12 Facts About Harry Magdoff

Harry Samuel Magdoff was a prominent American socialist commentator.

Harry Magdoff held several administrative positions in government during the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt and later became co-editor of the Marxist publication Monthly Review.

In 1929, at age 15, Harry Magdoff first started reading Karl Marx when he picked up a copy of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in a used-book store.

Harry Magdoff studied mathematics and physics from 1930 to 1933 at the City College of New York taking engineering, math and physics courses; he was active in the Social Problems Club with many schoolmates who later joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a Comintern organization that fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Harry Magdoff was suspended and later expelled from City College for activities related to editing Frontiers, including participation in a mock trial of the school's president and its director.

Harry Magdoff left the Commerce Department at the end of 1946.

Harry Magdoff was happy to leave his position with the United States Department of Commerce, on December 30,1946, and went to work for the New Council on American Business in New York until 1948, at which time he began employment with Trubeck Laboratories in New Jersey.

Harry Magdoff was an economic adviser and speechwriter to former Vice-President and then unsuccessful Presidential candidate Henry Wallace, who ran as the Progressive Party candidate in 1948.

Two years later after the death of Leo Huberman, Harry Magdoff began co-editing the Monthly Review with Paul Sweezy, and continued to edit the magazine into his 90th year.

Until his death, Harry Magdoff co-edited the Monthly Review with John Bellamy Foster.

Harry Magdoff had two sons, one of whom, Fred Harry Magdoff, is an expert in plant and soil science.

Harry Magdoff has been accused by a number of authors as having been complicit in Soviet espionage activity during his time in US government.