The Masses

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Recommended: Examine the role of mass media in political communication

The Masses was a revolution. The Socialist magazine existed from 1911 to 1917, and during that time it promoted feminism, Marxism, Freudianism, Socialism, syndicalism, and anarchism. (Art for the Masses, p. 3) There were many radical magazines in the 1910's but The Masses stood out. Because it owed allegiance to no specific school of thought, this collaboration of bohemian artists and writers created a powerful energy and a unique voice. Unfortunately, their firm ideas would not be able to last long in the country at large. The changed climate of World War I made it impossible for the The Masses to publish its radical views on the war. In order to understand the story of The Masses, the main issues that The Masses explored will be examined, as well as the art, the atmosphere that The Masses thrived in, and finally how The Masses ended.

Although The Masses dealt with many topics, including race equality, cooperatives, and education, The Masses supported three main ideas again and again: Feminism, workers' conditions under capitalism, and the promotion of Socialism.

The magazine frequently argued for women’s rights, supporting birth control, women’s suffrage, and free love. However, men created the majority of articles and illustrations addressing feminism, while the women working at The Masses, like Mary Heaton Vorse, Helen Marot, and Inez Haynes Gillmore, did far more reporting on labor rights than on women’s suffrage or birth control. At the same time many other women wrote feminist article for competing radical journals of the 1910s, such as the International Socialist Review.

The Masses criticized workers’ conditions in almost every issue. In one article about poison in industrial workplaces, the author, Frederick Sumner...

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...x Eastman Internet Archive." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. .

O'Neill, William L., ed. Echoes of Revolt: the Masses, 1911-1917. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1966. Print.

Oshinsky, David M. "The Crayon Was Mightier Than the Sword." Editorial. The New York Times [New York City] 4 Sept. 1988. The New York Times. Web. 2 Mar. 2011. .

"THE RADICAL IMPULSE--Life of the People (Library of Congress Exhibition)." Library of Congress Home. 27 July 2010. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Zurier, Rebecca, Elise K. Kenney, and Earl Davis. Art for the Masses: a Radical Magazine and Its Graphics, 1911-1917. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1988. Print.

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