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Monthly Review is a socialist magazine published in New York City. It appears 11 times per year.

The cover of the December, 1988 issue of Monthly Review.

Founded from money from F. O. Matthiessen to his friend Paul Sweezy who became the first editor, the first issue of Monthly Review appeared in May 1949 as the United States was beginning its drive toward the Cold War. Its lead article was "Why Socialism?" by Albert Einstein. During the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, its original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman were targeted as Communist agents. Sweezy's case, tried by New Hampshire Attorney General, went all the way to the Supreme Court and became a seminal case on free speech when they ruled in his favor. The magazine survived McCarthyism and continued to grow into the 1970s.

Since its inception, Monthly Review has been a consistent and outspoken voice for socialism and against American imperialism. The editors of Monthly Review are prominent Marxists, but are independent, not aligned with a particular existing revolutionary movement (although they were early admirers of the Cuban Revolution, and generally support Third World revolutionary movements). In the pages of the Monthly Review, Marxism is not a political party but a philosophy; 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 saw the mission of Review as "to see the present as history." The magazine enjoys a steady readership and is more influential outside the U.S. than inside it.

Monthly Review Press, an allied endeavor, has published many political books, such as Fanshen by William Hinton, Labour and Monopoly Capital by Harry Braverman, The Development of Underdevelopment by Andre Gunder Frank, Unequal Development by Samir Amin, The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis and the English translation of The Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano.

Monthly Review has had just six editors in its entire history, one of whom is currently still involved:

• Paul Sweezy, from 1949 to his death in 2004
• Leo Huberman from 1949 to his death in 1968
• Harry Magdoff from 1969 to his death in 2006
• Ellen Meiksins Wood, 1997-2000
• Robert W. McChesney, 2000-2004
• John Bellamy Foster, May 2000 to the present

The Monthly Review has been published (1968-87) also in Italy (Bari, Edizioni Dedalo). Also many Monthly Review Press books have been re-published in Italy by Dedalo, in a series under the same American name.

• Monthly Review website
  • MRZine, the magazine's internet arm
  • Monthly Review Press publishing house and catalog

• The Monthly Review Story: 1949-1984 by Robert W. McChesney

• ΜΗΝΙΑΙΑ ΕΠΙΘΕΩΡΗΣΗ Greek-language edition website