Second Red Scare (1947–57) — Bunk History

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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

We’re Never Going to Get Our “Have You No Sense of Decency, Sir?” Moment

Because that moment isn’t quite what we remember.

by Rebecca Onion via Slate on July 26, 2018

Will Lee as Mr. Hooper

Spotlighting Communism & Hollywood in the Papers of Sesame Street’s Mr. Hooper

The actor who played the loveable grocer found his way to Sesame Street after being blacklisted during the Red Scare.

via American Heritage Center Blog on April 18, 2018

Political cartoon of the Populist Party python eating the Democratic Party donkey.

The Myth of 'Populism'

It's the transatlantic commentariat’s favorite political put-down. It’s also historically illiterate.

by Anton Jäger via Jacobin on January 3, 2018

Memorial Day and Our African American Dead

Are we honoring all of our American heroes this Memorial Day?

by Robert Greene II via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on May 28, 2017

America's Obsession With Rooting out Communism Is Making a Comeback

California lawmakers debate barring Communist party members from government jobs.

by Julia Carrie Wong via The Guardian on May 22, 2017

Political cartoon depicting fat-cat tycoons sitting on money on a dock made of commodities held aloft by struggling laborers.

From Fat Cats to Egg Heads: The Changing American 'Elite'

American has long been suspicious of “elites”, but just who they are has changed a lot over the last 200 years.

by Steven Conn via Origins on May 1, 2017

William Gropper's map of American folklore.

A Popular '40s Map of American Folklore Was Destroyed by Fears of Communism

The government saw Red when looking at William Gropper's painting of the United States.

by Kyle Carsten Wyatt via Atlas Obscura on March 27, 2017

Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn during the Army-McCarthy hearings.

The Ugly History Behind Trump’s Attacks on Civil Servants

President Trump’s criticisms of government workers have something in common with Joe McCarthy’s.

by Landon Storrs via Politico Magazine on March 26, 2017

W.E.B. Du Bois

When W. E. B. Du Bois was Un-American

W. E. B. Du Bois may be our keenest critic of Trumpism today.

by Andrew Lanham via Boston Review on January 13, 2017

Ellis Island's Forgotten Final Act as a Cold War Detention Center

The idealistic interpretation of Ellis Island should be revisited.

by Brianna Nofil via Atlas Obscura on February 2, 2016

Pickets supporting and opposing a House subcommittee on Un-American Activities hearing in 1964.

Reading, Writing, and Redbaiting

When McCarthy stalked the groves of academe.

by Alan Wald via Boston Review on October 1, 1986

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy speaking

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it.

by Richard Hofstadter via Harper’s on November 1, 1964

Politically Charged

How a shady car battery additive called AD-X2 sparked a showdown between the U.S. country’s political and scientific establishments.

by Sam Kean via Distillations on November 6, 2025

President Dwight D. Eisenhower meets with five national labor leaders.

American Labor’s Shameful History of Support for Zionism

The US labor movement has never been neutral: its union officialdom has a more-than-century-long history of allying with Zionism.

by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on October 12, 2025

Latin America, the United States, and the Creation of Social-Democratic Modernity

A Q&A with the author of "America, América: “A New History of the New World.”

by Greg Grandin, Alexander Aviña via Public Books on September 9, 2025

Maxo Vanka's name imposed over his murals.

Ghosts of the American Left in Millvale

The murals at Croatian Catholic Church of St. Nicholas in Millvale do indeed have an implicit politics that was intimately familiar to the congregation.

by Timothy Grieve-Carlson via Pittsburgh Review of Books on September 3, 2025

Demonstrators march, carrying signs against firing City College faculty.

Eric Foner’s Personal History

Reflecting on his decades-long career, the historian considers what his field of study owes to the public.

by Eric Foner via The Nation on August 14, 2025

Lionel Trilling photographed by Walker Evans in the 1950s.

Colony, Aviary and Zoo: New York Intellectuals

A new book examines the aggressive masculinity that the editors of the Partisan Review brought to their art and literary criticism.

by David Denby via London Review of Books on July 3, 2025

William Sentner address a crowd of union workers at a small arms plant

The Radical Midwest of Bill Sentner

St Louis organizer Bill Sentner led some of the most successful labor battles in Midwestern history by uniting workers across race and gender lines.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Jacobin on June 23, 2025

William F. Buckley reclines behind a desk, glasses in hand, a bulletin board of National Review magazine material behind him.

The Conservative Intellectual Who Laid the Groundwork for Trump

The political vision that William F. Buckley helped forge was—and remains today—focused less on adhering to principles and more on ferreting out enemies.

by Jack McCordick via The New Republic on June 3, 2025

William F. Buckley Jr. surrounded by piles of books in his office.

What Made William F. Buckley So Unusual

The author of a new biography talks about the conservative journalist’s life and legacy.

by Sam Tanenhaus, Cullen Murphy via The Atlantic on June 1, 2025

Donald Trump speaking at a rally

Witch Hunt Nation: The Endurance of a Metaphor That Burned

A brief look at the usage of "witch hunt" in American politics through the centuries.

by Alexis Coe via Study Marry Kill on May 28, 2025

AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland stands behind a podium speaking into an array of microphones.

When US Labor Backed US Imperialism

After the successful purges of leftists from unions, US labor leaders were enlisted by government officials to join in their global imperialist operations.

by Micah Uetricht, Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 26, 2025

The History of Government Influence Over Universities

During the Cold War, the government relied on universities for research, but also saw scholars as dangerous.

by Jeffrey Rosario via Made By History on May 20, 2025

Karl Marx gazing off into the distance while surrounded by books

Karl Marx’s Legacy in the United States

For two centuries, Karl Marx’s thoughts have significantly impacted US politics. In turn, his close study of the US informed the development of his ideas.

by Andrew Hartman, Cal Turner, Sara Van Horn via Jacobin on May 18, 2025

Protestors hold anti-communist picket signs outside of a theatre

The Grim Timeliness of “Noir and the Blacklist”

A new Criterion series of McCarthy-era noir films is a timely collection for an era of rising government repression.

by Eileen Jones via Jacobin on May 4, 2025

From Chinese Exclusion to Pro-Palestinian Activism: The History of Politically Motivated Deportation

Removal orders targeting student activists echo America’s long past of jailing and expelling immigrants because of their race, or what they say or believe.

by Rick Baldoz via The Conversation on April 30, 2025

Front cover of the 1940 issue Anvil by John C. Rogers showing a muscular man in bold red strokes.

Anvil, the Forgotten Magazine of Heartland Marxism

Anvil's popular vision for a multiracial socialism in the heart of the US could hardly be more urgent today.

by Marc Blanc via Jacobin on February 23, 2025

David Montgomery in a picket line during a 1955 UE strike.

The People in the Shop

A new collection of essays by David Montgomery shows how he used labor history as a means of grappling with the largest questions in American history.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on December 17, 2024

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