New Masses

New Masses
Title	New Masses
Frequency	Monthly
Firstdate	1926
Finaldate	1948
Country	United States
Language	English

New Masses was an American left-wing magazine influential in the interwar and World War II periods, associated with Communist and socialist cultural movements. It served as a forum for writers, poets, artists, and critics connected to labor struggles, antifascist campaigns, and anti-imperialist causes, engaging figures from the literary, political, and artistic spheres across the United States and internationally. The magazine intersected with major cultural institutions, political parties, and intellectual debates of the 1920s–1940s.

History

Founded in 1926 in New York City, the periodical emerged amid debates involving the Communist Party USA, the American Left, and avant-garde circles linked to the Harlem Renaissance and the Lost Generation. Its early years overlapped with events such as the Scopes Trial, the rise of Benito Mussolini, and the Spanish Civil War, which shaped editorial priorities and networks. During the Great Depression, the magazine engaged with organizations like the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the American Federation of Labor, and relief movements influenced by policies from the New Deal. In the late 1930s and early 1940s it navigated shifting alignments following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet invasion of Poland, then repositioned during the Allies alliance in World War II. The publication's decline in the postwar era coincided with tensions arising from the Cold War and investigations by entities such as the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Editorial Staff and Contributors

Editors and staff included activists and cultural figures who had connections to institutions like Columbia University, New York University, and artistic hubs on Greenwich Village. Key editorial figures worked alongside contributors from broader networks tied to the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Art Project, and the Federal Writers' Project. Notable literary contributors appeared alongside political writers and critics aligned with personalities connected to the John Reed Club, the American Communist movement, and transatlantic contacts with writers in Paris and Moscow. Poets, novelists, and playwrights who published in the magazine maintained relationships with editors and publishers such as Viking Press, Random House, Alfred A. Knopf, and journals like The New Yorker, The Dial, and Harper's Magazine.

Writers and artists associated with the magazine included individuals who also worked with institutions like The New Masses Bookshop milieu, collaborated with filmmakers from United Artists and studios in Hollywood, or taught at colleges including Barnard College, City College of New York, and New School for Social Research. Contributors had intersecting careers that connected them to figures in the worlds of theater and film such as Eugene O'Neill, Orson Welles, and Sergei Eisenstein, and to poets whose careers involved affiliations with Poetry magazine and the Modernist movement.

Political Orientation and Influence

The magazine maintained a stance aligned with leftist internationalism, engaging debates involving the Communist International, the Socialist Party of America, and various antifascist coalitions. It promoted solidarity with struggles in Spain, China, and colonies under British Empire and French Colonial Empire rule, often discussing events involving leaders such as Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. Its politics intersected with protests against policies of Herbert Hoover and critiques of institutions like Wall Street and banking families whose influence extended into the policies of administrations including that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The magazine influenced labor activists connected to strikes at places like Ford Motor Company and shipyards in San Francisco, and engaged with union leaders who later met figures from the AFL-CIO.

The publication's cultural policy advocated for a literature of social commitment, drawing on doctrines debated at conferences involving the Comintern and intellectuals who traveled between Moscow, Berlin, and London. Its positions affected debates over realism and modernism among circles that included members of the Johns Hopkins University, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and theatrical communities tied to The Group Theatre.

Content and Features

Content ranged from poetry and short fiction to essays, reviews, and political reportage, with artworks, cartoons, and illustrations often produced by artists active in the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project and galleries such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum. The magazine serialized work by writers who also published books with presses like Farrar & Rinehart and performed in venues such as Broadway and regional theaters influenced by the Federal Theatre Project. Criticism covered exhibitions at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and performances involving directors tied to Lincoln Center and experimental groups in Chicago and San Francisco.

Regular features included literary reviews engaging with titles from publishers such as Scribner's, commentary on international developments in capitals like Paris and Rome, and visual satire reflecting aesthetics associated with movements such as Social Realism and debates within Modernism.

Circulation and Reception

Circulation peaked during the Depression and the Popular Front era, attracting readers among intellectuals, union members, and artists in neighborhoods including Harlem, Greenwich Village, and immigrant communities in Lower East Side. Reviews and responses appeared in contemporary periodicals including The Nation, The New Republic, Partisan Review, and The New Yorker, while political responses came from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and opponents in conservative outlets such as The Saturday Evening Post and National Review. Academic assessments later emerged from scholars connected to departments at Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and University of California, Berkeley.

Legal Issues and Controversies

The magazine and some contributors faced scrutiny during anti-communist investigations by bodies including the House Committee on Un-American Activities and hearings led by figures in the United States Congress who invoked wartime and postwar legislation. Controversies involved libel disputes, accusations of espionage sympathies during episodes tied to cases like those involving Alger Hiss and trials connected to Espionage Act era jurisprudence. Internal debates sometimes paralleled schisms within the Communist Party and the exile networks around Trotskyism and factions in the Left Opposition.

Allegations and defenses circulated through legal venues and public forums including rallies in Madison Square Garden and statements published in competing magazines such as Dissent and The New Leader, while cultural disputes over censorship and patronage implicated organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts in later historical narratives.

Category:Defunct political magazines of the United States