Introduction to Socialism

This introduction to socialist thought is by two men perhaps better qualified than any other Americans to have written it. Leo Huberman and Paul Sweezy, founding editors and publishers of the independent socialist magazine Monthly Review, built an impressive reputation as keen observers, acute analysts, and lucid writers on the world and domestic scenes. In this book, they present in clear and direct language the basic elements of the socialist critique of capitalist society.

On the occasion of their winning the “Citta di Omegna” award given by an Italian town (an award previously won by Jean–Paul Sartre, Günther Anders, and Frantz Fanon), the award committee had this to say about Huberman and Sweezy: “The fundamental genius of these two writers lies in a Marxist humanism… In the world’s struggle against capitalism and imperialism, there has been neither an argument nor an event which has not found in the works of Huberman and Sweezy an interpretation of high intellectual caliber and painstaking lucidity.“

Leo Huberman (1903-1968) was a founding editor of Monthly Review, as well as an author, journalist, pamphleteer, and organizer. He was the chair of the Department of Social Science at New College, Columbia; labor editor of the newspaper PM; Educational Director of the National Maritime Union; and the author of Man’s Wordly Goods and We, The People, in addition to many other books and articles. Paul M. Sweezy (1910-2004) was born in New York City, educated at Exeter and Harvard, and after receiving his Ph.D. in 1937 went to the London School of Economics, to Vienna, and to other places on the Continent for graduate study. He taught economics at Harvard until 1946 and was visiting professor of economics at Cornell, Stanford, and the New School. He was a founding editor of Monthly Review and author of Monopoly Capital (with Paul Baran) and The Theory of Capitalist Development, among many other books and articles.