It was founded originally in 1819 as The Christian Spectator. At its origin it was published to support Evangelicalism, but over time began to publish more on history and economics was renamed The New Englander in 1843. In 1885 it was renamed to The New Englander and Yale Review until 1892, when it took its current name The Yale Review and given a focus on American and international politics, economics, and history by its editor Henry Walcott Farnam.