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New Left Review (NLR) is a London-based political and cultural journal that is not run like a conventional peer-reviewed academic journal. This page is for researchers deciding whether to submit, cite or classify it: it covers the publisher, the journal’s history from its own account, and how its editors actually review submissions. Facts below were read from the journal’s own pages on 2026-11-07 unless a source is named otherwise.
What is the New Left Review?
New Left Review is a bi-monthly journal published by New Left Review Ltd, 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG. Its site lists issue NLR 161 (September-October 2026) as the current issue. It describes itself as independent, relying on sales, subscriptions and contributions, offers some articles free, and sells subscriptions that include digital access to all issues. Its ISSN is 0028-6060 (per Wikipedia, read 2026-11-07; the journal’s home page does not state it).
Who founded the New Left Review?
According to the journal’s own history page, NLR was formed in 1960 by merging the boards of two earlier magazines, Universities and Left Review and The New Reasoner. Both had emerged after the Suez and Hungary crises of 1956, and both shared a focus on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Stuart Hall was the first editor, according to the journal’s fiftieth-anniversary note. Writers associated with the predecessor magazines include E. P. Thompson, Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre and Raphael Samuel.
Editorial timeline from the journal’s history page
| Period | What the history page records |
|---|---|
| 1960 | Boards of Universities and Left Review and The New Reasoner merge to form NLR; Stuart Hall first editor |
| 1962 | Control passes to a younger group; Perry Anderson edits a transitional magazine in 1962-63 |
| 1983-1999 | Robin Blackburn edits |
| 2000 | Anderson returns; new series launched in January 2000 with a redesign and numbering restarted from the beginning |
Because of the 2000 renumbering, references to older issues may carry series-specific numbering; check the series before matching an issue number to a year. Wikipedia (read 2026-11-07) names Susan Watkins as current editor.
What is the New Left ideology?
The journal’s pages do not define the New Left as a single doctrine, and this page does not either. The journal’s account places its origins in the political climate after 1956 and in the CND campaign. In the 2000 relaunch manifesto, “Renewals”, Perry Anderson described the intended approach as “cool-headed analysis, in a spirit of uncompromising realism”. Treat any fuller ideological definition as an interpretation that needs its own scholarly source.
What happened to the New Left?
The wider fate of the New Left as a movement is a historical question that the journal’s pages do not settle. What the journal itself records is the sequence above: the 1960 merger, the 1962 change of control, the 1980s and 1990s editorships and the 2000 new series. Wikipedia (read 2026-11-07) additionally mentions a 1993 resignation of nineteen editorial committee members before the relaunch.
How New Left Review reviews and accepts submissions
This is the point most useful to researchers, because NLR’s model differs from standard peer review. From its submissions page:
| Item | Stated policy |
|---|---|
| Content accepted | Articles, comments and book reviews on major contemporary issues, written for an educated general readership rather than as academic-style papers |
| Pitches | Not accepted; no unsolicited poetry or artwork |
| Review model | Mixed-mode: editors often decide using the editorial committee’s specialist knowledge; conventional peer review is used when judged appropriate or requested by the author |
| Response time | No reply within eight weeks means the submission has been declined |
| Length | Articles usually 4,000-12,000 words; book reviews about 2,000-3,000 words |
| References | Footnotes at page bottom, only works actually read, avoid self-citation; reviews carry no footnotes |
| Format and route | .doc or .docx through the submission page on the journal’s site; Sidecar (its blog) submissions go by email to the address on the submissions page |
For a funder or institutional policy that requires peer-reviewed outputs, note that the review model is editorial and mixed-mode. Whether a given piece counts is a question for your funder or institution; see what counts as a peer-reviewed reference and the dictionary entries on open peer review and cascading peer review for how review models are described.
Alternatives: London Review of Books and New York Review of Books
Readers searching for NLR often also look at the London Review of Books (LRB) and The New York Review of Books (NYRB). All three are review-style periodicals rather than conventional journals, but they differ in publisher, frequency and scope. The table uses only what each publication’s own ‘about’ page states (read 2026-11-07). The LRB and NYRB pages do not describe a peer-review model, so this page makes no claim about one.
| Item | New Left Review | London Review of Books | The New York Review of Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | New Left Review Ltd, London | LRB (London) Ltd | NYREV, Inc. (per the site’s copyright notice) |
| Founded | 1960, by merging two earlier magazines | 1979, during the Times lock-out | 1963, during the New York newspaper strike |
| Frequency | Bi-monthly | Twice a month | Twenty print issues a year, plus online essays |
| Stated scope | Political and cultural analysis for a general readership | “Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas”: art, politics, science and technology, history, philosophy, fiction and poetry | Politics, Literature, Arts and Ideas sections; books and current issues in depth |
For a funder or institutional policy that counts only peer-reviewed outputs, check the submissions or editorial policy of whichever title you are considering rather than assuming it from the format.
Strengths and limits
- Strength: a long, documented editorial lineage and a clear, published submissions policy with word limits and a firm eight-week silence rule.
- Limit for academic credit: review is editor-led rather than routinely external, and the journal asks for general-readership writing rather than disciplinary papers.
- Limit for planning: unsolicited pitches are not accepted and no reply means rejection, so there is no status tracking to rely on.
- Not covered here: impact-factor or CiteScore figures, which are published by the indexers and change yearly; check the current Journal Citation Reports or Scopus entry directly. To compare journals more generally, see the Jane journal finder guide.
FAQ
What is the New Left Review?
A bi-monthly political and cultural journal published in London by New Left Review Ltd, formed in 1960 from two earlier magazines.
Who founded the New Left Review?
It was formed in 1960 by merging the boards of Universities and Left Review and The New Reasoner; Stuart Hall was its first editor, per the journal’s history pages.
Is the New Left Review peer reviewed?
Its submissions page describes a mixed-mode process: editors often decide using the committee’s specialist knowledge, and conventional peer review is used when judged appropriate or requested by the author.
How long until I hear back about a submission?
If you receive no reply within eight weeks, the journal treats the submission as declined.
Can I pitch an idea first?
No. The journal does not accept pitches; submit the finished piece.
Sources
- New Left Review home page, newleftreview.org, read 2026-11-07.
- New Left Review, history page, newleftreview.org/pages/history, read 2026-11-07.
- New Left Review, submissions page, newleftreview.org/pages/submissions, read 2026-11-07.
- Wikipedia, New Left Review, read 2026-11-07 (ISSN, current editor, 1993 resignations only).
- London Review of Books, about page, lrb.co.uk/about, read 2026-11-07.
- The New York Review of Books, about page, nybooks.com/about, read 2026-11-07.
