South End Press was founded in 1977 by Michael Albert,^[1] Lydia Sargent, John Schall, Pat Walker, Juliet Schor,^[2] Mary Lea, Joe Bowring, and Dave Millikin, among others. It was based in Boston's South End and run as an egalitarian collective with decision-making equally shared.

The publisher experienced financial difficulties in the financial crisis of 2007–08, with sales dropping by 12.8% in 2008. In 2009, South End Press moved to a new office in Brooklyn, New York, partnering with Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.^[3] A fundraising campaign was run in 2012 to help ease its financial situation.^[4]

South End Press closed in July 2014. Howard Zinn and an anonymous author had reportedly not received royalties for several years.^[4]

Some of South End Press's catalog has been republished including work by Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Dana Frank and Vanessa Tait (by Haymarket Books), Jeremy Brecher (by PM Press),^[4] and Eli Clare, Andrea Smith, Frank B. Wilderson III and Dean Spade (by Duke University Press),^[5] and Vandana Shiva (by North Atlantic Books).^[6]

In 2014, commenting on the demise of the publisher, Monthly Review said it was "an important and vital part of the overall left movement".^[7]

The founders of South End Press have also been involved with two ongoing political media projects, 'Speak Out' and 'Z Magazine'. They have worked with a number of media and research institutions including Alternative Radio, Political Research Associates,^[8] the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment,^[9] and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.^[10]

• Brecher, Jeremy. Strike!
• Chomsky, Noam. Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Foreword by Edward W. Said.
• Churchill, Ward; Wall, Jim Vander. Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the American Indian Movement and the Black Panther Party.
• Churchill, Ward; Wall, Jim Vander. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents From the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States.
• Clare, Eli. Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Afterword by Dean Spade.
• Frank, Dana. Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America.
• Georgakas, Dan; Surkin, Marvin. Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution. Foreword by Manning Marable.
• Hooks, Bell. Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery.
• Hooks, Bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.
• Marable, Manning. How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society.
• Moraga, Cherríe. Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios.
• Sklar, Holly. Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. (1980) ISBN 0-89608-103-6, ISBN 0-89608-104-4, OCLC 6958001. 604 pages. Excerpts available online.
• Sklar, Holly. Washington's War on Nicaragua. (1988) ISBN 978-0896082953, ISBN 978-0896082960. 472 pages.
• Sklar, Holly. Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood. Co-authored with Peter Medoff. (1994) ISBN 978-0896085114. 221 pages.
• Sklar, Holly. Chaos Or Community?: Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics. (1995) ISBN 978-0896085114. 221 pages.
• Sklar, Holly. Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies that Work for All of Us. Co-authored with Laryssa Mykyta and Susan Wefald. (2001) ISBN 978-0896086838. 262 pages.
• Tait, Vanessa. Poor Workers' Unions: Rebuilding Labor from Below.

• INC Pamphlet (series) (jointly published with Institute for New Communications)^[11]
• PACCA Series on the Domestic Roots of U.S. Foreign Policy^[12]
• Race and Resistance^[13]
• Radical Sixties^[14]
• South End Pamphlet (series)^[15]
• South End Political Controversies Series^[16]
• South End Press Classics^[17]

• Official website - archive copy dated 10 March 2014