Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America

As Clay Risen thoughtfully makes clear, the Red Scare of this era had roots in earlier decades, and its effects continue to be felt today. The parallels between those years, which included the HUAC and the Hollywood blacklist, and today provide an important examination of 20th century American history. As he writes in the Preface, "Self-described patriotic organizations proliferated, intent on ridding their communities of Communism; one, the Minute Women, had some four hundred chapters nationwide. Parent-teacher organizations, school boards, civic clubs, and Boy Scout troops all came under scrutiny. Hundreds of books were purged from public and school libraries." Reading about the people and stories of that time, you will recognize them again today. I also very much enjoyed his description of how the idea for this book first came to him--as moments from childhood memories which inspired years of research and analysis, and finally this engaging, thoughtful book!

Red Scare is a well researched and a very readable account of a significant moment in post-World War II American politics. The author situates the rise of the Red Scare in a right-wing reaction to the New Deal, the labor unions, and any forward progress towards civil rights for black and other non-white Americans. The Red Scare gathers force in the Republican Party following a long frustrating period in which the Democratic Party coalition led by FDR remained in power and reshaped the federal government to counter the Great Depression and then mobilize the nation for total war on multiple fronts in Europe and the Pacific. At the beginning of the Cold War, politicians like the young ambitious Richard Nixon find Red-baiting the Democratic Party opposition leads to electoral success in post-war Congressional races. The Republican Party secures a majority in the Senate and the House following the midterm election of 1950. Risen shows a reactionary movement gathering momentum from the Cold War geopolitics that shattered expectations for the peace and security that Americans had hoped for when the war ended in victory. In the wake of the defeat of the Axis powers, Americans felt threatened by the spread of Communist-backed and Communist-inspired regimes, first in Eastern Europe and then in China, then the Korean peninsula. Although the US and Russia were ideologically distinct, they cooperated during the War to defeat their common enemy, namely Hitler and Nazi Germany. But the conclusion of the war brought a decisive end to that cooperation. Instead, there was a series of confrontations in Greece, a divided Germany, and the Eastern European bloc of nations that the Red Army occupied and kept tightly controlled. Roosevelt’s coalition had embraced progressive and socialist proposals like Social Security and the Wagner Act that protected workers’s right to organize and collective bargaining. The Red Scare marked the beginning of a reactionary response to roll back those policies. Meanwhile, the elaborate security apparatus of the Federal government that was empowered during World War II was re-directed against left-wing groups that FBI Director Hoover targeted as “unAmerican.” There was also justifiable alarm that people like Klaus Fuchs spied for the Soviets and passed them much of the secret sauce in the technology developed at considerable expense around the atomic bomb. Risen’s book plays all the hits from that ignominious period: the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC), the Hollywood 10, the Alger Hiss affair, the China Lobby, the Smith Act prosecutions against the American Communist Party leaders, the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs, loyalty oaths and blacklists, the persecution of J. Robert Oppenheimer. They are all here. The book chronicles the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the colorful personalities around his political career including the attorney Joseph Welch that the Army hired to confront him, the TV personality Edward R. Murrow, and his ruthless and feckless henchman Roy Cohn. He sees McCarthy more as a symptom than a cause. Risen shows how Eisenhower, elected President in 1952 on the Republican ticket, co-opted and ultimately blunted the anti-Communist crusade in favor of a less confrontational, more moderate approach. Eisenhower also had a visceral reaction to personal attacks carried out on the integrity of George Marshall for “losing China,” having served under Marshall during the height of his military career. The book also highlights the Supreme Court’s decisive change of heart, under newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, that reasserted 1st Amendment and 4th Amendment rights against guilty by association prosecutions. In many places of the book, the author empathizes the many continuities between the rabid anti-Communist rhetoric and tactics of the early 50s with the right wing politics of the present day, particularly in the area of Public Education.

This is a great book, well researched and excellently written. It is a follow up to the Broadway show I attended, "Good Night and Good Luck." A most excellent show and also filmed by CNN. What is most disturbing about the book, as an American Legionnaire, is how far right and violent the American Legion was during this period.

I am working on my longest “Days In A Row” reading streak. Finished my last book early with nothing setup to read. Couldn’t find anything that interested me. The 1950’s Red Scare is mentioned often and I only had a high level, general knowledge of that period in history. AND… the Kindle book was on sale for $2. Thought it was worth a shot? The book immediately shot to the top of both my “Best Books” and “Most Informative Books” lists. Highly researched, well organized, incredibly well written and most importantly, readable. If you like history, this is an excellent book on the late 40’s and 50’s. Highly recommend.

A fast read, and a fun one (given the topic) Clay Risen's RED SCARE is a major accomplishment. If you don't know much about the Red Scare and McCarthyism, this is a great place to start. If you think you do, you'll learn something and enjoy Risen's meticulously researched account. RED SCARE is also a timely book, providing context for today's MAGA-fueled distrust of DEI and "woke" culture, and the rearguard, "White is right," 1950s mindset that informs it. A must-read book.

Reasonably even-handed history of McCarthy's rise and fall, the movement he founded, and the people and institutions affected by his influence. A difficult period to read about, though Risen's prose is accessible. A good overview for anyone interested in the period.

Spanning the 40s and 50s, this is an absolutely breathtaking, stunning story of the paranoia, cruelty, and hysteria around an imagined communist-planned takeover of the Unites States by infiltration. This lunacy and oppression occurred at every level of American society from the federal government down to local school boards. Thousands of lives were ruined, more people were killed or committed suicide than you can imagine. It's an ugly story about an ugly time, told like a thriller. I could not stop reading it. My one note is that it was not carefully edited. Every now and then there's a sentence that simply doesn't scan, doesn't make sense, or is awkward--but you could say that points to how good the narrative is overall. Exceptions stick out, and that's too bad, given the subject matter and given that the author thanks an entire large writers' group for helping him with his prose.

This is a good review of this period it covers.