History, Radicalism, and the New Left: Studies on the Left, 1959-1967

Studies on the Left was an academic journal formed by graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in early 1958, and first published at Thanksgiving 1959. Designed as an outlet for young radicals to build ‘An Intellectual Community Committed to the Radicalism of Disclosure,’ it’s most influential scholarly contribution was the theory of corporate liberalism, which concluded that alternatives to capitalism in the United States had failed to take root because the leaders of the largest corporations in the Progressive Era (1896-1920) had worked together with government and labour unions to co-opt reform. They did so in order to preserve the corporate system of accumulation - a system predicated on the stabilisation, rationalisation, and continued expansion of the existing political economy, and the sublimation of radical alternatives.

Alarmed by the conclusions reached in their historical work, the editors used Studies for a dual purpose; to further investigate the nature of the corporate liberal society, and ‘to help lay the theoretical basis for the emergence of a new radical politics' in the United States. Studies published articles on the issues of Cuban Revolution, the Sino-Soviet split, the history of the American Socialist Party, the New Left, and the effect of Senator McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade on ‘academic freedom,’ all within the context of exploring the potential for intellectuals to rival labour as an agency for radical societal change.

This thesis, the first extended study of Studies, examines the motivations and influences of the editors and the debates that they spawned. Over an eight-year period, Studies gained a reputation for being the “theoretical organ” of the New Left, its analysis of domestic and foreign politics inspiring a new generation of students to think politically and intellectually. Academics have usually studied the New Left as a succession of movements rather than an intellectual episode, and comparatively little has been done to examine academic influences on the movement. With this in mind, this thesis will explore the intellectual issues that Studies grappled with in its attempt to provide a relevant platform for young radicals, while assessing its influence in effecting change.