The post-WWII Red Scare is one of several historical topics I’ve revisited several times for this site. Here’s a chronological list of related columns, most of them written in 2019-2020, back when I was still trying themed series of articles.
- Elizabeth Bentley, Queen of the Red Scare – profile of the spy-turned-informer whose testimony kickstarted McCarthyism.
- The Passion of Whittaker Chambers – a brief history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Whittaker Chambers vs. Alger Hiss.
- The Fall of Alger Hiss – Chambers vs. Hiss, continued.
- Paul Robeson’s Road to Peekskill – profile of actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson and the 1949 Peekskill Riots.
- Blacklisting Was Our Business – the Smith Act conspiracy trials of 1949; a history of professional ex-Communists (Paul Crouch, Matt Cvetic, Harvey Matusow, etc.).
- Nightmare in Lavender – exploring the “Lavender Scare,” from government purges of LGBTQ employees to moral panics in the heartland.
- Ruth Schmidt Browses the Washington Bookshop – profile of geologist Ruth A.M. Schmidt, a victim of loyalty oaths; gender roles in the McCarthy era; the Washington Bookshop, a favored gathering place for radical and progressive activists.
- No Sense of Decency – brief account of the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954.
There were a few other subjects which I’d hoped to discuss or touch upon, eg. the Hollywood Blacklist and the various scientists (Linus Pauling, Tsien Hsue-shen, that guy in the Batman movie) whose careers were ruined by the Red Scare. Maybe we’ll get them if time allows. With Halloween approaching, it’s more likely we’ll revisit Things That Are Not for some spooky fall fun…though as J. Edgar Hoover might say, there’s nothing scarier than a commie.