Current History is the oldest extant United States–based publication devoted exclusively to contemporary world affairs.

Each issue includes a chronology of major international events, and most contain a book review section and an article devoted to commentary.

He enlisted the help of a Harvard historian, Albert Bushnell Hart, in organizing the journal’s initial group of contributing editors.

Contributors to Current History in the publication's early years included George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Charles A.

Current History addressed this episode in its October 1942 issue, maintaining that Smyth during the months that he held an ownership interest in the publication did not control editorial policies.