Commentary on “U.S.A. The Permanent Revolution” [1951]

In February 1951 a special number of Fortune appeared under the title “U.S.A. The Permanent Revolution”. In fourteen unsigned articles and an accompanying preface, the editors of the renowned business monthly offered a prospectus of the political, cultural, social and economic life of the United States at mid-century. Russell had no truck with such boasts about the taming and democratization of free enterprise in the United States. Not for the first time, he complained of an all-pervasive corporate ethos at home, while “American capitalism in its international dealings tends to ally itself everywhere with what is old and corrupt, since everything else appears to it to be tainted with communism”. He also dwelt on another disturbing direction taken by the “American Way of Life”, namely the dangerous shift in the balance from liberty to security in the political sphere. Russell was asked for his thoughts about “U.S.A. The Permanent Revolution” by Fortune’s European director, Walter Graebner.