The Age of McCarthyism A Brief History with Documents

by Schrecker, Ellen W.

• ISBN13: 9780312393199
• ISBN10: 0312393199
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-09
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Incorporating important recent scholarship, this popular supplement combines a comprehensive essay on the history of McCarthyism with compelling documents that trace the course of anti-Communist furor in the U.S. The volume's 95-page essay follows the campaign against domestic subversion from its origins in the 1930s through its escalation in the 1940s to its decline in the 1950s. The second part includes over 47 original documents (including 6 new sources) congressional transcripts, FBI reports, speeches, and letters that chronicle the anti-Communist crusade. The essay and documents have been thoroughly updated to reflect new scholarship and recently revealed archival evidence of Soviet spying in the U.S. Also included are headnotes to the documents, 15 black-and-white photographs, a glossary, a chronology of McCarthyism, a revised bibliographical essay, and an index.

Author Biography

Ellen Schrecker is professor of history at Yeshiva University, where she has taught since 1987. Widely recognized as one of the nation's leading experts on McCarthyism, she has published many books and articles on the subject including Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (1998), a Choice "Outstanding Academic Book, 1998," and No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities (1986), winner of the History of Education Society's Outstanding Book Award for 1987. The recipient of fellowships from the Bunting Institute and the National Humanities Center, she has taught at Harvard and Princeton. Since 1998 she has also been the editor of Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors.

