The New Masses

The New Masses
Title	The New Masses
Category	Political magazine
Firstdate	1926
Finaldate	1948
Country	United States
Language	English

The New Masses The New Masses was a leftist American magazine founded in 1926 that became a leading organ of American Communist Party USA-aligned intellectual life, engaging writers and artists across the interwar and World War II period. It published reportage, criticism, fiction, poetry, and visual art by figures associated with Marxism, Socialism, and anti-fascist movements, intersecting with debates around the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, and the rise of Nazism. The periodical's pages featured work by prominent cultural figures and activists involved in campaigns including labor organizing, anti-lynching advocacy, and Popular Front politics.

History

The magazine emerged from a lineage of radical publications connected to the American Civil Liberties Union debates and the aftermath of the Red Scare (1919–1920), evolving from earlier journals linked to the Daily Worker network and independent leftist circles in New York City. Its founding cohort included editors and patrons with ties to the Communist International, the Workers Party of America, and migrant intellectuals from Europe who had participated in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. During the late 1920s and 1930s the magazine aligned with campaigns around the Scottsboro Boys case, supported the Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, and responded to legislative battles such as the Wagner Act and political trials in the era of the Great Depression. In the wartime years the magazine's orientation shifted with the Nazi–Soviet Pact episode and later to Popular Front support for the Allies of World War II; postwar pressures from investigations like those conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee and the changing landscape of Cold War politics contributed to its decline and eventual cessation in 1948.

Editorial Leadership and Contributors

Editorial leadership included figures associated with the John Reed Club milieu and intellectuals who had ties to the American Communist Party and broader left networks. Contributors spanned a wide range of well-known cultural figures: poets and novelists such as Langston Hughes, Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot-adjacent debates; critics and historians like Howard Fast, Granville Hicks, and Mike Gold; playwrights and dramatists such as Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman; and journalists and photographers linked to documentary traditions including Dorothy Day-aligned activists and documentary photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. Visual contributors included artists with associations to the Federal Art Project, the American Artists' Congress, and émigré modernists who had connections to the Bauhaus diaspora and the Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The magazine also published translations and commentary referencing intellectuals like Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci, and Bertolt Brecht.

Political and Cultural Influence

The periodical functioned as a hub connecting activists from the Labor Movement—including organizers from the United Auto Workers and participants in the Congress of Industrial Organizations—to cultural producers in the circles around Harlem Renaissance figures and leftist theaters like the Group Theatre. It shaped discourse on civil rights issues involving campaigns sparked by incidents such as the Scottsboro Boys prosecutions and anti-lynching drives associated with activists from NAACP debates, while also influencing anti-fascist mobilizations during the Spanish Civil War and the international Popular Front campaigns endorsed by the Communist International. Its polemics intersected with controversies over literary realism versus modernism, touching on figures linked to the New Criticism debates and institutions such as Columbia University and the New School for Social Research.

Content and Themes

Coverage emphasized class struggle narratives drawn from Marxist theory, workers' reportage from strikes like those associated with the Homestead Strike lineage and industrial conflicts in the Rust Belt, and cultural criticism addressing the work of poets, novelists, and dramatists connected to left networks. Fiction and poetry often foregrounded proletarian perspectives with formal debates engaging those linked to Modernism and regionalist writers associated with the Southern Renaissance. International reporting considered events ranging from the Soviet Union experiments in planning to anti-colonial uprisings involving activists tied to movements in India and China. The magazine also engaged with film criticism touching the Hollywood debates involving studios such as MGM and filmmakers who later became subjects of HUAC scrutiny, and with theater reviews linked to the fortunes of the Federal Theatre Project.

Visuals and Design

Art direction drew on graphic traditions shared with radical publications such as the New Masses-period visual avant-garde, collaborations with printmakers from the Works Progress Administration, and contributions from émigré modernists who had worked with the Salon de l'Escalier and other European networks. The magazine featured linocuts, woodcuts, photomontage, and cartooning that echoed the practices of artists connected to the Communist Party USA cultural apparatus and groups like the John Reed Club. Covers and internal illustrations often referenced iconic imagery from struggles such as labor picket lines, anti-fascist protests, and scenes from the Spanish Civil War dramatized by contributors involved with left theater companies.

Reception and Controversies

Reception ranged from praise in progressive literary circles tied to the Harlem Renaissance and left theater to fierce criticism from conservative commentators associated with publications like The Saturday Evening Post and figures in the American Legion and anti-communist networks. The magazine's political commitments provoked scrutiny during the Second Red Scare and led to conflicts involving investigations by bodies such as HUAC and public disputes with writers and intellectuals who later testified or recanted under pressure, producing defections and denunciations within circles that included former sympathizers affiliated with institutions like Columbia University and cultural organizations linked to the John Sloan milieu. Litigation, editorial splits, and debates over cultural policy marked its later years as the Cold War climate hardened.

Category:Defunct political magazines of the United States Category:Magazines established in 1926 Category:Magazines disestablished in 1948