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| | 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]]. Magdoff attended New York University after 1933, where he studied [[economics]] and [[statistics]], receiving a B.S. in Economics in 1935. He was suspended and later expelled from City College for activities related to editing ''Frontiers'' (a radical student magazine not sanctioned by the school), including participation in a mock trial of the school's President and its Director. | | 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]]. Magdoff attended New York University after 1933, where he studied [[economics]] and [[statistics]], receiving a B.S. in Economics in 1935. He was suspended and later expelled from City College for activities related to editing ''Frontiers'' (a radical student magazine not sanctioned by the school), including participation in a mock trial of the school's President and its Director. |
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| − | ==Government infiltration and post-war employment== | + | ==Infiltration== |
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| | In the mid-1930s, Magdoff moved to Philadelphia to take a job with the [[Works Progress Administration]] measuring the productivity of various manufacturing industries. [[David Weintraub]] assisted him with letters of recommendation to get a job with the government. By 1940 Magdoff was working for the [[New Deal]] Works Progress Administration (WPA) as its Principal Statistician. During [[World War II]] Magdoff worked on the [[War Production Board]], in the Statistical and Tools Divisions. | | In the mid-1930s, Magdoff moved to Philadelphia to take a job with the [[Works Progress Administration]] measuring the productivity of various manufacturing industries. [[David Weintraub]] assisted him with letters of recommendation to get a job with the government. By 1940 Magdoff was working for the [[New Deal]] Works Progress Administration (WPA) as its Principal Statistician. During [[World War II]] Magdoff worked on the [[War Production Board]], in the Statistical and Tools Divisions. |
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| − | Magdoff left his employment with the U.S. government, then 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, happy to leave government service. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster083.pdf Vol. 83, pgs. 83 -84] pdf, Hottel to the Director, January 8, 1947. Magdoff indicates he will be very happy to be leaving the Commerce Department.</ref> Magdoff worked among many business associates until 1948, at which time he began employment with Trubeck Laboratories in New Jersey. He became an economic advisor and speechwriter to former Vice-President and unsuccessful Presidential candidate [[Henry A. Wallace]].
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| | ==Espionage activities== | | ==Espionage activities== |
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| | ==Postwar subversive activities== | | ==Postwar subversive activities== |
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| | + | Magdoff left his employment with the U.S. government, then 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, happy to leave government service. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster083.pdf Vol. 83, pgs. 83 -84] pdf, Hottel to the Director, January 8, 1947. Magdoff indicates he will be very happy to be leaving the Commerce Department.</ref> Magdoff worked among many business associates until 1948, at which time he began employment with Trubeck Laboratories in New Jersey. He became an economic advisor and speechwriter to former Vice-President and unsuccessful Presidential candidate [[Henry A. Wallace]]. |
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| | Magdoff began a career in academia in the 1950s. His first and perhaps most influential book, ''The Age of Imperialism'', was published in 1969. It sold over 100,000 copies and was translated into fifteen languages. Two years later, after the death of [[Leo Huberman]], he began co-editing with [[Paul Sweezy]] ''Monthly Review'', the leading independent Marxist journal in the United States, and has continued to edit the magazine to this day. Under Magdoff's direction, the ''Monthly Review'' has focused more and more upon [[imperialism]] as the key unit of analysis for global development and the forces challenging neocolonialism in the [[Third World]]. This perspective put the magazine and its press squarely on the [[New Left]] intellectual agenda since the late 1960s. His work has also kept him in the forefront of socialist thought in the U.S. from the 1930s to this day. The [[Great Depression]] left a strong impact on Magdoff's perspective on [[capitalism]], as Magdoff recalls a sense of doom felt in the mid-century by pro-capitalists, holding that nothing since 1929 leads him to believe that the economy has become immune to cycles of severe crisis. | | Magdoff began a career in academia in the 1950s. His first and perhaps most influential book, ''The Age of Imperialism'', was published in 1969. It sold over 100,000 copies and was translated into fifteen languages. Two years later, after the death of [[Leo Huberman]], he began co-editing with [[Paul Sweezy]] ''Monthly Review'', the leading independent Marxist journal in the United States, and has continued to edit the magazine to this day. Under Magdoff's direction, the ''Monthly Review'' has focused more and more upon [[imperialism]] as the key unit of analysis for global development and the forces challenging neocolonialism in the [[Third World]]. This perspective put the magazine and its press squarely on the [[New Left]] intellectual agenda since the late 1960s. His work has also kept him in the forefront of socialist thought in the U.S. from the 1930s to this day. The [[Great Depression]] left a strong impact on Magdoff's perspective on [[capitalism]], as Magdoff recalls a sense of doom felt in the mid-century by pro-capitalists, holding that nothing since 1929 leads him to believe that the economy has become immune to cycles of severe crisis. |