Dear Reader,
We’re writing to you following a period of record growth at Boston Review: our readership increased 25 percent during the pandemic. That’s because we delivered exactly the kind of response Boston Review is known for: big-picture, deeply informed, self-aware, of the moment—and never a hot take. For just one example: our groundbreaking piece on racial bias in pulse oximeters has prompted a national reckoning over this essential medical device.
This year we’ve continued with important pieces that examine the role of homophobia in Russian geopolitics, link protests in China to labor struggles around the globe, question the inflated promises of biological psychiatry, scrutinize the philosophical basis of longtermism, and show how the migrant “crisis” is a crisis of global finance and climate. And our inaugural Black Voices fellows, Nia Evans and Nate File, moved on to fantastic jobs in journalism. One BR reader remarked on Twitter, “Boston Review is simply the best in the game.”
We have plotted the course for an ambitious 2023. We’ll launch several new projects exploring fundamental political values—on opportunity, solidarity, and freedom. We’ll also improve experiences for supporting readers with a membership self-service area and downloads for our entire print issue archive.
We are proud to make all our content available online without ads or paywalls. But free to read doesn’t mean free to produce. On the contrary, our costs have been growing. We know yours have, too, which makes us even more grateful for your support.
Will you help maintain free and open access to Boston Review by making a donation before December 31?
We know you agree that the work we publish is important. We also know you agree it should be free for everyone online, regardless of whether they can pay. By supporting Boston Review, you’re subsidizing a public good.
Can you help us make 2023 Boston Review’s best year ever?
Thank you for your support. We couldn’t do it without you.
Deborah Chasman & Joshua Cohen
Editors-in-Chief