Table of Contents

Foreword	iii
Preface	iv
PART ONE The Age of McCarthyism	1	(106)
The American Communist Party	5	(7)
The Growth of the Anti-Communist Network	12	(8)
Communism and National Security: The Menace Emerges	20	(5)
The State Steps In: Setting the Anti-Communist	25	(6)
Communists in Government and the Big Spy Cases	31	(7)
Atomic Espionage	38	(5)
The Loyalty-Security Program	43	(5)
The Assault on the Communist Party	48	(10)
The Destruction of the Communist Fronts and Unions	58	(5)
Congressional Committees and Unfriendly Witnesses	63	(8)
Red-Baiting and Careerism: Joseph McCarthy at Work	71	(4)
Congressional Investigations and the ``Loss'' of China	75	(5)
Anticommunism at the State and Local Levels	80	(6)
Blacklists and Other Economic Sanctions	86	(12)
Liberals and the Struggle against McCarthyism	98	(6)
The Legacy of McCarthyism	104	(3)
PART TWO The Documents	107	(192)
The World of American Communism: Party Members Talk about Their Experiences	109	(10)
A Communist in Harlem, November 16, 1979	110	(2)
Howard Johnson
A New York City Schoolteacher in the Party, October 23, 1979	112	(4)
David Friedman
A Longtime Woman Activist in the Party, August 22, 1981	116	(1)
Marge Frantz
A Rank-and File Communist in the 1950s, October 31, 1979	117	(2)
Rose Krysak
From the Communist Party's Perspective: William Z. Foster Looks at the World in 1947	119	(3)
The New Europe, 1947	119	(3)
William Z. Foster
The Communist Menace: An American Legion View	122	(4)
How You Can Fight Communism, August 1948	122	(4)
James F. O'Neil
To Quarantine Communism: J. Edgar Hoover Speaks to the American People	126	(8)
Testimony before HUAC, March 26, 1947	127	(7)
J. Edgar Hoover
Communist Spies in the State Department: The Emergence of the Hiss Case	134	(21)
Washington KGB, Telegram to Moscow, March 30, 1945	136	(2)
Whittaker Chambers, Testimony before HUAC, August 3, 1948	138	(2)
Alger Hiss, Testimony before HUAC, August 5, 1948	140	(1)
Whittaker Chambers, Testimony before HUAC, August 7, 1948	141	(3)
Alger Hiss, Testimony before HUAC, August 16, 1948	144	(2)
Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss, Testimony before HUAC, August 17, 1948	146	(2)
Whittaker Chambers, Statement to the FBI, December 3, 1948	148	(7)
Atomic Espionage and the Rosenberg Case	155	(16)
Confession to William Skardon, January 27, 1950	157	(2)
Klaus Fuchs
New York KGB, Telegram to Moscow, November 12, 1944	159	(2)
New York KGB, Telegram to Moscow, November 14, 1944	161	(1)
New York KGB, Telegram to Moscow, November 27, 1944	162	(2)
Office Memorandum on Julius Rosenberg, July 17, 1950	164	(1)
A H. Belmont
Memorandum to the Attorney General, July 19, 1950	165	(1)
J. Edgar Hoover
Sentencing of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, April 5, 1951	166	(2)
Judge Irving Kaufman
Letter to Julius Rosenberg, February 26, 1952	168	(1)
Ethel Rosenberg
Letter to Ethel Rosenberg, May 31, 1953	169	(2)
Julius Rosenberg
The Truman Administration Deals with the Communist Menace: The 1947 Loyalty-Security Program	171	(6)
Executive Order 9835, March 21, 1947	172	(5)
Harry S. Truman
A Political Test for Employment: The Loyalty-Security Program in Operation	177	(13)
The Federal Loyalty-Security Program: Case 1	178	(5)
The Federal Loyalty-Security Program: Case 2	183	(7)
Guilt by Designation: The Attorney General's List	190	(7)
The Attorney General's List of Totalitarian, Fascist, Communist, Subversive, and Other Organizations, November 16, 1950	191	(6)
Communism in Court: Excerpts from the 1949 Smith Act Trial of the Communist Party's Eleven Top Leaders	197	(10)
Opening Statement on Behalf of the Government, March 21, 1949	198	(2)
John F. X. McGohey
Opening Statement on Behalf of the Communist Party, March 21, 1949	200	(3)
Eugene Dennis
Testimony, March 1949	203	(4)
Louis Budenz
Outlawing the Communist Party: The Supreme Court Upholds the Smith Act	207	(10)
Majority Opinion in Dennis et al. v. United States, June 4, 1951	208	(3)
Chief Justice Fred Vinson
Dissenting Opinion in Dennis et al. v United States, June 4, 1951	211	(6)
Justice Hugo Black
A Liberal Opposes Anti-Communist Legislation: Truman Vetoes the Internal Security Act of 1950	217	(4)
Veto of the Internal Security Act of 1950, September 22, 1950	218	(3)
Harry S. Truman
Purging the labor Movement: The CIO Expels Its Left-Wing Unions	221	(5)
Resolution on Expulsion of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, November 1949	222	(4)
The Dilemma of an Unfriendly Witness: Lillian Hellman Takes the Fifth Amendment	226	(3)
Letter to HUAC, May 19, 1952	227	(2)
Lillian Hellman
``Are You Now ... ?'': HUAC Investigates Hollywood	229	(8)
Testimony before HUAC, October 27, 1947	230	(4)
John Howard Lawson
Testimony before HUAC, October 30, 1947	234	(3)
Ring Lardner Jr.
``I Have in My Hand ...'': Senator Joseph McCarthy Charges That There Are Communists in the State Department	237	(5)
Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950	238	(4)
Senator Joseph McCarthy
The Hollywood Blacklist Begins: Studio Heads Fire the Hollywood Ten	242	(2)
The Waldorf Statement, December 3, 1947	243	(1)
The Blacklisters' Bible: Red Channels	244	(6)
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, 1950	246	(4)
The Blacklist in Operation: Testimony from the John Henry Faulk Trial	250	(8)
Testimony in Faulk v. AWARE, 1962	251	(2)
Trial David Susskind
Testimony in Faulk v. AWARE, 1962	253	(1)
Mark Goodson
Testimony in Faulk v. AWARE, 1962	254	(2)
Kim Hunter
Testimony in Faulk v. AWARE, 1962	256	(2)
Everett Sloan
Unfriendly Witnesses and Their Lawyers: The HUAC Testimony of Robert Treuhaft	258	(4)
Testimony before HUAC, December 3, 1953	259	(3)
Robert Treuhaft
Heresy and Conspiracy: A Cold War Liberal View of the Communist Threat	262	(9)
Heresy, Yes---But Conspiracy, No, July 9, 1950	263	(8)
Sidney Hook
A Liberal Deplores the Witch-Hunt: Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on ``The Black Silence of Fear''	271	(28)
The Black Silence of Fear, January 13, 1952	271	(4)
William O. Douglas
APPENDIXES
Glossary	275	(3)
A McCarthyism Chronology (1917--1976)	278	(6)
Interpreting McCarthyism: A Bibliographical Essay	284	(15)
Index	299