McCarthy & the Second Red Scare

It's known as the deadliest single day in American history: the Battle of Antietam.After weeks of Union defeats, Confederate forces pushed north into Maryland and carried the war onto Northern soil for the first time. Near a quiet creek in Maryland, two armies faced one another a ...  Show more

Heroic cowboys on horseback. Bands of outlaws. Brawls in small town saloons.This is the Wild West as popular culture remembers it. But was it really as “wild” as we’ve been led to believe? Did the violence of the frontier truly revolve around outlaws and lawmen... or were much la ...  Show more

Joseph McCarthy's infamous crusade in the 1950s whipped up a frenzy of anti-communist sentiment across America – and wrecked the reputations of scores of people accused of harbouring sympathies for the Soviet Union. So what motived the Wisconsin senator, and why did McCarthyism p ...  Show more

June 9, 1954. Senator Joseph McCarthy has accused the United States Army of having communists within its midst. After rising to power during a time of great fear in America, McCarthy's name has become synonymous with anti-communism – and with baseless, life-ruining accusations. B ...  Show more

For decades after the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States of America were locked in a conflict of ideology that took the planet to the brink of catastrophe. Known as the Cold War, it was an era of paranoia, fear and mutual suspicion, where the contest for sup ...  Show more

Last week, we discussed the political and legal framework of McCarthyism, but far more important is how it impacted ordinary citizens who were not Soviet agents. McCarthy and HUAC regularly labeled Americans as threats simply for their political beliefs, which were often count ...