Born in Richfield, Utah, Joseph Hansen was the oldest of 15 children in a poor working-class family. He was the only one of the children who could attend college. His father, Conrad Johan Zahl Hansen, was a tailor, originally from the island Kvitvær, Lurøy, Nordland in northern Norway. His parents had immigrated after converting to Mormonism.
Hansen died from infectious complications in New York City on January 18, 1979. His wife and close collaborator, Reba Hansen, remained in the Socialist Workers Party until she died in 1990.
Publications
Father Coughlin: fascist demagogue New York : Pioneer Publishers, 1939
Wall Street's war, not ours! : Pioneer Publishers for the Socialist Workers Party, 1940
New York : Pioneer Publishers, 1944
New York : Pioneer Publishers, 1948
New York : Pioneer Publishers, 1960
New York, Pioneer Publishers, 1960
New York, Pioneer Publishers, 1961
: Pioneer Publishers for the Socialist Workers Party, 1962
New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1962
New York : Pioneer Publishers, 1964
Healy "reconstructs" the Fourth International documents and comments by participants in fiasco New York: Socialist Workers Party 1966
The catastrophe in Indonesia; three articles on the fatal consequences of Communist party policy. New York: Merit Publishers 1966
Behind China's great cultural revolution by Shu-tse Peng New York: Merit Publishers 1967
The Nature of the Cuban revolution: record of a controversy, 1960-1963 New York: National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1968
Leon Trotsky: the man and his work. Reminiscences and appraisals, New York: Merit Publishers 1969
The population explosion: how socialists view it New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970
The Abern clique New York: National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1972
Nixon's Moscow and Peking Summits: their meaning for Vietnam New York: Pathfinder Press, 1972
A Revolutionary strategy for the 70s; documents of the Socialist Workers Party. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1972
The workers and farmers government New York: National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1974
Marxism vs. ultraleftism: the record of Healy's break with Trotskyism by Ernest Germain New York: National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1974
Healy's big lie: the slander campaign against Joseph Hansen, George Novack, and the Fourth International: statements and articles National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1976
What is American fascism?: writings on Father Coughlin, Mayor Frank Hague, and Senator Joseph McCarthy National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party 1976
Dynamics of the Cuban revolution: the Trotskyist view New York: Pathfinder Press, 1978
The Leninist strategy of party building: the debate on guerrilla warfare in Latin America New York: Pathfinder Press, 1979
