started in 1931) from CSM and gifts from individual donors, NEQ was able to overcome the shortfall and publish continuously during the Great Depression.  

Key to the journal's survival during those precarious years was the stability on the editorial board; with the founding trio of Morison, Schlesinger, and Murdock in place throughout, NEQ not only secured vital financial assistance but also instituted a series of important changes. In 1929, the Quarterly established its first significant tie with Maine, shifting production Portland's Southworth Press. Then, in 1933, the quarterly shifted its publishing cycle to March/June/September/December, a schedule it has maintained ever since. The last major pre—World War II transformation came in 1937, when Milton Ellis, chair of the University of Maine's English department, became editor. Under Ellis, NEQ reestablished itself as a completely Maine-based institution, transferring both editing and production to the University of Maine campus in Orono.

Intellectually, the addition of two Harvard literature professors, F. O. Matthiessen and Perry Miller, to the journal's editorial board signaled NEQ's ongoing commitment to the American studies movement. An expert on transcendentalism, Matthiessen, who joined in 1938, made the idea of a mid-nineteenth-century "American Renaissance" in literature part of the discourse; Miller, who became an editor in 1940, was a groundbreaking scholar of Puritanism and author of such landmark studies as The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939). At a time when American studies was still consolidating its influence, Miller and Matthiessen helped ground NEQ as a prestigious forum dedicated, in part, to the movement's advance.  

World War II

The Quarterly entered 1941 sounding a mixed note. Although the continued influx of "acceptable contributions" promised "bright prospects," the March editorial warned of the "unprecedented world upheaval and national danger" then looming. A year later, with Morison and Miller both serving in the military and Allied fortunes at their lowest ebb, the mood was less sanguine. As the March 1942 editorial grimly observed:

Never before in our national history has the American people been engaged in a war upon whose outcome depended our continued existence as an independent nation. This time, if we win, we survive; if we lose or if we are fought to a standstill, we either submit or conform our whole pattern of life to another which is unnatural and intolerable to us.  

Bolstered by ongoing donations and a steady stream of high-quality submissions, NEQ managed to publish throughout the global conflict. In 1942 the editorial board welcomed literary theorist Austin Warren, colonial historian Leonard Labaree, and frontier scholar Bernard DeVoto. Then, in 1944, Herbert R. Brown came onboard. A superb public speaker and valued advisor to Bowdoin president Kenneth Sills, Brown—a specialist in nineteenth-century American literary culture—would go on to have an extraordinarily diverse career, serving eventually as chairman of the Maine State Board of Education, chairman of the state Democratic Party's Platform Committee, and trustee of the University of Maine. In 1945 he became editor, ushering in yet another chapter in the history of the Quarterly.   

The Brown Years: NEQ at Bowdoin (1945—1980) 

If someone had said to you, "Create for me a New England college campus," it would be Bowdoin. If they said, "Create for me the office of an English professor," it would have been Herbert [Brown]'s office in a building there called Hubbard Hall. We walked up these magnificent stairs and into a huge room cluttered with piles of books and papers, with framed documents and photographs of Emerson and Longfellow on the wall. And there admist all of this academic rubble, sitting in the corner with his back to us, surrounded by cigarette smoke and working on a manual typewriter, was Herbert Brown."
—William M. Fowler Jr., recalling his first encounter with the journal's then-managing editor.

Under Ellis NEQ had transformed itself into an Orono- and University of Maine-based institution; now, with Brown taking charge, the journal would reinvent itself again, this time at Bowdoin. Editing moved to Brown's office at the Bowdoin campus in Brunswick, while production shifted back to Portland's old Southworth Press, now renamed the Anthoensen Press. Overseen by Anthoensen's highly skilled team of compositors and proofreaders, the journal's look and feel was greatly enhanced.  

With Morison, Schlesinger, and Murdock continuing to be active in journal affairs, the editorial board remained remarkably stable under Brown. Inevitably there were key losses; DeVoto died in 1955, Murdock retired in 1962, and Miller passed away in 1963. With the deaths of Schlesinger, in 1965, and Morison, in 1976, the contributions of NEQ's founding generation became a part of the journal's legacy.

Though marked by passings, the Brown era also saw NEQ's editorial board welcome some of the best minds in postwar American intellectual life. Boston historian Walter Muir Whitehill, for whom CSM's Whitehill Prize is named, joined in 1947, followed in 1948 by Yale historian Edmund S. Morgan, a former student of Perry Miller's. Oscar Handlin, famous for his scholarship on immigration, arrived in 1951, along with the celebrated New York literary critic Alfred Kazin in 1956 and the founder of Atlanticism studies, Bernard Bailyn. Also notable were the additions of Library of America cofounder Daniel Aaron, in 1974, and Norman Pettit, who came to the quarterly in 1977.

NEQ at NU: The Quarterly Under William Fowler (1981-2002)

In 1980, with Brown preparing to retire, CSM editor of publications and NEQ editorial board member Frederick S. Allis took on the daunting task of finding the journal a new editor along with a new institutional home; incorporating NEQ as a formal entity and modernizing its operations were pressing priorities as well. Stepping up to the challenge, Allis reconstituted the Quarterly as a non-profit organization (NEQ, Inc.), secured a commitment from Northeastern University to become the journal's new home and primary patron, and brought on NU historian William M. Fowler Jr. as the new editor.

Fowler, an early American scholar specializing in various aspects of colonial-, Revolutionary-, and Federalist-era history, including the French & Indian War, New England's mercantile and political elite at the time of the rebellion, and the War of 1812, oversaw several important changes. Under his watch NEQ computerized its systems, replenished its editorial board with nine new members (including Emerson scholar Joel Porte, literary scholar Sacvan Bercovitch, business historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr., and Arthur Schlesinger Jr.), and transferred production from Anthoensen Press after the venerable Portland printer was closed. In 1998 he helped launch the NEQ website and later assisted, in 2001, with the overhaul of the journal's design and typeface. Key, too, were his personnel moves, none more so than his decision, after less than three months on the job, to bring in Linda Smith Rhoads as the new assistant editor.

Into the 21st Century: Rhoads, NEQ, and the New Historiography (2002-    )