Marcus Eli Ravage

Jewish-American writer (1884–1965) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marcus "Max" Eli Ravage (or Ravitch, born Revici; June 25, 1884 – October 6, 1965) was a Romanian-born Jewish American writer and journalist who divided his life between the United States and France.

Born(1884-06-25)June 25, 1884[1]
Bârlad, Kingdom of Romania
DiedOctober 6, 1965(1965-10-06) (aged 81)[2]
Grasse, France
CitizenshipUnited States (from 1912)
Stateless (1884–1912)[a]
EducationUniversity of Missouri (BA), University of Illinois (MA)
Quick facts Born, Died ...
Marcus Eli Ravage
Ravage in 1909
Born(1884-06-25)June 25, 1884[1]
Bârlad, Kingdom of Romania
DiedOctober 6, 1965(1965-10-06) (aged 81)[2]
Grasse, France
CitizenshipUnited States (from 1912)
Stateless (1884–1912)[a]
EducationUniversity of Missouri (BA), University of Illinois (MA)
OccupationWriter
Years active1900s–1950s
Known forEarly contributions to American migrant literature
Notable workAn American in the Making (1917, autobiography)
Spouses
  • Jeanne Louise Suzanne Martin[6]
  • Denise Montel[3]
Children3
Close

He is known for An American in the Making (1917),[7] a seminal immigrant autobiography exploring the tensions between assimilation and cultural identity. During the interwar period, Ravage wrote prolifically on immigration in the United States and on political affairs across Europe and America.

His satirical essays about antisemitism, published 1928, were later stripped of context and ideologically repurposed by Nazi propaganda[8] – a conspiracist distortion further recycled in postwar antisemitic discourse.[5][9]: xxvi 

Ravage also authored popular biographies of the Rothschild family and of Marie Louise, Napoleon's second wife.[10][11] He served as European correspondent for the U.S. magazine The Nation,[12] and contributed to Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, Current History, The Forward (in his early years under the penname 'Max the Sleever'),[13] the humor magazine Puck, The Century Magazine, the British newspaper The Nation[14] and various European publications.[7][15][2]

Name

Born and raised in Romania as Marcus (or Marcu[16]) Eli Revici,[3] he adapted the spelling of his name over the course of his migrations.

While later biographical summaries suggest that he may have already adopted his 'Americanized' surname Ravage upon arrival at the U.S. immigration inspection station at Ellis Island in 1900,[3] early records from his educational trajectory indicate that during the decade between his immigration and eventual naturalization, he used the surname Ravitch, together with the forename Max.[b] Phonetic transcriptions of birth names streamlined for compliance with English pronunciation were common among Eastern European immigrants.[21] Ravage's own account suggests that his transitional use of the name "Max" may have reflected broader patterns of Americanization rather than personal preference.[c]

Evidenced by the start of his professional publishing activity in 1917, with contributions to Harper's, Puck, and Century Magazine as well as the publication of An American in the Making – he would adopt the surname Ravage and reclaim the use of his forename Marcus together with his Hebrew middle name Eli.[1]

During his later years in France – documented, for example, in publications for Le Petit Parisien, Vendredi, Ce soir and Vu – his name was also rendered as Mark‑Eli Ravage,[23] or Marc‑Elie Ravage,[24] sometimes with accent on the "É".[25]

Biography

Ravage was born 1884 in Bârlad as the youngest of four children to his father Judah Loeb Revici, a struggling grain merchant, and his mother Bella Rosenthal Revici.[3][1]

Old train station of Vaslui, from which Ravage began his journey to America.[9]: xvi 

While he was still a child, the family moved to nearby Vaslui, a town of some 12,000 people in 1900, about 31 percent of whom Jewish like the Revicis.[9]: xvi 

His sister Annie died when he was 11 years old. At the age of 14, he saw a cousin return to visit Vaslui, who had settled in New York City.[3] The relative's unexpected reappearance in Vaslui, combined with his positive reports about America, contributed to local discussions about emigration, including Ravage's own.[9]: xvi [26]

At the age of sixteen, in the year 1900, Ravage joined the Fusgeyer movement (Jews fleeing increased antisemitism in Romania), and sailed to New York, where his cousins provided him with a room on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side.[3][27] He began working in versatile jobs, as peddler for chocolates and toys, bartender (saloon factotum), then later making shirtsleeves in a sweat shop, while learning English in night school.[2] Ravage pursued his education through self-directed workers' schools and private evening preparatory academies in New York City, later attending DeWitt Clinton High School to qualify for a state scholarship.[28]

Marcus Eli Ravage, seated in the front row, second from right, with fellow students at the Asterisk Club, University of Missouri, 1909

