our history

In 1933, the New School’s first president, Alvin Johnson, with support from philanthropist Hiram Halle and the Rockefeller Foundation, initiated an historic effort to rescue endangered scholars from the shadow of Nazism in Europe at the brink of World War II. These refugees became the founding scholars of “The University in Exile” and constituted what became known as the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, now known as The New School for Social Research. Social Research: An International Quarterly of the Political and Social Sciences was launched in 1934 by these scholars, who held the deep conviction that every true university must have its own distinct public voice. Read Alvin Johnson’s introduction to our first issue. 

In the years since, Social Research has matured into one of the oldest and most influential journals in the United States. Papers by authors from around the globe have reached our readers in nearly 100 countries, and our audience continues to grow. Articles and complete back issues are regularly used as classroom texts across the United States. More than 250 articles from our pages have been translated or reprinted in books and journals all over the world, and our special conference issues are award winners.

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FOUNDING EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

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Max Ascoli                   Karl Brandt                    Gerhard Colm                      Arthur Feiler

Eduard Heimann        Alvin Johnson               Alfred Kahler                        Horace M. Kallen

Emil Lederer                 Fritz Lehmann              Rudolf Littauer                    Carl Mayer

Hans Speier                 Hans Staudinger          Max Wertheimer               Frieda Wunderlich

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PAST EDITORS AND CHAIRS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD

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​            Leo Strauss            Alvin Johnson            Erich Hula            Hans Staudinger
                              Dennis H. Wrong                              Peter L. Berger