James Burnham

Biography

Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 22, 1905, James Burnham was the son of Claude George Burnham, an English immigrant and executive with the Burlington Railroad. James was raised as a Roman Catholic but rejected Catholicism as a college student, professing atheism for the rest of his life before reverting back to the faith of his youth on his deathbed. He graduated at the top of his class at Princeton University before attending Balliol College, Oxford, where his professors included J. R. R. Tolkien and Martin D'Arcy. In 1929, he became a professor of philosophy at New York University. In 1934, he married Marcia Lightner.

Trotskyism

In 1933, along with Sidney Hook, Burnham helped to organize the American Workers Party led by the Dutch-born pacifist minister A. J. Muste. Burnham supported the 1934 merger with the Communist League of America which formed the US Workers Party. In 1935, he allied with the Trotskyist wing of that party and favored fusion with the Socialist Party of America. During this period, he became a friend to Leon Trotsky. Writing for Partisan Review, Burnham was also an important influence on writers including Dwight Macdonald and Philip Rahv.

Burnham's engagement with Trotskyism was short-lived, and from 1937 a number of disagreements came to the fore. In 1937, the Trotskyists were expelled from the Socialist Party, an action which led to the formation of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) at the end of the year. Inside the SWP, Burnham allied with Max Shachtman in a faction fight over the position of the SWP's majority faction, led by James P. Cannon and backed by Leon Trotsky, defending the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers state against the incursions of imperialism. Shachtman and Burnham, especially after witnessing the Nazi–Soviet pact of 1939 and the invasions of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia by Joseph Stalin's regime, as well as the Soviet invasion of Finland in November 1939, came to contend that the USSR was a new form of imperialistic class society and was thus not worthy of even critical support from the socialist movement. In February 1940, Burnham wrote Science and Style: A Reply to Comrade Trotsky, in which he broke with dialectical materialism. In this text he responds to Trotsky's request to draw his attention to "those works which should supplant the system of dialectic materialism for the proletariat" by referring to Principia Mathematica by Russell and Whitehead and "the scientists, mathematicians and logicians now cooperating in the new Encyclopedia of Unified Science".

After a protracted discussion inside the SWP, in which the factions argued their case in a series of heated internal discussion bulletins, the special 3rd National Convention of the organization in early April 1940 decided the question in favor of the Cannon majority by a vote of 55–31. Even though the majority sought to avoid a split by offering to continue the debate and to allow proportional representation of the minority on the party's governing National Committee, Shachtman, Burnham, and their supporters resigned from the SWP to launch their own organization, again called the Workers Party. This break also marked the end of Burnham's participation in the radical movement, however. On May 21, 1940, he addressed a letter to the National Committee of the Workers Party resigning from the organization. In it he made it clear the distance he had moved away from Marxism:

The general Marxian theory of "universal history", to the extent that it has any empirical content, seems to me disproved by modern historical and anthropological investigation.

Marxian economics seems to me for the most part either false or obsolete or meaningless in application to contemporary economic phenomena. Those aspects of Marxian economics which retain validity do not seem to me to justify the theoretical structure of the economics.

Not only do I believe it meaningless to say that "socialism is inevitable" and false that socialism is "the only alternative to capitalism"; I consider that on the basis of the evidence now available to us a new form of exploitive society (which I call "managerial society") is not only possible but is a more probable outcome of the present than socialism. ...

On no ideological, theoretic or political ground, then, can I recognize, or do I feel, any bond or allegiance to the Workers Party (or to any other Marxist party). That is simply the case, and I can no longer pretend about it, either to myself or to others.}}

In 1941, Burnham wrote a book analyzing the development of economics and society as he saw it, called The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World. The book was included in Life magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944.

