Charles Peters, founder of the Washington Monthly and an influential political leader who revolutionized the way American political journalism was written and reported, died on November 25, 2018, at the age of 96.
Charles Peters was born in 1922 in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to a grade school teacher and a coal miner. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1947, Peters moved to Washington and started his career as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly. In 1959, he joined the staff of JFK’s presidential campaign and then the White House, where he rose to become the special assistant for domestic affairs.
Peters’ legacy is mainly related to his founding of the Washington Monthly, a magazine he started in 1969 to bring a more progressive, unsensational, and analytical approach to the coverage of Washington politics. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Washington Monthly had a formative effect on the culture of American political journalism and was widely cited in the media. Under Peters’ leadership, the magazine consistently devoted itself to a “no martyr-no pathos” style and produced many groundbreaking stories.
Also during his tenure, Peters turned the Washington Monthly into a leading quarterly publication. Peters’ appointment as editor-in-chief of the magazine in 1973, which came soon after he resigned from the White House, did not prevent him from still having a significant impact on Washington’s political culture. During his time, along with the Washington Monthly, Peters was also the publisher of “The D.C. Gazette”.
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Charles Peters received numerous recognitions for his achievements. In 1997, a Lifetime Achievement Award was given to him by the American Political Science Association. That same year, Peters was also honored with the prestigious Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.
The legacy of Charles Peters will live on in the Washington Monthly and in the many other publications that it inspired over the years. Peters was not merely the founder of the magazine; he was also one of its most passionate and influential writers. His witty, often biting, and always incisive take on Washington politics will surely be remembered and appreciated for generations to come.