In 1903, as a young adult, he was informed by mail of the deaths of his parents in Vaslui. His brothers Paul and Harry likewise came to New York.[3]

He attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri from 1906 on,[29] to graduate there in 1909, later earning his MA degree from the University of Illinois in 1910.[3] As a student, he was an early member of the Cosmopolitan Club, a multicultural student organization (in which he served, for a time, as head of the Jewish group).[17][30]

Marcus Eli Ravage, seated on the right end of the third visible row (not the back row), with fellow students at the Cosmopolitan Club, University of Missouri, 1909

After graduation, Ravage briefly worked as instructor at Kansas State Agriculture College.[31][32][1][33][d]

He returned to New York City, where he temporarily enrolled for studies at Columbia University (with sources differing on the exact duration, some citing 1910–1911,[3] others suggesting until 1913[36][37]) and was actively involved in immigrant-relief and settlement work,[3] an experience that culminated in his writing An American in the Making (1917).[38]

Marcus Eli Ravage with his daughter Suzanne (c. 1921)

In November 1912, Ravage was naturalized as a United States citizen at a courthouse in New York City.[3]

After meeting the Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Suzanne Martin[6] in Saranac Lake, New York, Ravage married her in 1915. The couple had their first child, Suzanne Anna, in 1916. Two years later, their second child, Louise Belle, was born.[3] In these years, M. E. Ravage established himself as successful magazine writer, journalist and freelance author on social and political issues.[37] He maintained contacts with public figures from literature, journalism, social reform, and law.[e][f]

In 1920, the Ravages moved to Paris, France, with Ravage himself travelling across Europe as foreign correspondent, namely to Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Romania,[37] including a visit to his hometown Vaslui for one day.[3][40] After returning to New York City in 1923, Jeanne and Marcus Eli Ravage welcomed their third child, John Mark, the following year.[6]

File:Marcus Eli Ravage (c.1960)
Marcus Eli Ravage (c.1960)

1927 marked the family's second move to Paris, undertaken largely for financial reasons. In the following years, Ravage grew increasingly estranged from his family and entered into a relationship with Denise Montel, a publishing contact to whom he dedicated his 1931 biography of Marie Louise.[3][5]: 82 [41]: 36  When Jeanne learned of the affair in 1933, she left for Ithaca, New York, taking the children with her; sources differ, with later biographical summaries listing all three children as having left,[3][9]: xxix  while Suzanne Ravage's own account states that her sister Louise stayed behind to continue her education.[41]: 18, 37–39  Remaining in France, Ravage eventually divorced Jeanne and married Montel.[3][42]

After spending most of World War II in the United States, M. E. Ravage returned to France and ultimately settled in Grasse.[3]

He died in 1965 at the age of eighty-one after a brief illness.[2]

Recognition

In December 1933, the University of Missouri chapter of Phi Beta Kappa elected Ravage to honorary membership, recognizing his literary achievements and connection to his alma mater.[43][44]

From 1926 through at least 1941, Ravage was continuously listed in Marquis Who's Who in America, a biographical reference work that aims to document the best known individuals in the United States engaged in useful and reputable achievements. Over the years, his entries were updated to reflect his expanding publication record.[36][45]

Reception and distortion

Legacy in immigration discourse: An American in the Making (1917)

Marcus Eli Ravage's literary legacy is anchored in his early contributions to American immigrant literature, particularly through his autobiographical book An American in the Making (1917).

Immigrants approaching Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (c. 1910s).

Upon publication, An American in the Making became widely used in early 20th-century New York schools[15] and helped establish Ravage as a prominent public figure in the fields of immigration and education policy.[46]: 37 [g]

Ravage's reflections on acculturation in the U.S. resonated with intense public debates about the so-called new immigrants since 1880. Competing ideas about how to incorporate millions of newcomers ranged from Anglo-Saxonism conformity, over the "melting pot" metaphor, to the notions of "hyphenated" Americans and cultural pluralism.[15]

While his work was one of numerous other immigrant autobiographies in the U.S. at that time,[9][15] it was commended for reflecting lived experience blended with sharp social critique.[48][49][50]

Registry Room for new immigrants at Ellis Island (c. 1910s).

