Since its inception, "Foreign Affairs" has included a long book review section, typically reviewing 50 or more books per issue. The magazine's first editor, Archibald Cary Coolidge, asked his Harvard colleague, William L. Langer, a historian and World War I veteran, to run the section. Langer initially had full control over the magazine's book reviews and did all the reviews by himself. A month before the reviews were due, the "Foreign Affairs" office in New York would ship approximately one hundred books to Langer for review and within two weeks he would return his completed reviews for the next issue.