The great fear : the anti-Communist purge under Truman and Eisenhower

In The Great Fear, David Caute presents a meticulously researched and fascinating study of perhaps the greatest crisis that America has ever suffered in terms of her liberal and democratic values. Here is the first comprehensive history of the fearsome anti-Communist purges that affected almost every area of American life in the age of Truman and Eisenhower. Drawing on sources not previously explored — union personnel files, defense lawyers’ files, private correspondence and unpublished testimony — Caute describes the impact of mounting hysteria on the federal Civil Service, the State Department, the armed forces, the universities, the teaching profession, the press, the ranks of science and the entertainment industry. He demonstrates how the purge paralyzed the unions and forced hundreds of seamen, electrical workers and other working-class people out of their jobs. Caute’s study reveals precisely how the machinery of repression operated: the federal loyalty boards, the Attorney General’s list, the loyalty oaths, the legislative committees of inquiry, the Smith Act prosecutions, the FBI and its ubiquitous informers, the deportation terror, the censorship of foreign mail, the absurd restrictions on freedom of travel and the witch hunts conducted by the press. Here also is an explanation of the crucial role played by the Supreme Court during what amounted to a massive assault on the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. This is not merely another book about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Indeed, Caute explodes the myth of a one-man riot and shows, on the contrary, how the Senator from Wisconsin entered the scene only halfway through a purge launched with the connivance of the Cold War liberals. The Great Fear is a brilliant exploration and assessment of an era that must not be forgotten by the American people. Part One : The Politics Of Hysteria. The Truman Doctrine : Pax Americana -- The Republican Catharsis -- Espionage Fever : Myth Of The Vital Secret -- The States And Subversion -- Part Two : The Machinery Of Repression. The Congressional Inquisition -- The Fbi And The Informers -- The Constitution Concussed In The Courts -- Part Three : The Assault On The Left. Bureaucratic Persecution -- The Communist Party Goes Under -- Hell In Pittsburgh -- The Deportation Terror -- The Golden Curtain : Passports And Immigration -- Part Four : Purge Of The Civil Service. The Federal Civil Service -- The Armed Forces : A Code Of Dishonor -- The State Department And The China Experts -- The Un, Brief Refuge -- State And City Employees -- Part Five : Pacification Of The Working Class. How To Break A Union -- How To Fire A Worker -- United Elecrical Workers On The Rack -- On The Waterfront -- Part Six : Purge Of The Professions. Purge Of The Reducators -- New York Teachers On Trial -- Newspapermen And Libraries -- Science : Sanity Or Security? -- Part Seven : Show Business : The Blacklists. Hollywood -- Radio, Television And Theater -- Conclusion -- Appendix A : Undercover Agents -- Appendix B : The Tillett Survey : The Predicament Of The Discharged Teacher -- Appendix C : The Hollywood Blacklist. David Caute. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 621-650.