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Memorial
Robert W. McChesney (1952–2025): A Personal and Political-Intellectual Memoir
John Bellamy Foster introduces our special issue celebrating the life and work of MR former coeditor and MR Press author Robert W. McChesney. In his recounting of over 50 years of close friendship and collaboration, Foster paints a portrait of McChesney as a visionary intellectual and activist whose work will reverberate through the communication field for decades to come.
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Memorial
Bob McChesney: A Life Well Lived
In this deeply personal essay, communication scholar Inger Stole shares with readers a glimpse into her life with Robert W. McChesney, her husband of 37 years. Stole reveals the depth of feeling with which McChesney approached all aspects of life, from his work as an intellectual and advocate to his role as a father and life partner.
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Article
A Democratic Socialist in Our Age
John Nichols, Robert W. McChesney's longtime collaborator and frequent coauthor, celebrates McChesney's near-clairvoyant thought and scholarship. Nichols notes that McChesney's impressive foresight enabled him to see the pitfalls of the digital age long before the Internet became a tool for the worst impulses of the elites under capitalism.
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Article
A Clarion Call for Communication Democracy
Matthew Rothschild looks back on nearly 40 years working alongside his friend and colleague Robert W. McChesney. McChesney, he writes, brought to the world a sharp analysis of not only the contradiction between corporate media and democracy, but between the capitalist system as a whole and a true democracy that serves the people.
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Article
Communication Should Be a Rebellious Field!
Sigurd Allern echoes Robert W. McChesney's call for an insurgent communication scholarship that extends beyond the borders of academia and understands media not just as an industry, but as a public good and—critically—key infrastructure for functioning democracy.
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Article
Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible
Mandy Tröger and Sydney L. Forde explore the impact that Robert W. McChesney's work has had on both the communication field and on their work as the new generation of scholars. "To honor [McChesney]," they write, "is not to look up in awe, but look out…toward the unfinished work of building a more democratic field and society."
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Article
Reinventing Local Journalism: Carrying Forward Bob McChesney’s Unfinished Project
Victor Pickard celebrates the passion and clarity that Robert W. McChesney brought to his work as an author, media advocate, and founder of Free Press—and in particular, McChesney's bold proposals for a publicly funded and democratic model of local journalism designed to serve communities, rather than corporate interests.
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Article
Capitalism in the Age of Digital Technology
In this transcript of a talk from 2015, Robert W. McChesney discusses the "great definitional communication revolutions" that have shaped humanity's trajectory. Even a decade ago, McChesney was able to see the fraught relationship between new technology and democracy, the re-emergence of fascism, and the political dangers of the Digital Age.
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Article
Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective on Pomfret (Class of 1971)
Writing upon the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Pomfret School in Connecticut, Robert W. Chesney shares in his own words the story of his intellectual development, from his teen years through his studies at The Evergreen State College, and how they shaped his career as a journalist and activist—including his role as coeditor of MR.
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Remembrance
Tributes to Robert W. McChesney
To conclude our special issue on Robert W. McChesney's legacy, MR presents a series of tributes capturing his impact on the world around him. The diversity represented by these illustrious contributors, from his colleagues at the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) to Senator Bernie Sanders, is a testament to McChesney's enduring influence.
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Review of the Month
Eco-Marxism and Prometheus Unbound: Capitalist versus Socialist Ecomodernism
In Aeschylus’s play Prometheus Bound, the Prometheus is a revolutionary figure. Defying divine interdiction to bring fire to humanity, the Titan has since been adopted by thinkers from the Enlightenment to today to represent revolutionary forces in human existence. So, John Bellamy Foster asks in November’s Review of the Month, what is “Prometheanism,” and how has the term been used (and misused) in discussions of Marx, the ecological crisis, and sustainable human development?
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Article
The World Wants to Advance to Socialism
In this far-reaching analysis, Vijay Prashad enumerates the conditions of the current conjuncture that, despite seemingly intractable capitalist and imperialist hegemony, point to a reinvigorated revolutionary consciousness among the global population. In a world of capitalist degradation, Prashad declares: "A politics to produce dignity is a socialist politics…. Capitalism inherently generates forms of inequality and indignity. Therefore, all undertakings that seek dignity for all are socialist projects."
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CLASSICS
Unequal Exchange
Open Veins of Latin America
Labor and Monopoly Capital
Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?"
Marx’s Ecology
Discourse on Colonialism
Consciencism
Return to the Source
Racism and The Class Struggle
Anarchism
The Art of Democracy
Fanshen
Hidden History of the Korean War
In the public eye: Steve Cushion’s “Slavery in the British Empire and its Legacy in the Modern World”
One of the most impressive things about Steve Cushion is his extremely active approach to engaging the public around the topic of reparations, and using his books as a means of pushing for meaningful change on the ground....
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Forthcoming: “Silencing Fighting Bob: The Attack on Antiwar Progressives During the First World War” (Excerpt)
From: Chapter 3 “…As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette sought to defend the interests of the small farmer by pushing for greater regulation of the railroads. He successfully pushed through... READ MORE
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In the public eye: C.G. Beck’s “The Labor of Architecture”
The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Building of a New Class Consciousness examines the social and historical narratives that led to the illusory division between the “working class” and... READ MORE
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Recently released! John Bellamy Foster’s “Breaking the Bonds of Fate: Epicurus and Marx”
In the public eye: John Bellamy Foster’s Breaking the Bonds of Fate Book launch The Critical Theory Workshop was first to launch John Bellamy Foster’s excellent new work. Speakers alongside... READ MORE
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