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The Perlo Collection

Victor Perlo (1912-1999), was a preeminent Marxist economist from New York, member of the Communist Party, USA, and the chair-emeritus of the Party’s Economic Commission.  The son of Siberian emigrants, Perlo attended Columbia University where, in 1933, he received his Baccalaureate and Masters in Mathematics and Statistics. 

Dring the Great Depression in the 1930s, Perlo used his talents in the service of the working class, often focusing on New York issues and industries. He served the administrations of Presidents Roosevelt and Truman as a "Social Economist," working in various New Deal government agencies from 1939 to 1947. Perlo was also a member of the prestigious Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organization in Washington, D.C.

After WWII, Perlo fell victim to the Cold War wave of anti-Communism in the USA.  From 1947 to his death in 1999, he worked as an economic consultant and a writer. Perlo authored 13 books, which have been translated to many different languages and sold all over the world.  Some of Perlo’s most prominent works include Empire of High Finance (1957), Economics of Racism I and II (1973 and 1996), and Superprofits and Crises (1988). Perlo and his wife Ellen co-authored the book Dynamic Stability: The Soviet Economy Today (1980).

Victor and Ellen Perlo traveled to numerous countries, including Cuba and the former Soviet Union. They collected a variety of souvenirs and memorabilia, including many of the political posters on display on the Ort Library's fourth floor. Besides posters, the Perlo collection comprises the majority of Perlo’s published works, pamphlets, manuscript material, correspondence, photographs, and personal and family memorabilia.