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New Left Review

journal

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ206249
Source-derived summary

New Left Review is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective.

History

Background

As part of the emerging British "New Left" in the late 1950s, a number of journals were launched to carry commentary on matters of Marxist theory. One of these was The Reasoner, founded by historians E. P. Thompson and John Saville in July 1956. Three quarterly issues were produced. The publication was expanded and further developed from 1957 to 1959 as The New Reasoner, with an additional ten issues produced. The New Reasoner distanced itself from the British Communist Party and USSR in the wake of Nikita Khrushchev's February 1956 "Secret Speech" on the Stalinist cult of personality, and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Uprising in November 1956.

Another radical journal of the period was the Universities and Left Review, a publication started in 1957 with less allegiance to the British communist tradition. This journal was youth-orientated and pacifist in nature, expressing opposition to the militaristic rhetoric of the Cold War, voicing strong disagreement with the 1956 Suez War, and supporting the burgeoning Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Establishment

New Left Review was established in January 1960 when The New Reasoner and Universities and Left Review merged their Boards. The first editor-in-chief of the merged publication was Stuart Hall.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “New Left Review” as journal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Left, Review and journal.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 1956, 1957, 1959—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Left, Review and journal providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “New Left Review”, the useful work is to connect “journal” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q206249. VIAF identifies the subject as 144773750. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1956, 1957 and 1959.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “New Left Review”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow New Left Review primary sources, New Left Review archive and Left research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from New Left Review” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.