In comparison, the similarly titled autobiographical work The Making of an American (published in 1901 by Danish-American reformer Jacob Riis)[51] was interpreted as an unambiguous celebration of Americanization, popularizing the trope of the self-made assimilated immigrant.[15] Ravage's book, by contrast, exposed the contradictions of Americanization, revealing how immigrants were unrealistically expected to shed their identities,[52] like "a blank sheet to be written on as you see fit",[53] while navigating a society that seldom understood them.[54] Offering a vivid portrayal of his journey from Eastern Europe to the United States, and from the tenements of New York to the rural Midwest, Americanization is presented (as implicated in the title) as a contingent and ongoing process: intense, often disorienting, and at times disappointing.[15]

By asserting that "the alien" has as much to teach as to learn,[9][55] Ravage challenged prevailing assimilationist models and promoted an early vision of cultural pluralism grounded in reciprocity.[15][56] Starting from his introduction to the original 1917 edition, Ravage confronted growing hostility towards immigration directly and (to use Robert E. Park's words) "began to write back".[49]

I cannot help saying to myself that Americans have forgotten America. The native, I must conclude, has, by long familiarity with the rich blessings of his own land, grown forgetful of his high privileges and ceased to grasp the lofty message which America wafts across the seas to all the oppressed of mankind. What, I wonder, do they know of America, who know only America? [..] It is the free American who needs to be instructed by the benighted races in the uplifting word that America speaks to all the world. Only from the humble immigrant, it appears to me, can he learn just what America stands for in the family of nations.

— M. E. Ravage, An American in the Making (1917), "Introduction"

Consistent with his later publications,[h] Ravage underscored the democratic and pluralistic potential of the US, while acknowledging its flaws.[57] He juxtaposed this open promise with the exklusionary ethos of mono-ethnic nationalism, which he had witnessed first-hand, as a Romanian Jew, in Europe at the turn of the century.[58][i]

Resonating with both his own personal growth in the Midwest,[59] as well as his critical reflections on immigrant microcosms in New York city,[60][61] Ravage encouraged fellow immigrants to "go West", to immerse themselves in American life and gain a deeper grasp of its cultural fabric. The "rocky road", as he envisioned it, toward realizing the democratic potential in the immigrant experience, sought to avoid both the pressures of forced assimilation and the risks of ethnic enclave formation within metropolitan settings.[j]

Propagandistic abuse since the Nazi era: "A Real Case Against the Jews" & "Commissary to the Gentiles" (1928)

Original satirical intent of 1928 Century Magazine articles

Marcus Eli Ravage's essays "A Real Case Against the Jews" and the follow-up "Commissary to the Gentiles", originally published in the January and February 1928 issues of Century Magazine, were written as rhetorical satire to expose antisemitic reasoning by exaggerating and pushing it to absurd extremes.[62][63][5][8][64]

"What fools these mortals be!" (Shakespeare) – Cover of Puck, Jan. 20, 1917; Ravage contributed satirical essays.

Ravage's sarcastic style was already well established by the time The Century Magazine published his essays in 1928. His 1917 autobiography, An American in the Making, clearly reflects his ironic sensibility;[k] in addition, he had contributed multiple times to Puck,[l] America's first magazine of political satire, renowned for its bold caricatures and long tradition of humorous commentary.[71] Tellingly, the Century had introduced him to its readers in 1917 with the remark: "His youthful ideas of America have been somewhat shattered, but his sense of humor has never deserted him."[72]

Ravage framed his 1928 Century articles as so-called "friendly advice" to contemporary antisemitic writers, particularly targeting the intellectual network around industrialist Henry Ford, whose publishing company had recently been sued for releasing a series of antisemitic pamphlets under the title The International Jew.[62] Ravage's core argument consists in highlighting Jewish contributions to Western civilization, especially through Christianity, to challenge antisemitic tropes.[9]: xxvi 

International distortion campaign carried by Nazi Germany c. 1935 onwards

Despite their complex and ironic tone, Ravage's 1928 Century essays have been repeatedly misused by antisemitic and conspiracist groups. Stripped out of context, the ironic reversals can be misrepresented to endorse and affirm the very biases they were meant to critique (for example, by overdrawing Paul the Apostle as a covert agent of a Jewish influence),[m] ignoring the fact that these essays also contain explicit rejections of common antisemitic conspiracy theories.[n] Thus, they have become frequent targets for ideological distortion, falsely coloring them as literal "proof" of Jewish world conspiracy.[62][63][5][8][64]

"Bombshell Against Christianity!" (c. 1936) – Cover of unlicensed reprint by Fleischhauer's Welt-Dienst ("World Service"), abusing Ravage's 1928 essays for antisemitic propaganda. (Source: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Nazi Era and the Holocaust, Sourasky Central Library, Tel Aviv University)

