Henry Luce’s Short American Century Has Ended. Or Has It?

Henry Luce (1898-1967) was an American media and magazine magnate who in 1941 formulated a vision of an American Century of world dominance. In 1941, Luce published a 4,500-word column in Time called The American Century. It helped to create a national consensus among Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy that began with the attack on Pearl Harbor and lasted for decades.

It “radiates a self-confidence in America scarcely to be found in media commentary today,” wrote Paul C. Atkinson, a former executive at The Wall Street Journal, in a 2021 column in The Hill newspaper. “Equally impressive is Luce’s suggestion that accepting the added responsibilities of global involvement, in a world dramatically less integrated than today’s, would be a source of social and political renewal for American civic life.”

Atkinson provides historical context to the essay. His column is worth reading.

Luce founded Time, a weekly news magazine in 1923; founded Fortune, a global business magazine in 1929; acquired and transformed Life into a picture magazine in 1936, and launched Sports Illustrated as a weekly magazine in 1954. These publications shaped and dominated the country’s perceptions for decades. With the mass layoffs at Sports Illustrated in 2024; the end of the weekly Life magazine in the 1970s; the switch of Time magazine in 2020 from weekly to twice monthly (with declining print circulation, to just over one million), Fortune appears to be the only one of the original four to be in strong financial health, targeting business executives.

ContextTV examines “The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century” by Henry Luce.

Henry Luce’s Failed Crusade

Three videos below discuss Luce and his essay. My friend Bruce Johnson, a retired attorney in Michigan, discusses the zenith and decline of US influence on the world stage.

Asia Society: