Monthly Review

• 1. Founding And Early Years

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  On a New Hampshire farm in 1948, two former Harvard colleagues met to discuss the future of American socialism. F. O. Matthiessen offered Paul Sweezy $5,000 per year for three years to fund a magazine they had long discussed. Leo Huberman joined them as co-editor, bringing his experience from writing left-wing books during the 1930s and '40s. The first issue appeared in May 1949 with only 450 subscribers, mostly friends and acquaintances of the editors. Albert Einstein contributed an essay titled "Why Socialism?" to that debut edition, lending immediate intellectual weight to the project. Otto Nathan helped secure this piece before departing shortly after. Sweezy lived in New Hampshire while Huberman managed daily operations in New York City alongside his wife Gertrude and family friend Sybil Huntington May. By mid-decade, circulation grew to 6,000 readers despite a conservative national climate. Matthiessen died by suicide in 1950, reducing annual funding to $4,000 for the final two years.

• 2. McCarthy Era Persecution

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  During the early 1950s, Paul Sweezy faced legal threats under McCarthy-era laws targeting subversive activities. He was subpoenaed by New Hampshire Attorney General Louis C. Wyman over lecture notes and political beliefs. When he refused to answer questions, courts found him in contempt of court. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled in his favor in Sweezy v. New Hampshire, establishing important protections for academic freedom. Fred Wright, a labor cartoonist, began contributing illustrations during this turbulent period. Scott Nearing joined the magazine in 1953 and wrote a column called "World Events" for nearly twenty years. Pacifist activist Staughton Lynd appeared as an author in 1952, followed by historian William Appleman Williams that same year. Sociologist C. Wright Mills contributed starting in 1958. These figures helped shape the magazine's voice while navigating intense government scrutiny. The publication maintained its independence even as many leftist voices were silenced or marginalized across the country.

• 3. New Left And Anti-Imperialism

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  In May 1969, radical economist Harry Magdoff replaced Leo Huberman on the editorial staff after Huberman died from a heart attack the previous year. Magdoff had been reading Monthly Review since its inception in 1949 and brought strong anti-imperialist views shaped by revolutionary events in Cuba, China, and Vietnam. Circulation climbed toward 9,100 readers by 1970 before peaking at 11,500 in 1977. The magazine condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and denounced martial law suppression of Poland's Solidarity union in 1981. Paul Sweezy declared that Communist regimes in the Soviet bloc had become guardians of rigid hierarchical structures incompatible with Marxist goals. Contributors included Herbert Marcuse, Todd Gitlin, Carl Oglesby, David Horowitz, James Weinstein, and Noam Chomsky. A Maoist influence grew within the content during this period. The magazine sided with the New Left movement opposing conscription and the Vietnam War while remaining an intellectual publication rather than one aimed at mass audiences.

• 4. Editorial Evolution And Leadership

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  Paul Sweezy served as editor from 1949 until his death in 2004, spanning over five decades of continuous leadership. Leo Huberman co-edited alongside him until dying in 1968. Harry Magdoff took over editing duties from 1969 until his own death in 2006. Ellen Meiksins Wood joined the staff in 1997 and remained co-editor until 2000 when Robert McChesney and John Bellamy Foster assumed primary responsibilities. McChesney held the role until 2004. Since May 2000, John Bellamy Foster has led the magazine with Sarah Kramer as assistant editor and Brett Clark as associate editor. In 1983, the magazine faced its most severe financial crisis due to recession, inflation, higher printing costs, and declining circulation. An emergency appeal raised $100,000 to prevent insolvency. Circulation dropped back into the 8,000 range during the weakening American Left of the 1980s before stabilizing again. The editorial team never aligned with any specific political organization but published articles by academics, journalists, and freelance public intellectuals.

• 5. Monthly Review Press Legacy

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  Monthly Review Press launched in 1951 after left-wing journalist I. F. Stone could not find a publisher for The Hidden History of the Korean War. That book became the first title offered by the new publisher in 1952. Harry Braverman became director of Monthly Review Press in 1967 and was succeeded by economist Michael D. Yates. Notable early titles included Paul Baran's The Political Economy of Growth from 1957 and Kwame Nkrumah's Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development in 1959. Andre Gunder Frank's Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America appeared in 1962 alongside William Appleman Williams' The United States, Cuba, and Castro from 1963. Monopoly Capital by Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy arrived in 1966. In the 1970s and '80s, the press published works like Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America translated into English in 1973 and Pedro Pietri's Puerto Rican Obituary that same year. More recent titles include Rob Wallace's Big Farms Make Big Flu from 2016 and John Bellamy Foster's The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology published in 2020.

• 6. Global Editions And Digital Presence

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  Seven sister editions of Monthly Review exist today, published in Greece, Turkey, Spain, South Korea, and three separate language versions in India including English, Hindi, and Bengali. From 2005 to 2016, the magazine operated MRzine as an associated website before replacing it with MR Online in 2017. This digital forum describes itself as a space for collaboration between radical activists, writers, and scholars worldwide. MR Online frequently republishes articles from other sites while adding disclaimers stating that Monthly Review does not necessarily adhere to all views conveyed. In 2020, MR Online republished content from the Qiao Collective disputing allegations of genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Critical China Scholars responded with an open letter criticizing this stance, led by historian David Brophy from the University of Sydney. Darren Byler, one signatory, expressed hope that such letters would make it difficult for scholar-activists to promote what they called Xinjiang-related disinformation. All current print issues remain freely available online, though archived materials back to 1949 require subscription access.