The International Socialist Review was a monthly magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 published in Chicago, Illinois by Charles H. Kerr & Co. from 1900 until 1918. The magazine was chiefly a Marxist theoretical

Theoretician (Marxism)

A theoretician is a term from the vernacular of Marxism relating to an individual who observes and writes about the condition or dynamics of society, history, or economics, making use of the main principles of Marxian socialism in the analysis....

 journal during its first years under the editorship of A.M. Simons. Beginning in 1908 the publication took a turn to the left with publisher Charles H. Kerr taking over the main editorial task. The later Review (as it was called by its contemporaries) featured heavy use of photographic illustration on glossy paper and mixed news of the contemporary labor movement with its typical theoretical fare.

Loyal to the Socialist Party of America

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 throughout the entire course of its existence, the International Socialist Review after 1908 was recognized as one of the primary voices of the party's left wing. It defended the concept of revolutionary socialism

Revolutionary socialism

The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...

 against those who would reduce the Socialist Party to a party of ameliorative reform, expounded upon the syndicalist

Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

 ideas of the revolutionary industrial union known as the International Workers of the World, consistently fought against the expansion of militarism

Militarism

Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....

 being pushed forward by the so-called "Preparedness" movement

Preparedness Movement

The Preparedness Movement, also referred to as the Preparedness Controversy, was a campaign led by Leonard Wood and Theodore Roosevelt to strengthen the military of the United States after the outbreak of World War I...

, and provided a vehicle for the leaders of the Zimmerwald Left

Zimmerwald Left

The Zimmerwald Left was a revolutionary minority fraction at the Zimmerwald Peace Conference of 1915, headed by Lenin. The Left of the Zimmerwald Congress was made up of eight out of 38 people: Lenin, Zinoviev , Jānis K. Bērziņš , Karl Radek , Julian Borchardt , Fritz Platten , Zeth Höglund and...

 to relay their ideas to an American audience.

After American intervention in the European World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in 1917, the International Socialist Review came under increasing pressure from the U.S. Post Office Department

United States Post Office Department

The Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the Postmaster General....

 and United States Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

. Its loss of mailing privileges at the hands of the Wilson administration's

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General

The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...

, Albert S. Burleson

Albert S. Burleson

Albert Sidney Burleson was a United States Postmaster General and Congressman. Born in San Marcos, Texas, he came from a wealthy Southern family. His father, Edward Burleson, Jr., was a Confederate officer. His grandfather, Edward Burleson, was a soldier and statesman in the Republic of Texas and...

 in 1917 sounded the death knell for the publication. The magazine died early in 1918, chiefly due to this government pressure. A brief attempt to revive the publication as The Labor Scrapbook under the editorship of Mary Marcy

Mary Marcy

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy was an American socialist author, pamphleteer, poet, and magazine editor. She is best remembered for her muckraking series of magazine articles on the meat industry, "Letters of a Pork Packer's Stenographer," as author of a widely translated socialist propaganda pamphlet...

, Kerr's chief lieutenant, proved unsuccessful in 1918.

Simons period (1900-1908)

International Socialist Review was edited from 1900 to 1908 by Algie M. Simons, formerly of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. Under Simons, the magazine served as a sounding board for various theoretical questions which were dividing the socialist movement. The magazine gave particular attention to the role of the socialist movement towards the American farmer, an issue held near and dear both by editor Simons (author of a 1902 book on the topic) as well as by J.A. Wayland of the Appeal to Reason, the largest circulation socialist newspaper of its era.

The tone of the early Review was temperate and the policies advocated modest. The publication was fully reflective of what one historian has called "the rather moderate social-democratic perspective of Simons and other Socialists of the 'Center.'"

From its beginnings in the summer of 1900, the publication managed to achieve a modest circulation of about 4,000, about three-quarters of which obtained the publication by mail rather than via sales at newsstands or via bundle orders by local socialist organizations.

Post-Simons period (1908-1918)

Due to a disagreement over fundamental principles, with Simons' views becoming steadily more moderate while those of his employer became increasingly radical, publisher Charles H. Kerr fired editor Simons in 1908. Kerr worked to make the previously dry and academic publication into what he called "the fighting magazine of socialism," making use of dramatic photography in telling the story of contemporary labor struggles against the forces of capitalism

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

. As historian Allen Ruff notes, the revitalized Review took a very different form than its predecessor:

"Liberally illustrated with 'action fotos' and original graphics, the revamped ISR carried firsthand reports of major strikes, lockouts, organizing drives, and employers' offensives as well as theoretical and political discussions. Kerr's work with longtime associates Mary and Leslie Marcy and an editorial board including left-wingers William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, Frank Bohn

Frank Bohn (socialist)

Frank Bohn was an advocate of industrial unionism who was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World. From 1906 to 1908 he was the National Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party of America, before leaving to join forces with the rival Socialist Party of America...

