The bi-monthly journal Radical America (RA) grew out of the experiences of Paul Buhle, its founder and original editor, in a 1966-1967 national study group on American radicalism. The study group was conducted by mail and coordinated by Buhle while he was a graduate student at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He sent out several mimeographed newsletters containing bibliographies, short articles, and correspondence on the history of American radicalism. The first issue of RA was a more ambitious version of the newsletter; both were for individuals who were trying to find historical predecessors for the radical student movement of the 1960s. RA presented material to satisfy different levels of knowledge about the commitment to radicalism. It aimed to give local study groups a sense of identification with a national community of scholars and also provide a national channel of communication; and it would help the local study groups avoid the tendency to become simply Marxist indoctrination centers. In providing this national forum for independent radical ideas, RA was also partially filling the vacuum left by the demise of Studies on the Left in the fall of 1967.
RA was mainly edited by Paul Buhle, a University of Wisconsin graduate student, from his Madison home until the fall of 1970 when an editorial board was formed to share this responsibility. After Buhle and James O'Brien, a board member, moved to the Boston, Massachusetts, area in the summer of 1971, they created a new board; Buhle's voice, however, dominated. When his wife, Mari Jo Buhle, who occasionally contributed to RA, accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence College, Buhle's editorial input diminished because of his geographic distance from RA's Cambridge, Massachusetts offices.
RA has always listed a number of persons as associate editors, which is a position that implies varying degrees of responsibilities. Some associate editors regularly contribute articles; others have been active in the past and so are still given the benefit of the title; and others have never been active in RA affairs and could simply be called “friends” of the publication.
Staff members identify three phases of development in RA's short history. At first, its main concern was to trace the roots of American radicalism; consequently its format was similar to any other history journal committed to an ideological position and included articles, annotated bibliographies, book reviews, and reprints of policy statements of the Old Left in the United States. However, especially after Buhle's article “New Perspectives on American Radicalism” (July-August 1968), the editorial emphasis switched to a cultural critique of American society; the highlight of this phase was the special comic book issue of January-February 1969. In its third phase the journal has concentrated on the history, development, and prospects of the American working class, drawing parallels with the European working class whenever appropriate.
Financially RA was never dependent on Students for a Democratic Society or its Radical Education Project, from which it received moral support only during the first several years of RA's existence. It has remained solvent on the basis of subscription sales and sales to bookstores and to college classes. Also its occasional appeals for donations have met with some success.
(This information was obtained from telephone interviews on October 19, 1973 with James O'Brien, Nancy Schromm, and Patrick M. Quinn; an O'Brien letter of December 8, 1973; and from the journal and the material in this collection. As of January 1980, the journal continued publication.)
