Drift and Mastery

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.