Celebrating a decade of Columbia Global Reports, the Forerunners series revives groundbreaking works of investigative journalism and incisive analysis published a century before CGR's founding. These texts, once forgotten or underexplored, reflect CGR's core mission: fearless reporting, global perspective, and intellectual rigor. Each selection remains strikingly relevant today, offering historical insights that challenge contemporary perspectives and reaffirm the power of journalism to shape the world.
A landmark of progressive social thought, Walter Lippmann's Drift and Mastery (first published in 1914) argues for a rational, scientific approach to governance as a counter to the inefficiencies of an increasingly chaotic society. Lippmann's call for informed leadership and deliberate reform established him as a leading public intellectual-and his insights on democracy and political responsibility remain as urgent today as they were a century ago.
With an introduction by Nicholas Lemann, dean emeritus of the Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for the New Yorker and director of Columbia Global Reports.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) was an American author and journalist. One of the most influential and wide-ranging political writers in modern America, he was the founding editor of the New Republic, and is considered a father of American journalism. Nicholas Lemann is dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, staff writer for the New Yorker, and director of Columbia Global Reports. He’s the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller The Promised Land: The Great Migration and How It Changed America.
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