Under the Nazi regime, in 1933, the antisemitic publisher Ulrich Fleischhauer launched a news agency in Erfurt named Welt-Dienst ("World Service"), alongside a multilanguage publication series of the same title. Conceived as a foreign propaganda office, regime-backed and institutionally coordinated from inception – though appearing independent to enhance credibility abroad – its aim was to foster connections with fascist and antisemitic organizations worldwide and to propagate antisemitic ideas across national borders. The Welt-Dienst series originated as a bimonthly news bulletin and soon expanded to include standalone pamphlets.[75][o]

In 1935, a synchronized rollout of articles in Nazi propaganda outlets – including newspapers[76][77][78] as well as magazines[79][80] – began quote-mining and ideologically reframing Ravage's 1928 Century magazine essays, presenting them as alleged "confessions" of Jewish control over – and hostility toward – Western civilization.[81] In the same year, the far‑right Montreal weekly Le Patriote – whose masthead featured both a swastika and a Christian cross – published distorted Ravage quotations directly referencing the Welt‑Dienst network as source, demonstrating its early transnational reach.[82] These overtly inflammatory pieces paved the way for the near-simultaneous release of the complete Welt-Dienst reissue of Ravage's essays, embellished with more ideologically elaborate, though no less hateful, distortion.[83][64][84] Initially funded by Joseph Goebbels and later directed by Alfred Rosenberg,[85][86] the Welt-Dienst office circulated these reprints blatantly without the author's or the original publisher's consent, often under sensationalized titles ('Bombshell against Christianity!' etc.), and accompanied by mischaracterizing editorial prefaces[p] as well as tendentious translations that reinforced the ideological framing.[88][84] Numerous editions appeared directly under Fleischhauer's established imprint – i.e. his original pseudonym U. Bodung-Verlag.[85]

During its formative years, Fleischhauer's Welt-Dienst distributed these propagandistic reprints (in parallel with other antisemitic pamphlets) at least in England, France, and Germany.[62][q] Fascist groups outside Europe (including in Australia and the USA) jumped on the bandwagon and disseminated twisted versions of Ravage's essays.[63][90][r][s] Under Alfred Rosenberg's direction after 1937, and fully relocated to Frankfurt am Main in 1939 (tied to his newly founded Institute for Research on the Jewish Question), the Welt-Dienst office generally expanded its output to at least 11 languages by 1940 including Hungarian, Polish, Danish, Spanish, Dutch, Romanian, Norwegian and Swedish, with further growth in subsequent years reportedly reaching over 20 languages including Arabic, Russian, Latvian, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek.[85][86][97]

Though archival holdings of such additional prints remain largely elusive,[t] Welt-Dienst verifiably escalated its propaganda following Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, aiming to shift blame for World War II onto Jews.[102] According to contemporary news reports, the strategy in the United States combined selective misquotation of Marcus Eli Ravage's writings in the World-Service Bulletin (1 October 1939; 1 February 1940) with the intensified distribution of full Century essays reprints, the latter issued with antisemitic cover imagery and a reverse-side blurb featuring the forged Franklin "prophecy on Jews"; Ravage subsequently announced plans to pursue legal action against pro-Nazi groups in the United States.[103][104][105] By 1940 at the latest, the NSDAP's Central Publishing House, controlling several publishing houses in the occupied territories through its subsidiary Europa Verlag GmbH,[106] also distributed propaganda versions of the Ravage essays.[107]

Those unauthorized editions of Ravage's essays were part of broader propaganda efforts[108][109][110][111] and are now cited in scholarship as examples of ideological misuse.[64][112][96][95][113]

In contemporary far-right and conspiracist circles, distorted versions of Ravage's essays continue to be mirrored and circulated across platforms in PDF form, blog posts, and videos.[8][5][9]: xxvi [u]

Visual misrepresentation in digital media

Eli-Marcus-Weg in Münster (Germany) is unconnected to American essayist Marcus Eli Ravage (1884–1965). The street was named in 1961 to honor German poet Eli Marcus (1854–1935), whose portrait, however, has been misused by antisemitic websites to depict Ravage.

Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, Marcus Eli Ravage has repeatedly been visually misrepresented in online contexts. As documented by the Dorsten-located Jewish Museum of Westphalia,[115] antisemitic and conspiracy‑ideological websites circulate a historical portrait of the unrelated Westphalian actor and dialect poet Eli Marcus (1854–1935) and misidentify it as a depiction of M. E. Ravage.

