The Cold War At Home
Joseph McCarthy and Anti-Communism

• Witch Hunts, Pledges, and Blacklists A one page overview of McMarthy and the trials of the '50s.(jr)

• Senator Joe McCarthy: A Multimedia Celebration Nine realaudio files with clips of speeches made by McCarthy, with accompanying pictures, can be downloaded from this site. You can also download a realaudio player if you don't already have it. This is a great multimedia reference on McCarthy.(jr)

• A Closer Look at the Consensual Crimes: Unpopular Political Views The complete text of a book by Peter McWilliams called "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country," published by Prelude Press, is on this site. One of the chapters of this book, titled "A Closer Look at the Consensual Crimes: Unpopular Political Views" sets out to, in the author's words, "make a few frank observations about communism, the United States' reaction to the 'communist threat,' and how great a menace or threat there really was." This is an extensive, well-written chapter that does exactly what the author says it will do. This provides great background to the communist scare of the '50s.(jr)

• The Literature & Culture of the American 1950s Created by Al Filreis, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, this site contains an impressive list of well over 100 links that deal with the American 1950s and the Red Scare. This is a tremendous resource for anyone doing research on the '50s. The links are too numerous to list, but here a few: 1) The American Inquisition, 2) Excerpts from the text of the Communist Control Act, 3) Senator Joes McCarthy, 4) The Politics of Scholarship: Liberals, Anti-communism, and McCarthyism, 5) House un-American Activites Committee, 6)The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents.(jr)

• An Excerpt from Richard H. Rovere's Senator Joe McCarthy A well-written introduction of McMarthy from Rovere's book. Describes McCarthy as perhaps the best demagogue this country has ever produced and tries to delve into the mind of McCarthy to explain who he was and why he did what he did. This intro also stresses the incredible speed at which McCarthy both rose and fell.(jr)

• House UnAmerican Activities Committee Excerpted from The Encyclopedia of the American Left, by Dan Georgakas, this article provides a detailed overview of the formation of the House on Un-American Activities Committeee and their efforts to root out any communist infiltration in the United States. Hollywood, as the producer of the dominant medium in American culture,movies, became a primary target of the committee. This site goes into considerable detail on their effort in this regard.(jr)

• How to Learn From the Blacklist This is a New York Times article by Walter Goodman, Feb, 25, 1996 titled "How to Learn From the Blacklist." Goodman reviews two recent documentaries about the Hollywood Blacklist, Blacklist: Hollywood on Trial, and Hollywood on Trial. He says that there has been a recent upsurge in attention on the 1950s blacklists, and he attributes it, in part, to the recent Hollywood-bashing by the political right. He finds both movies to be as similar in content as they are in title, and he criticizes them for being too sympathetic to the communist party of the 50s. He feels that the makers of both movies have distrorted the historical facts in order to further their own cause, which is namely to show the similarities between the 50s blacklists and the recent attacks by politicians on Hollywood.(jr)

• Chronology Chronology of world events from 1948 to 1957. Very detailed. This helps develop the broader context of the Red Scare.(jr)