Analysis Of Andrew Burt's 'American Hysteria'

Political extremes have always been a part of the American system, but when these outliers are allowed to take center stage it can cause a multitude of problems. These extremists pray upon Americans fears often prompting mass hysteria. In his book, American Hysteria, Andrew Burt explains why these hysterias occur and uses five historical examples. His thesis is that political extremism is used as a coping mechanism for Americans who have lost social status and their sense of national identity which results in a scapegoat being blamed. Overall Burt’s book does an excellent job of explaining the origins of the phenomena that is hysteria, the historical impacts of it, and how to best combat it in the future. Burt starts his book by clearly defining …show more content…
I am picking this chapter for two reasons: first, it relates to our class and secondly because in it Burt explains the early roots of the movement, how wild unbiased claims made during these movements can go undismissed. The chapter starts during a period when McCarthy wasn’t even a senator. Burt writes about a Texan representative Martin Dies that first raised the alarm about communists in the government. In many ways Dies and his campaign would foreshadow what was to come with McCarthy. In including Dies and other anticommunist movements effectively shows that McCarthyism did not just develop out of nowhere. These periods of hysteria take time to build before they become full blown political movements. Specific conditions must be met that allow fringe extremist movements to become popular. When Burt does discuss McCarthy, the focus is the multitude of almost totally fictitious claims McCarthy made about communist spies. The tactic of accusing anyone that opposed him served has a bulletproof for McCarthy. It discredited his opponents and prevented the truth from being accepted by the public. Many episodes of these hysterics thrive from wild claims and creating doubt about any opposition. The thinking is that if there truly is a secret conspiracy how can anyone who denies it be believed. This allow many political extremists to destroy any chance their opponents have at easing the hysteria. Burt’s example of McCarthyism is the epitome of this tactic, and he does an excellent job at showing how it affects the American people. “To the Americans around the country who wanted to see domestic communism attacked, McCarthy was quite simply fighting their fight.” (Pg. 131) These political extremists are protected by their ability to win over the total devotion of the American