Historically, the first documented publication of this portrait was 1914 in the book Geschichte der Westfälischen Dialektliteratur, where it is correctly captioned as depicting the German playwright E. Marcus;[116] since then, the portrait has been consistently attributed to him in recent scholarship as well. Nevertheless, since at least 2013, it has been repeatedly misused in antisemitic circles as an alleged image of M. E. Ravage. This misrepresentation briefly spread to Wikipedia in 2025, but was subsequently corrected. The persistent use of the incorrect image in antisemitic contexts, where Ravage's writings are selectively quoted or distorted, reflects a lack of source criticism in such circles.[115]

Works

Monographs

  • M. E. Ravage (1917). An American in the Making: The Life Story of an Immigrant (1st ed.). New York and London: Harper & Brothers. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    Reviewed as:
    B. I. Bell (May 4, 1918). "An Immigrant's Biography: Review of 'An American in the Making'". The Public: A Journal of Democracy. 21 (1031): 576–577. hdl:2027/chi.79230421.
    R. E. Park (1918). "Review of: 'An American in the Making: The Life Story of an Immigrant', by M. E. Ravage". American Journal of Sociology. 23 (6): 839–840. doi:10.1086/212834.
    A. Shaw (May 4, 1917). "Review of: 'An American in the Making'". The American Review of Reviews: An International Magazine. 56 (Jan–Jun): 664. hdl:2027/mdp.39015027769523.
  • M. E. Ravage (1919). Democratic Americanization: A Criticism and a Policy. [Reprint of a series of essays in The New Republic: Standardizing the Immigrant (May 31, 1919), The Immigrant's Burden (June 14, 1919), The Task for Americans (July 16, 1919)]. The Peoples of America Society. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
  • M. E. Ravage (1919). The Jew Pays: A Narrative of the Consequences of the War to the Jews of Eastern Europe, and of the Manner in Which Americans Have Attempted to Meet Them. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    Reviewed as:
    M. J. H. (November 29, 1919). "Book Review: 'The Jew Pays'". The Reform Advocate. 58. Chicago, Illinois: Block & Newman: 393–394. hdl:2027/mdp.39015082355408.
    M. Massee, ed. (January 1920). "Ravage, Marcus Eli: The Jew Pays (Review)". The Booklist. 16 (4). Chicago: American Library Association Publishing Board: 111. hdl:2027/hvd.hxtdcy.
  • M. E. Ravage (1923). The Malady of Europe. New York: Macmillan. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    Reviewed as:
    W. A. White (October 31, 1923). "Review of 'The Malady of Europe'". The New Republic. Vol. 36, no. 465. pp. 260–262. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    L. S. Gannett (January 1924). "A Challenging Diagnosis (Review of 'The Malady of Europe')". The World Tomorrow: 21. hdl:2027/njp.32101072882515.
    "Maladies of Europe and an Original Remedy; Review of 'The Malady of Europe' By M. E. Ravage". New York Times. November 18, 1923. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
  • M. E. Ravage (1924). The Story of the Teapot Dome. New York: Republic Publishing Co. hdl:2027/uc1.$b284789.
  • M. E. Ravage (1929). Five Men of Frankfort: The Story of the Rothschilds. New York: The Dial press. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    Translated into Czech as: Pět mužů z Frankfurtu – Historie Rothschildů. Translated by H. Pavelcová. Praha: Jos. R. Vilímek. 1931.
    Translated into Dutch as: Opkomst en bloei van het huis Rothschild. Amsterdam: Allert de Lange. 1930. OCLC 187965.
    Translated into French as: Grandeur et décadence de la Maison Rothschild. Translated by André T. Naijon. Paris: Albin Michel. 1931.
    Translated into German as: Glanz und Niedergang des Hauses Rothschild. Translated by Wilhelm Cremer. Hellerau: Avalun-Verlag. 1930. Retrieved October 19, 2025.[v]
    Translated into Spanish as: Grandeza y decadencia de la casa de los Rothschild: Cinco hombres de Francfort. (La historia de los Rothschild). Translated by G. Sans Huelín. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe S.A. 1931.
    Translated into Yiddish as: Di finf Frankfurṭer: gešichṭe fun der familie Roṭšild (‏די פינף פראנקפורטער – ‏די געשיכטע פון דער פאמיליע ראטשילד). Translated by Y. Glazer (י' גלאזער). Buenos Aires (‏בוענאס איירעס): G. Ḳaplansḳi (‏פארלאג ג. קאפלאנסקי). 1932. LCCN 74951137. OCLC 165481302.
    Reviewed as:
    W. Lichtenstein (1929). "Review of .. 'Five Men of Frankfort: The Story of the Rothschilds', by M. E. Ravage". The Journal of Modern History. 1 (3). University of Chicago Press: 486–488. JSTOR 1871448.
  • M. E. Ravage (1931). Empress Innocence: The Life of Marie-Louise. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
    Translated into French as: Iphigenie ou La Vie de Marie Louise. Translated by Jean Talva. Paris: Albin Michel. 1932.
    Translated into Spanish as: La vida de María Luisa, la emperatriz inocente. Vidas extraordinaires. Translated by Julio Huici Miranda. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe S.A. 1932.
    Reviewed as:
    J. Hallett (June 1932). "Review of: 'Empress Innocence', by M. E. Ravage". Fortnightly Review, May 1865-June 1934. 21: 799–801. ISSN 2043-2887. ProQuest 2453778.
  • M. E. Ravage (1936) [1917]. An American in the Making: The Life Story of an Immigrant (With newly added Pt. V, 'Postscript: Twenty Years Later.') (2nd ed.). Harper Modern Classics.
  • M. E. Ravage (1971) [1917]. An American in the Making: The Life Story of an Immigrant (With preface by the author's daughter, Louise Ravage Tresfort) (3rd ed.). Dover Publications. ISBN 0486220133.
  • M. E. Ravage (2009) [1917]. Kellman, Steven G. (ed.). An American in the Making: The Life Story of an Immigrant (With a new scholarly introduction by the editor, plus chronological notes) (4th ed.). Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4537-0. JSTOR j.ctt5hhx2m.

