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Second Red Scare (1947–57)

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A still from the 1960 film Spartacus of two Roman gladiators fighting.

How Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus Broke the Hollywood Blacklists

The 1960 film was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood.
by Taylor Dorrell via Jacobin on September 14, 2023
Actor portraying Oppenheimer.

The Real History Behind Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'

The "father of the atomic bomb" has long been misunderstood. Will the new film finally get J. Robert Oppenheimer right?
by Andy Kifer via Smithsonian Magazine on July 18, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated

The inventor of the atomic bomb, the subject of Christopher Nolan’s new film, was the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism.
by Kai Bird via The New Yorker on July 7, 2023
A demonstrator holds a progress pride flag during the Drag March LA protest in West Hollywood, California.
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The Shameful History of the Lavender Scare Echoes Today

Seventy years after a disgraceful episode of anti-LGTBQ history, we are facing a new wave of McCarthyist fearmongering.
by David K. Johnson via Made By History on April 27, 2023
A photograph of Marvel Cooke overlayed over The Crisis' newspaper office.

This Radical Reporter Dedicated Her Life to Fighting the System

"I idolized women like Marvel Cooke," Angela Davis tells Teen Vogue.
by Olivia Lapeyrolerie via Teen Vogue on February 8, 2023
J. Edgar Hoover (center) with President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, February 23, 1961.

J. Edgar Hoover Tried to Destroy the Left — and Liberals Enabled Him

The author of a new biography explains how liberals played an important role in enabling Hoover’s antidemocratic crusade.
by Beverly Gage, Michael Brenes via Jacobin on November 28, 2022
"Thinking like an Economist" light blue book cover

The ‘Economic Style’ as Red Scare Legacy

The rise of the “economic style of reasoning” in the 1960s cannot be properly understood without attending to the political fallout of earlier decades.
by Landon Storrs via LPE Project on September 13, 2022
Headshot illustration of Angela Davis

‘Hell, Yes, We Are Subversive’

For all her influence as an activist, intellectual, and writer, Angela Davis has not always been taken as seriously as her peers. Why not?
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via New York Review of Books on September 1, 2022
Photograph of a woman pushing a shopping cart down a supermarket aisle.

The Secret Anti-Socialist History of Supermarkets

The emergence of the supermarket was used as a key piece of anti-communist propaganda early in the twentieth century against the alternative of grocery co-ops.
by Ann Larson via Jacobin on August 19, 2022
A tank on a city street.

U.S. Deliberation During Hungary’s 1956 Uprising Offers Lessons on Restraint

As the war in Ukraine worsens, there’s little debate about Western policy choices. This is a mistake.
by Branko Marcetic via Current Affairs on June 1, 2022
William F. Buckley Jr. in 1958.

When Right-Wing Attacks on School Textbooks Fell Short

Some essential lessons from an earlier culture war.
by Jonathan Zimmerman via The Nation on May 18, 2022
Paul Ryan against a background of graph paper and a dotted line.

The Struggle for the Soul of the GOP

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?
by Timothy Shenk via The New Republic on April 12, 2022
Actors James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Hatch, and Frank Faylen as Ernie in the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images)

That Time the FBI Scrutinized “It's a Wonderful Life” for Communist Messaging

The film “deliberately maligned the upper class,” according to a report that didn’t like the portrayal of Mr. Potter as a bad guy.
by John Nichols via The Nation on December 24, 2021
Frame from the film Being the Ricardos, features Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz at a screen reading for the "I Love Lucy" show.

The True History Behind 'Being the Ricardos'

Aaron Sorkin's new film dramatizes three pivotal moments in the lives of comedy legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian Magazine on December 13, 2021
Artwork of mountain peaks and landscape.

Not Belonging to the World

Hannah Arendt holds firm during the McCarthy era.
by Samantha Rose Hill via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 14, 2021
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg after their arrest in New York for espionage in 1950.

The Rosenbergs Were Executed For Spying in 1953. Can Their Sons Reveal The Truth?

The Rosenbergs were executed for being Soviet spies, but their sons have spent decades trying to clear their mother’s name. Are they close to a breakthrough?
by Hadley Freeman via The Guardian on June 19, 2021
John F. Kennedy at his graduation from Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1940

Ending the Kennedy Romance

The first volume of Frederik Logevall’s biography of JFK reveals the scope of his ambition and the weakness of his political commitments.
by Michael Kazin via New York Review of Books on May 7, 2021
a stadium full of people

McCarthyism Was Never Defeated. Trumpism Won’t Be Either.

Censure brought down a crusading anti-communist senator but fired up his followers.
by Beverly Gage via Washington Post on December 4, 2020

The Small, Midwestern Town Taken Over by Fake Communists

In the 1950s, residents of Mosinee, Wisconsin, staged a coup to warn of the red menace. The lessons of that historical footnote have never been more relevant.
by Brett Rosenberg via The New Republic on October 22, 2020
Collage of faces and red, white, and blue themes.

Richard Hofstadter’s Discontents

Why did the historian come to fear the very movements he once would have celebrated?
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on October 6, 2020
Joseph McCarthy presenting a map.

The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

A new biography of Joseph McCarthy does not reckon with the devastating effects of anti-communism.
by Dan Kaufman via The New Republic on October 2, 2020
A photograph of Richard Hofstadter in front of a library of books.

Politics, Populism, and the Life of the Mind

An interview with Sean Wilentz on Library of America's new collection of Richard Hofstadter's works.
by Sean Wilentz, Daniel Wortel-London via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on July 27, 2020

Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods

McCarthy never sent a single “subversive” to jail, but, decades later, the spirit of his conspiracy-mongering endures.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 27, 2020
Frances Perkins on a ship, wearing a winter coat and gloves.
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Frances Perkins: Architect of the New Deal

She designed Social Security and public works programs that helped bring millions out of poverty. Her work has been largely forgotten.
by Bat-Ami Zucker, Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, DeLysa Burnier via JSTOR Daily on July 8, 2020
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"No" on Impeachment Unites Today's GOP. In the 1950s, a Renegade Dared to Break Ranks

Breaking with party unity can be costly. In the 1950's, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine faced backlash after she condemned McCarthy, a fellow Republican.
by Karen M. Sughrue via Retro Report on December 3, 2019

The Mafia Style in American Politics

Roy Cohn connects the McCarthy era to the age of Trump across more than half a century.
by George Packer via The Atlantic on October 3, 2019

Before the Central Park Five, There Was the Trenton Six

In both cases, false confessions were used against a group of black men with only precarious links to one another.
by Denise Lynn via Black Perspectives on July 3, 2019

The Rocket Scientist Who Had to Elude the FBI Before He Could Escape Earth

Frank Malina's scientific dreams were as radical as his politics.
by Fraser MacDonald via Literary Hub on June 26, 2019
Senators Joseph McCarthy and Kenneth Wherry.

Democracy and Misinformation

The Cold War and today.
by Jennifer M. Miller via Perspectives on History on June 10, 2019
Illustration of Peurifoy and others attempting to find homosexuals within the federal government.

The Homophobic Hysteria of the Lavender Scare

Despite a thriving queer community in Washington, the 1950s State Department fired gay and lesbian workers en masse.
by Kazimir Lee, Dorian Alexander via The Nib on May 31, 2019
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