In May 1949, Monthly Review began publication in New York City, as cold war hysteria gathered force in the United States. The first issue featured the lead article "Why Socialism?" by Albert Einstein. From the first, Monthly Review spoke for socialism and against U.S. imperialism and is still doing so today.

Monthly Review has always been independent of any political organization. The McCarthy era inquisition targeted Monthly Review's original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, who fought back successfully. In the subsequent global upsurge against capitalism, imperialism, and the commodification of life in the sixties, Monthly Review played a global role. A generation of activists received no small part of their education from the magazine and readers of Monthly Review Press books. In the intervening years of counter-revolution, Monthly Review has kept a steady viewpoint. That point of view is the heartfelt attempt to frame the issues of the day with one set of interests foremost in mind: those of the great majority of humankind, the propertyless.

Monthly Review has had but six editors. The original editors were Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman. Leo Huberman died in 1968, and Harry Magdoff became an editor in 1969 and served in that capacity till his death on 1 January 2006. Ellen Meiksins Wood served ably as editor in the period 1997-2000. In May 2000 John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, themselves of the "1968" generation and educated by Monthly Review, took over the primary editorial responsibilities. Founding editor Paul Sweezy died on February 27, 2004, and a special issue devoted to his work was published in October, 2004. On June 1, 2004 Robert McChesney ceased to be formally designated as an editor, while continuing as a contributor and a Director of the Monthly Review Foundation, the not-for-profit entity that operates both Monthly Review magazine and Monthly Review Press. The current editor, John Bellamy Foster, continues the tradition of combining accounts of what is new with the equally vital task of seeing the longer process.

This webzine is rooted in the Monthly Review tradition -- the tradition, as summarized by Paul Sweezy, of seeing the present as history. At the same time, it seeks to collaborate with multitudes of activists and intellectuals all over the world who obtain information and political analysis about current affairs from the web and, more importantly, ceaselessly provide their own, as direct producers of political culture today.

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