Selected articles in periodicals

Puck

  • M. E. Ravage (January 20, 1917). "I Laugh As I Think". Puck (America's Cleverest Weekly). Vol. 81. p. 16. hdl:2027/mdp.39015082471429.
  • M. E. Ravage (February 10, 1917). "The Fable of the Cipher". Puck (America's Cleverest Weekly). Vol. 81. p. 19. hdl:2027/mdp.39015082471429.
  • M. E. Ravage (March 17, 1917). "A Preface To a Novel". Puck (America's Cleverest Weekly). Vol. 81. p. 20. hdl:2027/mdp.39015082471429.

New York Times

Harper's

The Century Magazine

  • M. E. Ravage (June 1917). "The Loyalty of the Foreign Born: An Interpretation". The Century Magazine. Vol. 94. Introduction by James Harvey Robinson. pp. 201–209. hdl:2027/uc1.b2922265.
  • M. E. Ravage (November 1917). "Absorbing the Alien". The Century Magazine. Vol. 95. pp. 26–36. hdl:2027/uiug.30112001586285.
  • M. E. Ravage (January 1918). "The Tired College Man". The Century Magazine. Vol. 95. pp. 376–384. hdl:2027/uiug.30112001586285.
  • M. E. Ravage (February 1918). "The Religion of Sanity". The Century Magazine. Vol. 95. pp. 516–522. hdl:2027/uiug.30112001586285.
  • M. E. Ravage (March 1923). "Picnicking on Perilous: The Human Meaning of the Exchange Problem". The Century Magazine. Vol. 105. pp. 737–746. hdl:2027/osu.32435051457083.
  • M. E. Ravage (February 1924). "The Wondering Jew: Reflections on the Paradoxes of Anti-Semitism". The Century Magazine. Vol. 107. pp. 552–564. hdl:2027/uc1.b2922278.
  • M. E. Ravage (January 1928). "A Real Case Against the Jews. One of Them Points Out the Full Depth of Their Guilt". The Century Magazine. Vol. 115, no. 3. pp. 346–350. hdl:2027/uc1.b2922286.
  • M. E. Ravage (February 1928). "Commissary to the Gentiles: The First to See the Possibilities of War by Propaganda". The Century Magazine. Vol. 115, no. 4. pp. 476–483. hdl:2027/uc1.b2922286.

The New Republic

The Nation and Athenaeum (London)

The Saturday Evening Post

The Elks Magazine

Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan

  • M. E. Ravage (July 1926). "What Happens in Real Life to Abie's Irish Rose". Cosmopolitan. Vol. 81. pp. 40–41. hdl:2027/mdp.39015010959628.

The Saturday Review

The American

  • M. E. Ravage (December 14, 1927). "How To Make People Hate You! (I know that these recipees for unpopularity work because I have tried them all)". American Magazine. Vol. 104. New York: Colver. pp. 14–15, 152–156. hdl:2027/mdp.39015007038238. OCLC 6403725.

Le Petit Parisien: journal quotidien du soir (Paris)

Vu: journal de la semaine (Paris)

Neues Wiener Tagblatt: Demokratisches Organ (Vienna)

  • M. E. Ravage (August 17, 1934). "Amerikanische Wirtschaft". Neues Wiener Tagblatt (in German). Vol. 68, no. 225 (24602). Vienna. pp. 1–2. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  • M. E. Ravage (August 23, 1934). "Planwirtschaft in Amerika". Neues Wiener Tagblatt (in German). Vol. 68, no. 231 (24608). Vienna. pp. 1–2. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  • M. E. Ravage (September 26, 1934). "Roosevelts drei Kabinette". Neues Wiener Tagblatt (in German). Vol. 68, no. 265 (24642). Vienna. pp. 1–2. Retrieved January 3, 2026.

