In his ninth decade of life, Paul M. Sweezy continued to be involved in the publication of the Monthly Review, an independent socialist journal he founded with Leo Huberman in 1949. Through his analysis of economics, history, and political systems, Sweezy has made a lasting contribution to Marxian thought in the United States. His role as editor of the Monthly Review has been continually intertwined with active participation in numerous political movements. As an adamant supporter of socialism, Sweezy has influenced economic and political thought for over fifty years through his writing and his personal commitment to the cause.
Sweezy was born on April 10, 1910, in New York City to Everett, an executive at J. P. Morgan's bank, and Caroline (Wilson) Sweezy. He was educated at Philips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, graduating in 1931. He spent the next two years studying at the London School of Economics, where he was first introduced to Marxism. He returned to Harvard in 1936 to attend graduate school and received his doctorate in 1937. His dissertation Monopoly and Competition in the English Coal Trade, 1550-1850 was published in 1938.
Already working as an instructor of economics during his graduate studies, upon completion of his academic work, Sweezy joined the Economics Department at Harvard full-time, being promoted to assistant professor of economics in 1940. During the next two years he was involved in the creation of the Harvard Teachers Union and published his first major book The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy (1942). In 1942, he joined the Army's research unit of the Office of Strategic Services, the organization that served as the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
After completing his service of duty in the fall of 1945, Sweezy returned to the United States and, convinced that he would not be offered a tenured position at Harvard, he resigned from the faculty. After receiving a grant in 1946 from the Social Sciences Research Council, Sweezy moved to New Hampshire and began work on his next book, Socialism (1949). In the same year as that publication, Sweezy joined fellow socialist Leo Huberman to found the Monthly Review to promote socialist ideas in the United States. For the next fifty years, Sweezy and his co-editors (when Huberman died in 1968, his positions was filled by Harry Magdoff) wrote the review of the month. In 2000, with Sweezy reaching his ninetieth birthday and Magdoff in his advanced eighties, the two senior editors finally withdrew from their roles as managing editors.
In 1948 Sweezy became active in the presidential campaign of the Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace. Melding his leadership in the pro-New Deal and anti-Cold War platform with his support of socialism in the midst of the McCarthy era, Sweezy drew the attention of those seeking out "subversive" activities. After addressing the University of New Hampshire as a guest lecturer on the topic of communism, Sweezy was subpoenaed in January 1954 by New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, which investigated "un-American" activities. Upon refusing to answer questions regarding his and others' roles in the Progressive Party, the contents of his New Hampshire speech, and his beliefs about communism, Sweezy was found guilty of contempt. Most of those previously indicted had pleaded the Fifth Amendment, which provides for safety from self-incrimination. However, Sweezy maintained his silence based upon the First Amendment right to free speech.
After Sweezy's case had finally worked its way through the appeals process, it came before the U. S. Supreme Court in 1957. Once again taking up the First Amendment, Sweezy addressed the high court: "If the very first principle of the American constitutional form of government is political freedom--which I take to include freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association--then I do not see how it can be denied that these investigations are a grave danger to all that Americans have always claimed to cherish. No rights are genuine if a person, for exercising them, can be hauled up before some tribunal and forced under penalties of perjury and contempt to account for his ideas and conduct." Considered a landmark case in the area of academic freedom, the Supreme Court overturned the New Hampshire verdict.
Along with his responsibilities at the Monthly Review , Sweezy wrote numerous books and served as editor and co-editor of a variety of publications, all published from 1950 by Monthly Review Press. His major works include: Cuba: Anatomy of a Revolution (1960, with Huberman), Monopoly Capital (1966, with Paul A. Baran), On the Transition to Socialism (1972, with Charles Bettelheim), The Dynamics of U.S. Capitalism (1972), The End of Prosperity (1977, with Magdoff), Post-Revolutionary Society (1980), and The Deepening Crisis of American Capitalism (1981).
Recent Updates
February 28, 2004: Sweezy died on February 28, 2004, at his home in Larchmont, New York, of congestive heart failure. He was 93. Source:New York Times, March 2, 2004, p. B9(L).
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