ABSTRACT
The first magazine to include that word in its title was a classic example of what Bourdieu, in Distinction: A Social Critique Of The Judgement Of Taste (1984 [2010]) called an “institution of legitimation”. The Gentleman’s Magazine (1731) would now be considered a newspaper more than a magazine, but everything about it from the name onwards was intended to be of assistance to, and form the habits and habitus of, a landed gentleman.