Current History (New York/Oakland)

Vendredi: hebdomadaire littéraire, politique et satirique (Paris)

Ce soir: grand quotidien d'information indépendant (Paris)

Das Echo (Vienna)

Nation Magazine (New York)

Articles in anthologies

  • M. E. Ravage (1920), "The Loyality of the Foreign Born. (An extract from an article published under this title in the Century Magazine for June, 1917)", in Paul Monroe; Irving E. Miller (eds.), The American Spirit. A Basis For World Democracy, New York: World Book Company, pp. 209–217, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • M. E. Ravage (1922), "The New Immigration; and: What College Life in the West did for An Immigrant", in Stauffer, Robert E. (ed.), The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth, The Christopher publishing house, pp. 150–159, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • M. E. Ravage (1922), "The American People as a Whole", in Samuel Walker McCall; Charles W. Eliot (eds.), Patriotism of the American Jew, New York: Plymoth Press, pp. 274–289, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • M. E. Ravage (1924), "The American People as a Whole", in Samuel Walker McCall; Charles W. Eliot (eds.), Patriotism of the American Jew, New York: Plymoth Press, pp. 279–288, hdl:2027/uc1.$b309248 (slightly revised version)
  • M.-E. Ravage (June 1934), "Les pleins pouvoirs de Roosevelt", in Valery, Paul; Drach, Frédéric (eds.), Dictatures et dictateurs, Témoignages de notre temps n°7 (in French), Société anonyme Les Illustres Français, pp. 75–81

Unpublished academic papers

  • M. Ravitch (1910). The Yiddish Drama: A Comparative Study in Dramatic Development (Master's thesis). University of Illinois. hdl:2142/54515.

Letters and correspondence

  • M. E. Ravage (n.d.), Letter to Hamlin Garland (Archival manuscript), No year specified, dated November 30, Los Angeles: USC Libraries Special Collections, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • T. Roosevelt (April 30, 1917), Letter to M. E. Ravage (Archival manuscript), T.R. Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • T. Roosevelt (January 3, 1918), Letter to M. E. Ravage (Archival manuscript), T.R. Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • Secretary of T. Roosevelt (January 25, 1918), Letter to Max E. Ravage (Archival manuscript), T.R. Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University, retrieved October 19, 2025
  • M. E. Ravage (February 2, 1920), Letter to Ida M. Tarbell, Peoples of America Society, hdl:10456/24205

See also

Parallel antisemitic reframings of Jewish authorship[w]

