Max Forrester Eastman

(January 4, 1883 – March 25, 1969)

“Max Eastman is a name unfamiliar to most people today. Despite having been a prolific writer and journalist, almost his entire body of work is out of print. In particular his mid to late career works are hardly referenced or mentioned in popular culture and media. I have a particular interest in seeing that change. I’d like to introduce to a new audience, and perhaps those already familiar with his legacy, a bit of my distant family history.”

~Lucio Saverio-Eastman

Max Eastman Quotes

Oversoulful People

“These oversoulful people have not wanted to deny science or deprive themselves of its benefits, but neither have they wanted to commit themselves to its methods of acquiring knowledge…” ~Max Eastman

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Thoroughgoing Socialism

“Either phony elections or no elections at all—that is what thoroughgoing socialism will mean, no matter who brings it in—hard-headed Bolsheviks, soft-headed Social Democrats, or genteel liberals.” ~Max Eastman

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Romantic Philosophy

“There is no intellectual question of more importance to the future of American culture than the question whether we are going to conduct our social efforts in the name of science, or are going to swallow down this romantic philosophy” ~Max Eastman

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“Max Eastman spent the first half of his life trying to fit himself into larger frameworks: Christianity (provided, somewhat unorthodoxly, by his mother); feminism (promoted even more unconventionally by his sister); and then socialism (advocated by his uncompromising first wife). When each ideology appeared to fit Max into prescribed patterns of institutional behavior— of the church, the party, or any other organization—he balked. Max spent the second half of his life looking for an ideological home while trying to defend himself against those who seemed to know exactly what he was thinking and where he belonged.”
 
From Max Eastman: A Life by Christoph Irmscher
Claude McKay with Max in 1923, both of whom abandoned their socialist beliefs and became highly critical of Marxism.