Heyday.

The 1930s were the heyday of the radical journal. Magazines and newspapers of political opinion, cultural criticism, science, and literature, the radical journal was an important forum for expression during the decade. Although radical journals never had substantial readership, their influence on American intellectual and political life was great. Published primarily in New York City, journals such as Partisan Review, The New Masses, and Modern Monthly shaped opinion far from Manhattan, even influencing political opinion abroad. The journals also provided many writers outlets for work that might otherwise have gone unpublished during the Depression, and they gave writers and critics who would become well known in subsequent decades their first experience in political journalism. Most radical journals were exceptionally critical of capitalism, and almost all advocated some type of reform. But they also analyzed, criticized, and introduced new art and literature. Especially in...