From the Publisher

By Louis A. Weil III

Last month senior editor Jack White took charge of our NATION section, and I want to tell you about him. First, he's a journalist who has spent 20 years covering business, the South, Africa, the Third World, the Midwest and presidential politics. Second, Jack is the kind of editor who reaches beyond each week's staple news and probes the quieter truths of this country with sensitivity and tenacity.

For instance, this week NATION tells you about "Dumping on the Poor," how many of the country's poorest citizens are relegated to living in environmental wastelands. And Jack is quickly defining the focus of his section. "Our job is to address the two biggest issues facing the U.S.: how America redefines its role in the post-cold war world, and how we will deal with a host of unsolved domestic problems, from the growth of the urban underclass to rebuilding the infrastructure," says White.

Jack is a classic newsroom journalist -- a reporter turned editor, hard driving and known to explode occasionally. He also has faith in America's ability to cure its ills. "Despite the lack of vision from Washington, this country has enormous strengths that can get us through a difficult time," he says. "The baby boomers, who grew up with the civil rights and women's movements, Vietnam and the sexual revolution, will have control of the country. How they cope will be the biggest story around."

On the leading edge of the baby boom himself, White has coped with a few challenges. Born in North Carolina, he was convinced by the civil rights movement in the 1960s that journalism could play a part in making America's ideals a reality. Since joining TIME in 1972, White has handled subjects ranging across most of the magazine.

Our outgoing NATION editor, Terry Zintl, is enduring a crash course in Italian to prepare for a change of scene as Rome bureau chief. During his five years in the section, Zintl brought an expansive outlook to the job, which White says will continue. "The mood and tone of the U.S. is set as much outside Washington as inside," says Zintl. "We tried to find out what our leaders were saying but also what Americans were doing." From his Rome base, he will have the even more expansive task of finding out how the people of three ancient cultures -- Italy, Greece and Turkey -- are affecting a changing Europe.