Lapham’s Quarterly doesn’t work the way a typical magazine works.

I’m not referring to its ability to generate ad revenue (since there aren’t any ads) or even necessarily to its ability to inform its readers the way a news magazine might.

No, the magazine works on a deeper level. It slowly builds understanding in its readers, working up to a complete concept.

Unlike an issue of National Geographic or the byline-less Economist, Lapham’s Quarterly doesn’t seek to provoke thought via disparate stories or polemics; instead, it works to deepen thought and comprehension by laying down a basis for understanding a segment of our world.

The reader’s reward is not only more knowledge, but a new gut instinct.

Instead of having, say, a slice of insight into life in modern Ulaanbaatar, we’re given the tools to excavate the root of an idea. We’re made ready to understand.