Notes

  1. [a]
    Ravage was born 1884 as a Jew in the Kingdom of Romania.[3] Under Article 7 of the 1866 Constitution of Romania, Jews were excluded from Romanian citizenship.[4] Ravage was therefore a legal "alien" to Romania.[5]: 55–56  He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1912.[3]
  2. [b]
    Attributed to multiple references: [1][17][18][19][20]
  3. [c]
    In his memoir 1917, Ravage would lament the widespread simplification of immigrant names, citing precisely "Max" as an example of what he saw as a loss of cultural depth and distinctiveness.[22]
  4. [d]
    Although the institution's name suggests a focus on agriculture and science, its curriculum at the time included humanities.[34] This detail adds a mild touch of irony, given how Ravage later remembered struggling with biology and physics as a student, and feeling more at home in poetry and prose.[35]
  5. [e]
    Insight into Ravage's literary network and the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries is offered by a letter (dated 30 November) to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hamlin Garland (1860–1940), cited in the #Works section of this article. Opening with a note of deep gratitude, Ravage acknowledged that although his recent book had been well received by critics, Garland's "kind letter" stood out as "most encouraging". While the exact year remains undetermined, the letterhead suggests the late 1910s or alternatively mid-1920s, when both writers resided in New York; contextually likely after the publication of An American in the Making (1917).
  6. [f]
    A correspondence between Ravage and investigative journalist Ida Tarbell (1919–1920), cited in the #Works section of this article, documents his active role in the Peoples of America Society (41 Union Square, New York), an interdisciplinary network dedicated to a pluralistic redefinition of American concepts of identity. The society brought together figures from feminist social work, labor and civil rights movements, child rights advocacy, housing policy, healthcare, welfare state theory, immigration integration, religious ethics, and legal reform. Other members included Allen T. Burns (Who Was Who entry), Grace Abbott, Jane Addams, George L. Bell, Herbert Croly, Felix Frankfurter (future Supreme Court Justice), Isaac Aronovich Hourwich, Frederic C. Howe, William Morris Leiserson, Bishop Francis John McConnell, Louis Freeland Post, Reverend John A. Ryan, Lillian D. Wald, and Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight. (Biographical reference works listed Ravage as the organization's director.[39])
  7. [g]
    According to a 1919 article in the New York Sun, he was involved in selecting and awarding college scholarships to "promising young men and women of foreign parentage".[47]
  8. [h]
    Following the devastations of World War I, Ravage's publicist efforts focused on engaging the American public to extend its democratic promise outward, advocating improved conditions for vulnerable groups, such as Jews who had remained in Europe.[5] See The Jew Pays 1919 and The Malady of Europe 1923.
  9. [i]
    As Dana Mihăilescu observes in her 2021 study of Ravage's writings, "one cannot ignore that America too makes the Jewish immigrant aware of his difference from the others because of a separate background. Still, because of this emigrant's relocation into a society of consent, Ravage highlights the possibility of bridging the gap, in contrast with a descent-based society like Romania, where everything seems to be officially fixed in stable, unchanging patterns."[5]
  10. [j]
    In his correspondence with Hamlin Garland dated 30 November (year unknown, cited in the #Works section of this article), while reflecting on immigrant education in New York, Ravage drew from his experience as an English teacher in evening high schools. There, he had advised students "to go West" (as he had done himself). Ravage argued to Garland that contact with "genuine Americans" would benefit both the newcomers and the nation.
  11. [k]
    Attributed to multiple references: [65][66][67][46]: 47 
  12. [l]
    Attributed to multiple sources: [68][69][70]
  13. [m]
    See the following passage, where Ravage mocks the modern antisemitic idea of Judeo–Bolshevism (i.e. the idea of communism as a Jewish plot to destroy Western civilisation, citing Jewish heritage of some communists as alleged proof): "Why talk about Marx and Trotski when you have Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus to confound us with?"[73]
  14. [n]
    For example, Ravage lapidarily but unequivocally dismisses The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: "A clumsy Russian forges a set of papers and publishes them in a book called 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', which shows that we plotted to bring on the late World War."[74]
  15. [o]
    See the German Wikipedia article: de:Welt-Dienst
  16. [p]
    The prefaces to the Welt-Dienst editions of Ravage's essays are ideologically distorting, and also factually inaccurate. For instance, they falsely claim he had five children, mistakenly counting his three[3] children's multiple forenames as separate individuals.[84] The error can be backtraced to a 24 October 1935 intelligence circular by the Deutscher Beobachter in New York and became reprinted by Welt-Dienst without verification.[87]
  17. [q]
    According to a Berne Trial document titled "Die Aufdeckung einer nationalsozialistischen Agitationszentrale in Mitteleuropa", Welt-Dienst was published in eight languages and was reportedly preparing editions in thirteen, including Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, and Arabic.[89]
  18. [r]
    The most influential Nazi organization in the USA at that time, the 'German American Bund' (est. Mar 1936, dis. Dec 1941),[91] distributed the pamphlet Bombshell against Christianity[88] in the U.S., where it was then sold in specialized antisemitic bookstores such as in Los Angeles, California, until the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, or shortly thereafter.[92][8]
  19. [s]
    Based in Chicago, Illinois (USA), the antisemitic organization 'Right Cause' issued a pamphlet that combined different propagandistically manipulated text corpora by Jewish authors: a distorted presentation of Ravage's 1928 essays; and a tendentious translation of a German-language article by Jewish Party of Romania activist Manfred Reifer, originally published in the Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung, 3. September 1933, p. 10. The Chicago pamphlet's umbrella title appears to falsely attribute rabbinic status to Reifer and/or Ravage.[93][94][95][96]
  20. [t]
    Among the numerous later propagandistic translations that extended beyond the initial German, French, and English editions, documented examples include Czech,[98] Dutch,[99] Hungarian[100] and Polish[101] prints. They circulated in various nationalist and antisemitic milieus during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
  21. [u]
    Archive.org hosts a 2018 re-edition of Ravage's essays, containing a misattributed photograph as well as a newly added editorial note which promotes antisemitic conspiracy claims and incites racial violence; the item is cited here to document the persistent misrepresentation of Ravage and his work.[114]
  22. [v]
    The German translation of this book was also serialized in numerous installments in the Viennese tabloid newspaper Die Stunde in the early 1930s.[117]
  23. [w]
    This subheading does not imply thematic proximity or personal affiliation among the listed figures. It highlights a shared pattern of ideological misuse and selective instrumentalization, often involving decontextualized readings that distort original intent.

References

Sources

External links

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI