Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883–March 25, 1969) was a socialist American writer and patron of the Harlem Renaissance, later known for being an anti-leftist. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 200 × 307 pixelsFull resolution (200 × 307 pixel, file size: 22 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Max Eastman, in Soviet Russia, 1922. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... During the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was a time for blacks to showcase their talents. ...

He was born in Canandaigua, Ontario Co., New York. Both his parents, Samuel Elijah Eastman and Annis Bertha Ford, were members of the Congregationalist clergy, his mother being one of the first women ordained as a minister in 1889. Eastman attended Williams College in 1905, two years later moving to Columbia University to work toward a Ph.D. in philosophy and was a member of the Delta Psi and Phi Beta Kappa societies. Settling in Greenwich Village with his sister, Crystal Eastman, he became involved in political matters, helping to found the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. While at Columbia he was an assistant in the philosophy department as well as a lecturer with the psychology department. After completing the requirements for his degree, however, he refused to accept it, leaving in 1911. There are two local governmental bodies known as Canandaigua and both are in Ontario County, New York. ... Ontario County is a county located in the state of New York. ... NY redirects here. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation indepedently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... Williams College is a private, coeducational, highly selective (17% admission rate this year) liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. ... Columbia University is a private research university in the United States. ... St. ... The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an honor society which considers its mission to be fostering and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts and sciences. ... The Washington Square Arch Greenwich Village (IPA pronunciation: ), also called simply the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern) Manhattan in New York City named after Greenwich, London. ... Crystal Eastman (June 25, 1881 - July 8, 1928) was a lawyer, antimilitarist, feminist, socialist, and journalist. ... A society formed in 1907 by the left-wing writers Henry Brailsford, Max Eastman, Laurence Housman, Henry Nevinson and others to pursue womens suffrage. ...

Eastman had become a key figure in the left-leaning Greenwich Village community, and combined this with his academic experience to explore varying interests including literature, psychology and social reform. He published Enjoyment of Poetry, an examination of literary metaphor from a psychological point of view, in 1913, the same year becoming an editor of The Masses, a magazine combining socialist philosophy with the arts. June 1914 issue of The Masses. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ...

In 1918 The Masses was forced to close under the Espionage Act passed by Congress the preceding year, due to its frequent explicit denunciations of U.S. participation in World War I. Eastman subsequently stood trial twice under provisions of the Sedition Act, but was acquitted both times. In 1919 he and his sister Crystal founded a similar publication titled The Liberator, which was taken over by the Workers Party of America) in 1922, after experiencing financial troubles. That same year, Eastman and his wife, Ida Raub, divorded. In 1924, The Liberator was merged with two other publications to create The Workers Monthly and Eastman quit working for it. The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I, on June 15, 1917, which made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States... Type Bicameralism Houses Senate House of Representatives United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D, since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D, since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of November 7, 2006 elections) Democratic Party Republican... This article is becoming very long. ... The Sedition Act of 1918 was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned any widespread dissent in time of war constituted a real threat to an American victory. ... The Liberator was a monthly magazine established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman in 1918 to continue the work of The Masses, which was shut down by the wartime mailing regulations of the US Government. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Communist Party USA. (Discuss) Symbol of the Workers Party Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from 1920 until about 1930. ...

Eastman embarked in 1923 on a fact-finding tour of the Soviet Union in order to get a feel for how the Soviet version of Marxism worked in practice. He stayed for over a year, and during that time observed the power struggles between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. In 1924, he married Eliena Krylenko, a Muscovite. Upon returning to the United States he wrote several essays, beginning with Since Lenin Died in 1925, which were highly critical of the Stalinist system. These treatises were unpopular with American leftists of the time. In later years, however, Eastman's writings on the subject were cited by many on both the left and the right as sober and realistic portrayals of the Soviet system. Marxismtakes its name from the praxis — the synthesis of philosophy and political action — of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... This article is becoming very long. ... “Stalin” redirects here. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ...

Although Eastman's view of the Soviet Union in particular was drastically altered by his experiences there and by subsequent study, his commitment to left-wing political ideas continued unabated. While in the Soviet Union Eastman began a friendship with Leon Trotsky which endured through the latter's exile to Mexico; Eastman translated several of Trotsky's works into English during this time. This article is becoming very long. ...

During the 1930s Eastman continued writing critiques of contemporary literature, publishing several controversial works in which he criticized James Joyce and other modernist writers, who, he claimed, had fostered "the cult of unintelligibility." This work began in 1931 with the publication of The Literary Mind and continued through Enjoyment of Laughter (1936), in which he also criticizes some elements of Freudian theory. Eastman was also an active traveling lecturer on various literary and social topics throughout the 1930s and 1940s. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ...

By 1941 Eastman had largely abandoned his former left-wing beliefs and connections. He was hired that year as a roving editor for Reader's Digest magazine and stayed in the job for the remainder of his life, writing articles critical of socialism and communism, and actively supporting McCarthyism. Eastman's repudiation of socialism in general and communism in particular reached its high water-mark with the publication of Reflections on the Failure of Socialism in 1955. In his later years he produced a number of autobiographical works, culminating in Love and Revolution (1964). He died at his summer home in Bridgetown, Barbados, at the age of 86. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... Bridgetown, population 5,928 (1990), formerly the Town of Saint Michael, is the capital city lies in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados. ...

Selected works by Max Eastman

• Enjoyment of Poetry, 1913
• Child of the Amazons, 1913
• Journalism Versus Art, 1916
• Color of Life, 1918
• The Sense of Humor, 1921
• Leon Trotsky: The Portrait of a Youth, 1925
• Since Lenin Died, 1925
• Marx and Lenin: The Science of Revolution, 1926
• The Literary Mind: Its Place in an Age of Science, 1931
• Artists in Uniform, 1934
• Art and the Life of Action, 1934
• Enjoyment of Laughter, 1936
• Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism, 1939
• Marxism: Is It a Science?, 1940
• Heroes I Have Known, 1942
• Enjoyment of Living, 1948
• Reflections on the Failure of Socialism, 1955
• Great Companions: Critical Memoirs of Some Famous Friends, 1959
• Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch, 1964
• Seven Kinds of Goodness, 1967

External links

• Max Eastman Archive
• The Liberator archive online.