OSS and ''National Review''

During World War II, Burnham took a leave from NYU to work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. Recommended by George F. Kennan, Burnham was invited to lead the semi-autonomous "Political and Psychological Warfare" division of the Office of Policy Coordination. Subsequently, he called for an aggressive strategy against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. A contributor to The Freeman in the early 1950s, he considered the magazine too focused on economic issues, though it presented a wide range of opinion on the Soviet threat. In The Struggle for the World (1947), he called for common citizenship between the United States, Great Britain, and the British dominions, as well as a "World Federation" against communism. Burnham thought in terms of a hegemonic world, instead of a balance of power:

In 1955, Burnham helped William F. Buckley Jr. found National Review magazine, which from the start took positions in foreign policy consistent with Burnham's own. In the National Review, he wrote a column titled "Third World War", which referred to the Cold War. Burnham became a lifelong contributor to the journal, and Buckley referred to him as "the number one intellectual influence on National Review since the day of its founding". His approach to foreign policy caused some to regard him as the first "neoconservative", and Burnham's ideas also were an important influence on both neoconservative and paleoconservative factions of the American Right. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In early November 1978 he suffered a stroke which affected his health and short-term memory. He died of kidney and liver cancer at home in Kent, Connecticut, on July 28, 1987. He was buried in Kent on August 1, 1987.

Ideas

''The Managerial Revolution''

Later writings

In The Machiavellians (1943), Burnham developed his theory that the emerging new élite would prosper better if it retained some democratic trappings—political opposition, a free press, and a controlled "circulation of the élites". His 1964 book Suicide of the West became a classic text for the post-war conservative movement in American politics, proclaiming Burnham's new interest in traditional moral values, classical liberal economics, and anti-communism. He saw political ideologies as potential syndromes (sets of elements) |author-link1 = James Burnham |orig-date = 1964 |publication-place = New York |access-date = 1 November 2025 afflicting their proponents with various internal contradictions. His works greatly influenced paleoconservative author Sam Francis (1947-2005), who wrote two books about Burnham and based his own political theories upon the "managerial revolution" and the resulting managerial state.

In fiction

British writer George Orwell was inspired by Burnham's The Managerial Revolution and his explanation of power, which informed Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell noted in 1945, "For Burnham's geographical picture of the new world has turned out to be correct. More and more obviously the surface of the earth is being parceled off into three great empires ..." The superpowers of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in the novel are partly influenced by Burnham's assessment of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union as being managerial states. In 1946 Orwell, summarized Burnham's managerial revolution and outlined the geopolitical landscape of Nineteen Eighty-Four:

While Orwell partly agreed with Burnham's analysis, he never fully accepted Burnham's attitude towards Machiavellian managerial power. This unresolved thought helped to inspire the character of O'Brien, who talks about power and regimes in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Works

Books

• Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (with Philip Wheelwright). New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1932.
• The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World. New York: John Day Co., 1941.
• The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom. New York: John Day Co., 1943. .
• The Struggle for the World. New York: John Day Co., 1947.
• The Case for De Gaulle: A Dialogue Between André Malraux and James Burnham. New York: Random House, 1948.
• The Coming Defeat of Communism. New York: John Day Co., 1949.
• Containment or Liberation? An Inquiry into the Aims of United States Foreign Policy. New York: John Day Co., 1953.
• The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks. New York: John Day Co., 1954.
• Congress and the American Tradition. Chicago: Regnery, 1959. .
• Bear and Dragon: What is the Relation Between Moscow and Peking? New York: National Review, in cooperation with the American-Asian Exchange, 1960.
• Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. New York: John Day Co., 1964.
• The War We Are In: The Last Decade and the Next. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1967.

Book contributions

• Introduction. In: Evans, Medford Bryan The Secret War for the A-Bomb. Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1953.
• Introduction. In: Dobriansky, Lev E. Veblenism: A New Critique. Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1957.

