The first issue of the Monthly Review appeared in May 1949 as Cold War hysteria was gathering force in the United States. It featured the lead article Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein. During the 1950s, The McCarthy era inquisition targeted its original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, who resisted successfully.
Since its inception, the Monthly Review has been a consistent and outspoken voice for socialism and against US imperialism. The editors of Monthly Review are unashamed Marxists, but are independent, not aligned with an particular existing revolutionary movement (although they were early admirers of the Cuban Revolution). In the pages of the Monthly Review, Marxism is not a political party but a looking-glass with which to view society. Its articles tend to be written mostly by academics — and researched and referenced as such — but are free of academic jargon.
Founding editor Paul Sweezy has said the mission of the Review "is to see the present as history." The magazine enjoys a steady readership and is more influential outside the US than inside it.
The Monthy Review Press, an allied endeavor, has published many important books, such as the English translation of The Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano.
Monthly Review has had just six editors, four currently still involved:
Editors
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