Monocle was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 magazine, published irregularly from the late 1950s until the mid-sixties. For at least the majority of its run, it was edited by Victor Navasky

Victor Navasky

Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...

. Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin

Calvin Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist.-Biography:Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and was a member of Scroll and Key before graduating...

, C. D. B. Bryan, Dan Wakefield

Dan Wakefield

Dan Wakefield is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His best-selling novels, Going All the Way and Starting Over were made into feature films...

, Neil Postman

Neil Postman

Neil Postman was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University...

, Richard Lingeman, Dan Greenberg

Dan Greenberg

Daniel "Dan" Greenberg is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2006 through 2011...

, and humorist Marvin Kitman also contributed.

Monocle was founded by a group of Yale Law School

Yale Law School

Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

 students as a "leisurely quarterly" (issued, in fact, twice a year). After graduation they moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where the magazine, in its editors' words, initially "operated more or less like the UN

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 police force—we came out whenever there was an emergency." Later, it became a "leisurely monthly", with the intent of appearing about ten times a year.

Navasky recounts in detail the history of his founding and direction of Monocle in his 2004 memoir, Matters of Opinion.

The Monocle Peep Show

The chapter headings of the anthology The Monocle Peep Show (1965) give a sense of both the magazine's subject matter and its politically irreverent tone. The book is divided into "Black and White Journalism" (on race in America), "Yellow Journalism" (on East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

, including the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

), "Red Journalism" (on communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 and the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

), "Off-color Journalism" (two pieces, one about a not-so-ex-Nazi rocket scientist and the other about someone campaigning for the papacy

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

), and Red, White & Blue Journalism, on American electoral politics. The "Black and White Journalism" chapter includes, among other things, a piece by African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 comedian Godfrey Cambridge

Godfrey Cambridge

-External links:*...

 called "My Taxi Problem and Ours"—the title alludes to Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz

Norman B. Podhoretz is an American neoconservative pundit and writer for Commentary magazine.-Early life:The son of Julius and Helen Podhoretz, Jewish immigrants from the Central European region of Galicia, Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn...

's then-recent essay "My Negro Problem—And Ours"—a superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 comic called "Captain Melanin

Melanin

Melanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...

", and a piece called "We're Not Prejudiced But…" containing a series of one-liners such as "Do Negro Catholic couples have an innate sense of rhythm

Rhythm Method

Calendar-based methods are various methods of estimating a woman's likelihood of fertility, based on a record of the length of previous menstrual cycles. Various systems are known as the Knaus–Ogino Method, rhythm method, and Standard Days Method...

?" and "Did Gov. George Wallace

George Wallace

George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...

 come within a backlash of winning the Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 primary

United States presidential primary

The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses is one of the first steps in the process of electing the President of the United States of America. The primary elections are run by state and local governments, while caucuses are private events run by the political parties...

?"