Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
Richard M. Fried
Abstract
This book provides an account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. The book describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which characterized the HUAC and traces its origins from the New Deal to the post-war periods. Along the way we meet important actors in the Red-baiting drama, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten, and, of course, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book, however, also documents the more sweeping and less public effects of M ... More
This book provides an account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. The book describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which characterized the HUAC and traces its origins from the New Deal to the post-war periods. Along the way we meet important actors in the Red-baiting drama, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten, and, of course, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book, however, also documents the more sweeping and less public effects of McCarthyism on thousands of people, from teachers and lawyers to washroom attendants forced to take loyalty tests. As the book shows, these “insignificant” stories are perhaps the strongest testament to the social and political climate which terrorized many ordinary citizens during the McCarthy years.
Keywords:
HUAC,
communism,
New Deal,
Roosevelt,
Truman,
Eisenhower,
Nixon,
Hollywood Ten,
Joseph McCarthy,
paranoia,
xenophobia
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 1991 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195043617 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.001.0001 |