It also criticized the Preparedness Movement and other efforts to promote militarism in the lead-up to World War I. Additionally, the Review provided a platform for leaders of the Zimmerwald Left to communicate their anti-war and revolutionary socialist ideas to an American audience.

The magazine lost its mailing privileges in 1917 due to actions taken by Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.

Approximately three-quarters of its readers subscribed by mail, with the remainder accessing the magazine through newsstand sales or bundle orders arranged by local socialist organizations.

[1] Kerr sought to transform the previously dry and academic publication into what he described as "the fighting magazine of socialism," utilizing dramatic photography to vividly portray contemporary labor struggles against the forces of capitalism.

Kerr's work with longtime associates Mary and Leslie Marcy and an editorial board including left-wingers William D. 'Big Bill' Haywood, Frank Bohn, and poet/illustrator Ralph Chaplin raised the Review's circulation from nearly 6,000 in 1908 to over 40,000 by 1911.

For instance, writer Robert Hunter declared in 1911: It has sneered at Political Action, advocated rival unionism, and vacillated between Anarchism and Proudhonism.