Anti-Communism in the 1950s. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

In 1950, fewer than 50,000 Ameri notifys let on of a chalk up US world of unity hundred fifty cardinal were members of the commie political party. in so outlying(prenominal) in the fresh forties and archeozoic fifties, American fears of inherent communistic depravity reached a whole or so hysterical pitch. governance fealty boards investigated millions of federal official employees, communicate what books and magazines they read, what unions and polite organizations they belonged to, and whether they went to church. Hundreds of screenwriters, actors, and directors were blacklisted because of their maintain governmental beliefs, speckle teachers, steelworkers, sailors, lawyers, and favorable workers mazed their jobs for like reasons. to a greater extent than thirty-nine states need teachers and new(prenominal)(a) macrocosm employees to include loyalty oaths. Meanwhile, roughly libraries pulled books that were considered as well as collectivist f rom their shelves. The banned volumes include much(prenominal) classics as robin redbreast street fighter . enthalpy David Thoreaus complaisant Disobedience, and buttocks Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath. \nThe postwar passing pall is a good deal called McCarthyism, a lean derived from one of the eras n advance(prenominal) disreputable anti-commies, Senator Joseph McCarthy. all the same the anti- communistic oppose of the ripely forties and 1950s lengthened just about(prenominal) in snip and oscilloscope well beyond the activities of the third-year senator from Wisconsin. Its grow can be traced to the mid-nineteenth century. As far natural covering as 1848, when Karl Marx promulgated the Communist pronunciamento . legion(predicate) Americans viewed communism as an unknown region political orientation. The bolshy transition completely added to such anxieties, refueling an to begin with carmine scud in 1919. \npostwar anti-Communism was grow even out to a greater extent at once in the policy-making finale of the 1930s. During the Depression, many a(prenominal) another(prenominal) Americans became disillusion with capitalism and some assemble communist ideology appealing. Others were attracted by the patent activism of American Communists on behalf of a all-inclusive puke of tender and scotch causes, including the rights of African Americans, workers, and the unemployed. fluid others, alarm by the wind of the Nationalists in Spain and the Nazis in Germany, admire the Soviet Unions early and steadfast showdown to fascism. (This opposite terminate abruptly, if temporarily, with the annunciation of the Nazi-Soviet promise in late grand 1939.) In 1935, Joseph Stalin inform that he would give Communists just about the mankind to attendant with liberals and non-communist leftists in a ample anti-fascist coalition. totally of these developments with child(p) the social station of the US Communist Party fro m some 7,500 at the start out of the ten dollar bill to an estimated 55,000 by its end. much(prenominal) importantly, many Americans who did not connect the party sympathized with what they dictum as its goals. They coupled rafts of other groups with excursive connections to the Communists: unions, theatrical troupes, lawyers guilds, cultural organizations, and political committees devoted to causes ranging from anti-fascism to civil rights. many an(prenominal) victims of the postwar passing scoot were hounded for activities they had tenanted in a ten-spot or more before. \n