Einstein’s “Why Socialism?” and ‘Monthly Review’: A Historical Introduction

John Bellamy Foster

A Spring 1949 memorandum in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Albert Einstein File,” part of the FBI’s Vault of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, states:

Advised [by an agent in the field that] in April 1949, a circular was distributed in the Nashua, New Hampshire area, announcing a new magazine entitled “Monthly Review,” “an independent Socialist magazine.” The first issue was dated to come out as the May 1949 edition. The first issue would contain articles by Albert Einstein—“Why Socialism[?]”; Paul M. Sweezy—“Recent Development[s] in American capitalism”; Otto Nathan—“Transition to Socialism in Poland”; Leo Huberman—“Socialism and American Labor”…. Re: New York report, dated 3-15-51 Espionage-CH.

The rest of the message is blacked out. Another memorandum that immediately follows in the FBI’s Einstein file, and which is similarly redacted, reads:

Advised the New York Office that the “Monthly Review” 66 Barrow Street, New York City, self-proclaimed “an independent Socialist magazine” made its initial appearance in May of 1949. The first issue contained articles by Albert Einstein and others. This [investigative] report stated further that a study of the articles contained in a background check of the editors and contributors revealed that this magazine was Communist inspired and followed the approved Communist Party line…. New York report, dated1-30-50; Re: Internal Security.

Albert Einstein, the world’s most famous theoretical physicist and its most celebrated scientist, had fled Germany upon Adolf Hitler’s rise, immigrating to the United States in 1933, where he became a citizen in 1940. Yet, for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, Einstein remained a dangerous and Un-American figure, threatening the internal security of the United States by his very presence in the country. His publication in 1949 of an article titled “Why Socialism?” for the new periodical Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine was thus viewed by the FBI as a direct confirmation of his strong “Communist sympathies.”

For a full read of this brief, click here or on the picture to download the pdf file.