Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was an American Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and a founding editor of the long-running socialist magazine Monthly Review. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory as one of the leading Marxian economists of the second half of the 20th century.
Biography
Early years and education Paul Sweezy was born on April 10, 1910, in New York City, the youngest of three sons of Everett B. Sweezy, a vice-president of First National Bank of New York. His mother, Caroline Wilson Sweezy, was a graduate of Goucher College in Baltimore. Sweezy attended Phillips Exeter Academy and went on to Harvard and was editor of The Harvard Crimson, graduating magna cum laude in 1932. Having completed his undergraduate coursework, his interests shifted from journalism to economics. Sweezy spent the 1931–32 academic year taking courses at the London School of Economics, traveling to Vienna to study on breaks. It was at this time that Sweezy was first exposed to Marxian economic ideas. He made the acquaintance of Harold Laski, Joan Robinson and other young left-wing British thinkers of the day. Upon his return to the United States, Sweezy again enrolled at Harvard, from which he received his PhD degree in 1937 for a thesis on the "Limitation of the Vend", an English mineowners' cartel, entitled The Limitation of the Vend: A Study in Monopoly and Competition. During his studies, Sweezy became like a son to the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter, although on an intellectual level, their views were diametrically opposed. Later, as colleagues, their debates on the "Laws of Capitalism" were of legendary status for a generation of Harvard economists. While at Harvard, Sweezy founded the academic journal The Review of Economic Studies and published essays on imperfect competition, the role of expectations in the determination of supply and demand, and the problem of economic stagnation.
Academic career and military service Sweezy became an instructor at Harvard in 1938. It was there that he helped establish a local branch of the American Federation of Teachers, the Harvard Teachers' Union. In this interval also Sweezy wrote lectures that later became one of his most important works of economics, The Theory of Capitalist Development (1942), a book which summarized the labor theory of value of Marx and his followers. The book was the first in English to deal thoroughly with such questions as the transformation problem. Sweezy worked for several New Deal agencies analyzing the concentration of economic power and the dynamics of monopoly and competition. This research included the influential study for the National Resources Committee, "Interest Groups in the American Economy" which identified the eight most powerful financial-industrial alliances in US business. From 1942 to 1945, Sweezy worked for the research and analysis division of the Office of Strategic Services. Sweezy was sent to London, where his work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) required his monitoring British economic policy for the US government. He went on to edit the OSS's monthly publication European Political Report. Sweezy received the bronze star for his role in the war. He was the recipient of the Social Science Research Council Demobilization Award at war's end. On December 14, 2016, the U.S. Congress "awarded the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior and major contributions during World War II". Sweezy wrote extensively for the liberal press during the post-war period, including such publications as The Nation and The New Republic. He also wrote a book, Socialism, published in 1949, as well as a number of shorter pieces which were collected in book form as The Present as History in 1953. In 1947 Sweezy quit his teaching position at Harvard, with two years remaining on his contract, to dedicate himself to full-time writing and editing.
Monthly Review magazine In 1949, Sweezy and Leo Huberman founded a new magazine called Monthly Review, using money from historian and literary critic F. O. Matthiessen. The first issue appeared in May of that year, and included Albert Einstein's article "Why Socialism?". The magazine, established in the midst of the American Red Scare, describes itself as socialist "independent of any political organization". Monthly Review rapidly expanded into the production of books and pamphlets through its publishing arm, Monthly Review Press. Over the years, Monthly Review published articles by a diverse array of voices, including material by Albert Einstein, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jean-Paul Sartre, Che Guevara and Joan Robinson.
Activism In 1954, New Hampshire Attorney General Louis C. Wyman subpoenaed Sweezy and made inquiries into the contents of a guest lecture at the University of New Hampshire and his political beliefs and associations, demanding to know the names of his political associates. Sweezy refused to comply, citing his First Amendment right of freedom of expression. He was cited for contempt of court and briefly imprisoned, but the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction in a landmark case for academic freedom, in Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234 (1957). Sweezy was active in a wide range of progressive causes, including the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions, and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He was the chairman of the Committee in Defense of Carl Marzani and was particularly active fighting against the prosecution of members of the Communist Party under the Smith Act. An outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Sweezy was a prominent supporter of Bertrand Russell's International War Crimes Tribunal.
Contributions to economics
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