Leo Huberman

• Born — 17 October 1903 • Birthplace — Newark, New Jersey • Died — 9 November 1968 • Place of death — Paris, France • Education — New York University • Occupation — Economist

The next-to-youngest of eleven children of Joseph and Fannie Kramerman-Huberman he was born and grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Six of his siblings died in infancy. From the age of eleven he studied at Newark State School, as well as supporting the family by working in a celluloid factory, as an electrician's mate and in the post office. After graduating from high school in 1926, he spent two years at Newark State Normal School, where he received a teacher’s diploma and started teaching in the elementary schools at the age of eighteen. He served as a teacher at a private experimental school until 1932. In 1925, he married a high school classmate, fellow teacher Gertrude Heller. For their honeymoon they hitch-hiked across the country to California and back to New Jersey. His first book We the People was published in London and he gained a place at the London School of Economics. He later attended New York University and completed a science degree in 1937. He held a post at Columbia University in the Faculty of Social Sciences. From 1940, he became editor and columnist for the magazine U.S. Week. In 1949, with Paul Sweezy and backed by F. O. Mathiessen, he founded the left-wing magazine Monthly Review, and became its chief editor. He continued to write and publish on socialist topics until his death from a heart attack in Paris in 1968.

Man’s Worldly Goods: The Story of The Wealth of Nations, and We The People: The Drama of America were initially written for young people but were revised for an adult audience.

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Leo Huberman is recorded as journalist, economist, writer and union member.