, and poet/illustrator Ralph Chaplin

Ralph Chaplin

Ralph Hosea Chaplin was an American writer, artist and labor activist. At the age of seven, he saw a worker shot dead during the Pullman strike in Chicago, Illinois. He had moved with his family from Ames, Kansas to Chicago in 1893...

 raised the Review's circuation from nearly 6,000 in 1908 to over 40,000 by 1911."

The Review soon became the major organ of the "left wing" of the Socialist Party, which was critical of what it perceived to be an obsession of many national figures in the party with ameliorative reform. The circulation and influence of the Review was further enhanced with the 1910 termination of The Socialist, a weekly newspaper published in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 by Hermon F. Titus

Hermon F. Titus

Hermon Franklin Titus was an American socialist activist and newspaper publisher. Originally a Baptist minister before becoming a medical doctor, Titus is best remembered as a factional leader of the Washington state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America during the first decade of the 20th...

 which had gained national attention and readership as a left wing voice. By July 1910, the monthly circulation of the Review had grown to 27,000 copies.

The moderate wing of the Socialist Party was at times sharply critical of The International Socialist Review. Writer Robert Hunter

Robert Hunter (author)

Robert Hunter was an American sociologist and progressive author.-Early life:Robert Hunter was born on April 10, 1874 at Terre Haute, Indiana the middle of five children born over thirteen years to William Robert and Caroline “Callie” Hunter...

 declared in 1911 of the Review:

"It has sneered at Political Action, advocated rival unionism

Dual unionism

Dual unionism is the development of a union or political organization parallel to and within an existing labor union. In some cases, the term may refer to the situation where two unions claim the right to organize the same workers....

, and vacillated between Anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 and Proudhonism

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...

. The constant emphasis The Review lays on Direct Action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

 and its apparent faith that a revolution can be evoked by Will or Force is in direct opposition to our whole philosophy."

The Review was, in fact, very sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World

Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...

, a revolutionary industrial union which sought to unite all workers regardless of race, craft, or skill under the umbrella of "One Big Union" with a view to the overthrow of the wage system and its replacement with decision-making by economic units established by the workers themselves (syndicalism

Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

).

Prominent staff members

• Max S. Hayes
  Max S. Hayes
  Maximillian Sebastian "Max" Hayes was a newspaper editor, trade union activist, and socialist politician. He is best remembered as the long-time editor of the Cleveland Citizen and as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party ticket in 1920.-Early years:Max Hayes was born in...
  
  
• Charles H. Kerr
• Mary Marcy
  Mary Marcy
  Mary Edna Tobias Marcy was an American socialist author, pamphleteer, poet, and magazine editor. She is best remembered for her muckraking series of magazine articles on the meat industry, "Letters of a Pork Packer's Stenographer," as author of a widely translated socialist propaganda pamphlet...
  
  
• A.M. Simons
• Ernest Untermann

Index of volumes

{| class="wikitable"

|-
! Volume
! First issue
! Last issue
! Editor
! Online availability
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 1
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1900
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1901
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 2
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1901
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1902
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 3
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1902
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1903
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 4
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1903
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1904
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 5
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1904
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1905
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 6
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1905
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1906
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 7
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1906
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1907
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 8
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1907
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1908
| style="text-align:center;"| Simons/Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 9
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1908
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1909
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 10
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1909
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1910
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 11
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1910
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1911
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 12
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1911
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1912
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 13
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1912
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1913
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 14
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1913
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1914
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 15
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1914
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1915
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 16
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1915
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1916
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 17
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1916
| style="text-align:center;"| June 1917
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"| Archive.org
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| 18
| style="text-align:center;"| July 1917
| style="text-align:center;"| February 1918
| style="text-align:center;"| Kerr
| style="text-align:center;"|
|}

Further reading

• Allen Ruff, "We Called Each Other Comrade": Charles H. Kerr & Co., Radical Publishers. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.