McCarthyism

Michael Ignatieff once stated, “To belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with.” In today’s society, group identity is often craved by all and highly prized once obtained because by most standards, a person is defined by their social standing, which is a common theme throughout literature such as The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. To thoroughly understand Ignatieff’s statement, “to belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with”, one must…

By the end of the 1940s, Lena had sued a variety of restaurants and theaters for discrimination and became an outspoken member of the leftist group “Progressive Citizens of America.” Racist, McCarthyism was sweeping through Hollywood , and Lena soon found herself blacklisted from film, TV, theater and recording. Lena then performed primarily in “posh and plush nightclubs” around the country. Lena Horne remained active in spite of her being blacklisted,…

On the surface, The Crucible by Arthur Miller appears to simply be a play about the Salem Witch Trials, but it is actually a powerful allegory pertaining to the McCarthyism era. The Crucible is a fictionalized version of the Salem Witch Trials which took place in Massachusetts in 1692 when the town of Salem accused and hanged its citizens for witchcraft. Many parallels between witches and communists appear throughout Miller’s play; when linked, they form a political commentary on Joseph McCarthy…

The Second Red Scare The Second Red Scare was a time of hysteria in American history that impacted daily life in America and contributed to the tensions of the Cold War. Senator Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the fear of communism to defeat political rivals and personal enemies. Several famous actors, composers, and directors were blacklisted and their careers destroyed under suspicion of being communist. Loyalty oaths were implemented into the workplace, and people had to testify…

In any and every case of mass hysteria, leaders often make life altering decisions without much evidence and subsequently create a sense of fear among the citizens they lead. In certain situations in The Crucible, Japanese-American Camps, and McCarthyism, leaders made decisions that caused their followers to experience terror in what will come in the future. First and Foremost, in The Crucible during the Salem Witch Trials, the case of mass hysteria was pointing out who in the Salem community…

the 1950’s Red Scare people feared communism and being accused as a communist. In The Crucible the reader may also see how what the judges were doing can be seen as a form of McCarthyism. The way that people would be accused and the court would force them to confess or face death in The Crucible is the same way McCarthyism would take someone who is accused of communist acts and give them an unfair trial leading to them being guilty with little evidence. So seeing John Proctor stand up to the…

Rallying the American people against a common enemy, the Second Red Scare or McCarthyism was a monumental event and movement in postwar and Cold War era America. It centered around the fear of communism and its influence, viewing it as a threat to democracy and American values. However, during the Red Scare, innocent individuals experienced negative consequences for being accused of being communists or communist sympathizers. So while the Red Scare increased patriotism, it also caused unjust…

Tolulope Adedokun Chapter 26 Cold war politics in the Truman years 1. Why did relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorate after World War II? The end of World War II brought the United States and the Soviet Union into conflict over the future of postwar Europe, especially Eastern Europe and Germany. At the end of the war, the Red Army occupied the majority of Eastern Europe, while American and British forces held Western Europe. Stalin and the Soviets viewed…

Humans are not the only animal that wages war. Bees; ants; and one of humanity’s closest relatives, chimpanzees, all engage in coordinated attacks against a rival group, usually to gain territory or resources. The predisposition towards violent group-on-group conflict is ingrained into animal psychology. Although animal warfare lacks the deliberation and complex aims of human warfare, it suggests human warfare is a natural part of human psychology. Warfare seems to be inherently psychological…

Mob Hysteria is said to be one of the most influential ways of beguiling or causing others to become one person to another; this could mean a person can be perfectly healthy one day and be sick the next due to a disease that is spreading, or a person accusing another for a particular reason. Thus, starts a situation that can be formidable if the situation continues to build up. For example, on January 30, 1962, three schoolgirls from a mission-run boarding school in Kashasha, Tanzania began…