In 1960 in the UK, the editors of the New Reasoner and the Universities and Left Review merged their boards and formed the New Left Review. The Universities and Left Review grew out of the Suez crisis in 1956; their journal centred on a rejection of the dominant 'revisionist' orthodoxy within the Labour Party, from a Marxist perspective.

Together they would be at the forefront of the New Left in Britain, with the New Left Review as their theoretical journal. Through the journal, the members of the New Left would create 'New Left Clubs', and began working towards the reestablishment of Socialism as a viable force in English working-class politics. As Raphael Samuel observed, "the New Left defined not so much a politics but a stance; it was concerned not so much to establish a platform but to open a space! […] a space between the two dominant Cold war Socialist alternatives--Stalinism and social democracy."

The journal was initially edited by Stuart Hall, but he was replaced in 1962 by Perry Anderson, who in his first period as editor expanded the focus to debates within Western Marxism . Robin Blackburn took over from Anderson in 1982, and continued in this role until a redesign and relaunch in 2000. Perry Anderson became the editor again.

In its new form, NLR has led with major articles on the United States, China, Japan, Europe, Britain, Indonesia, Cuba, Iraq, Mexico, India and Palestine. It has featured major analyses of the global economy, the post-Seattle anti-corporate globalization activism, discussions of world literature and cinema, cultural criticism and the avant-garde.

External link

• New Left Review website. Articles, interviews and book reviews, with an archive going back to 1960.