Pamphlets

• War and the Workers (as John West). New York: Workers Party of the United States, 1935. Marxists.
• Why Did They "Confess"? A Study of the Radek-Piatakov Trial. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1937. Marxists.
• The People's Front: The New Betrayal. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1937. Bolshevik.
• How to Fight War: Isolation, Collective Security, Relentless Class Struggle? New York: Socialist Workers Party & Young Peoples Socialist League (4th Internationalists), 1938.
• Let the People Vote on War! New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1939?.
• In Defense of Marxism (Against the Petty-Bourgeois Opposition) (with Leon Trotsky, Joseph Hansen and William Warde). New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1942.

Public speaking

• Why Does a Country Go Communist? An address delivered at the Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom on March 31, 1951. Bombay: Democratic Research Service, 1951.

Selected articles

• "Lenin’s Heir" Partisan Review, Vol.12, No.1 1945.
• "The Case Against Adlai Stevenson." American Mercury, Vol. 76, October 1952, pp. 11–19.
• "Can Washington Conduct Political Warfare?" American Mercury, December 1952, pp. 10-24.
• "Does ADA Run the New Frontier?" National Review, Vol. 14, No. 18, May 7, 1963, pp. 355–62.

References

Sources

References

1. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/07/31/james-burnham-82-national-review-editor/6eec0cfe-2bdc-4122-9a82-b5139f78b8fe/ James Burnham, 82, National Review Editor] {{Webarchive. link. (2018-06-29, [[Washington Post]])
2. Burnham, James. (1967). "The War We Are In: The Last Decade and the Next". Arlington House.
3. Kelly, Daniel. (2002). "James Burnham and the Struggle for the World: A Life". ISI Books.
4. Manfred Overesch, Friedrich Wilhelm Saal. (1986). "Chronik deutscher Zeitgeschichte: Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur". Droste.
5. (2000-12-03). "James Burnham (I)". UNC.
6. Priscilla Buckley, "James Burnham 1905–1987." ''National Review,'' July 11, 1987, p. 35.
7. (2024-08-12). "James Burnham".
8. Kimball, Roger. (September 2002). "The power of James Burnham".
9. Burnham, James. (November 25, 2014). "Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism". Encounter Books.
10. "The Cerebral Communist: James Burnham", pp. 160–201.
11. Burhham J. (1940) ''Science and Style A Reply to Comrade Trotsky'', in ''In Defence of Marxism'' by Leon Trotsky, London 1966, pp. 232–56.
12. James P. Cannon, "The Convention of the Socialist Workers Party," ''The Fourth International,'' v. 1, no. 1 (May 1940), p. 16.
13. James Burnham, "Burnham's Letter of Resignation," ''The Fourth International,'' v. 1, no. 4 (August 1940), pp. 106–07.
14. "[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/burnham/1940/05/resignation.htm James Burnham: Letter of Resignation (1940)] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-03-14 " on [[Marxists Internet Archive]]. Retrieved January 5, 2010.)
15. Canby, Henry Seidel. "The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924–1944". ''Life'', 14 August 1944. Chosen in collaboration with the magazine's editors.
16. James Burnham, ''The Struggle for the World'' (Toronto: Longmans, 1947), 190, 210.
17. Sempa, Francis P.. (May 27, 2020). "Forget About a 'New' Cold War. The Old One Never Ended.".
18. Kampmark, Binoy. (October 2011). "The first neo-conservative: James Burnham and the origins of a movement". Review of International Studies.
19. Kupferberg, Feiwel. (2002). "The rise and fall of the German Democratic Republic". Transaction Publishers.
20. Hart, Jeffrey D.. (2005). "The making of the American conservative mind: National review and its times". ISI Books.
21. Francis, Samuel T.. (1994). "Beautiful Losers: Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism". Univ of Missouri Pr.
22. Smant, Kevin J.. (1992). "How great the triumph: James Burnham, anticommunism, and the conservative movement". University Press of America.
23. "George Orwell 1984 Critical commentary". Gordon state.
24. (19 October 2011). "You and the Atom Bomb".
25. "Second Thoughts on James Burnham".
26. "1984 Historical and Social Context".