New Left Review

New Left Review
Title	New Left Review
Discipline	Humanities, Social Theory
Language	English
Abbreviation	NLR
Publisher	New Left Review Ltd
Country	United Kingdom
History	1960–present
Frequency	Bimonthly

New Left Review is an English-language journal founded in 1960 that publishes scholarship and commentary on international political movements, philosophy, and culture. It emerged from postwar debates among leftist intellectuals associated with movements such as the New Left and intellectual circles connected to the Labour Party, engaging with global events including the Algerian War, the Vietnam War, and the Prague Spring. The journal has featured debates touching on figures and topics from Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci to Michel Foucault and Theodor W. Adorno while intersecting with institutions like the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, and publishing networks linked to editors and contributors from across Europe, North America, and the Global South.

History

The journal was created through the merger of the British titles The New Reasoner and Universities and Left Review, bringing together activists and intellectuals associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain dissident milieu, the Socialist Review tendency, and alumni of universities such as University of Cambridge and University of Manchester. Early editorial figures included contributors with ties to the Italian Communist Party debates around Eurocommunism, the French Communist Party, and the broader context of decolonization involving the Algerian National Liberation Front and leaders like Frantz Fanon. During the 1960s and 1970s the journal engaged with events like the May 1968 events in France and the American Civil Rights Movement, publishing work that responded to shifts in socialist theory after the Khrushchev Thaw and following analyses of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s it navigated disputes over Eurocommunism and neoliberal ascendance epitomized by leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, while incorporating voices from feminist networks connected to figures like Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan. In the 2000s and 2010s the journal published interventions on the Iraq War, the Global Financial Crisis, and uprisings including the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement.

Editorial Profile and Contributors

The editorial collective model has featured scholars and public intellectuals with affiliations to institutions such as King's College London, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Notable contributors have included theorists and historians engaged with the legacies of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Antonio Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburg, Walter Benjamin, Louis Althusser, Edward Said, Stuart Hall, Tariq Ali, E. P. Thompson, Christopher Hitchens, Eric Hobsbawm, Jürgen Habermas, Slavoj Žižek, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, and Seyla Benhabib. The review has published essays by economists and sociologists associated with Polish Solidarity, Latin American movements including Peronism and Cuban Revolution analysts, as well as writers from the Global South such as Aijaz Ahmad and Samir Amin. Editorial practice has oscillated between scholarly peer-reviewed submissions and solicited symposiums engaging editors of journals like Encounter, New Statesman, and Dissent.

Political Positions and Influence

Positions articulated in the review have ranged from democratic socialism and anti-imperialism to critical engagements with Stalinism and debates on Trotskyism and Eurocommunism. Interventions in the journal influenced theoretical currents in Western Marxism, debates over cultural hegemony rooted in Gramsci studies, and discourse around the New International Economic Order and development theory associated with scholars on migration, postcolonial thought linked to Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak, and anti-colonial leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and Ho Chi Minh. The journal's critiques have engaged policymakers and intellectuals in contexts including the United Nations General Assembly, debates in the European Parliament, and academic forums at institutions like the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Its influence extended to activist networks around the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and transnational solidarities exemplified by connections to Solidarity and Latin American left parties.

Publication and Format

Published bimonthly, the review combines long-form essays, critical theory, book reviews, and translated texts spanning languages such as French, German, Spanish, and Arabic, drawing on archives and manuscripts housed in places like the British Library, the Marx-Engels Institute, and university special collections at SOAS University of London. The journal's format traditionally foregrounds extended theoretical exposition rather than short op-eds, and issues have featured themed dossiers, symposiums responding to volumes from publishers such as Verso Books, Cambridge University Press, and Routledge, and responses to works by authors like Immanuel Wallerstein, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, and Hannah Arendt. Editorial decisions have been made by a collective rather than a single editor-in-chief, reflecting organizational models similar to those found at periodicals such as Monthly Review, New Left (US), and Radical Philosophy.

Reception and Criticism

Reception has ranged from praise in academic journals and outlets like The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, and The New York Review of Books to criticism from conservative and neoliberal commentators aligned with think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Heritage Foundation. Scholars have critiqued the review for alleged theoretical dogmatism or Eurocentrism while others have commended its role in publishing debates on postcolonialism, critical theory, and historical materialism; critics have included those associated with Postmodernism debates and proponents of Analytic philosophy. Periodic controversies have involved legal and political disputes in contexts such as libel actions and editorial resignations linked to disagreements over positions on conflicts including the Yugoslav Wars and the Iraq War.

Indexing and Circulation Data

The journal is indexed in academic databases and bibliographic services used by libraries at institutions such as Oxford University Library, Cambridge University Library, and the Library of Congress, and included in citation indexes used by research centers including the Institute of Development Studies and the International Institute for Social History. Circulation has historically been modest relative to mass-market magazines, with subscription bases among universities, research institutes, political organizations, and independent bookstores in cities like London, New York City, Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg. Recent distribution channels include academic aggregators and bookstore networks that serve students and scholars at institutions including University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, and McGill University.

Category:Political magazines Category:Academic journals