BOOK REPORT ON MCCARTYISM The Age of McCarthyism, a narrative story with documents, provide the reader with a thorough description of a period of American history, after World War II, known as The McCarthy Era. The purpose of this report is to neatly identify authors purpose in writing this literary work and issues she utilize to support her position. From the opening of her book, Ellen Schrecker proves that, while the well-known Senator Joseph McCarthy lent his name to this era, he played only a small part in the phenomenon that swallowed up America far longer than the four years that the senator was on center stage. But “his antics distracted the attention of contemporaries and historians and caused them to overlook the more profound and enduring aspects of the anti-communist crusade of the 1940s and 1950s.” (Schrecker 2).
Joe McCarthy himself plays a suitably insignificant role in this narrative. One chapter describes the rise and decline of the political career he built on the issue of communist subversion. In a rather short space, author manages to convey why it is such a mistake to equate the widespread influence and implications of anti-communism with the career of one politician.
Author overlooked more important roles played by figures such as Federal Bureau of Investigations Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Harry S. Truman. The anti-communist activity led to the “most extensive episode of political repression in American history.” (Schrecker 2).
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Americas political and social elite in the federal government as well as in public and private institutions had assisted their actions and policies. When FBI took over the role of the Civil Service Commission to handle most of the Loyalty-Security Program’s investigations, the author explains the importance of such a move. Another distinguishing feature of that period were Congressional Committees.
As Ellen states, The institutions that most typified the McCarthy era were congressional investigating committees.” (Schrecker 58).
The author uses these examples to illustrate how the struggle for power and political influence was important in the development of McCarthyism. The courts inability or lack of desire to preserve an individual’s first amendment rights was viewed as one of the many reasons why McCarthyism gains its power. Ellen Schrecker discusses the Cold War policies to find American communists and examines the rather complex nature of the fear and subsequent action towards communism and espionage, as it becomes “McCarthyism”. She discusses the political history in the early stages of McCarthyism as it relates to a biased struggle for power in the United States government. Author examines how New Deal attacks develop into an attack on the communists who ran some of the programs and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Breaking from the New Deal, onset on communism developed with time in supportive structure of agencies that legitimize their power and procedures to investigate and prosecute communists.
Author also considers the involvement of the private sector by such supportive “anti-communist” measures as blacklisting and the corporation’s readiness to fire those people involved in the government’s procedures. Author wishes to show that McCarthyism is not a development of one occurrence; rather, it was a culmination of the fear of communism, a lust for power, and world political developments that were seen through government propaganda. Ellen scrutinizes the institutions of the New Deal, the FBI and examines the courts and how each of them effected the development of McCarthyism. For example, establishing a link between Roosevelt’s support of the communist run CIO and the critic’s attack on the New Deal shows how the critic’s wish to weaken the position of the president by flaunting his “un-American” affiliations. Schrecker concludes first part with a short chapter assessing McCarthyism’s legacy in which she ventures an argument that, “McCarthyism’s main impact,” she asserts, “may well have been in what did not happen rather than in what did-the social reforms that were never adopted, the diplomatic initiatives that were not pursued, the workers who were not organized into unions, the books that were not written, and the movies that were never filmed.” (Schrecker 105).
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By trying to briefly explain the eccentricities of the McCarthy Era, author effectively leads up to the conclusion that political motivations and the self interests of certain groups and individuals were the main reason behind to rise of McCarthyism without withholding the other important factors to it’s growth. As with her narrative, Schrecker begins her collection of nearly fifty documents with materials reflecting the experience of the communists themselves.
Author’s choice of documents for the second part reinforces the points she makes in her narrative. She presents a balanced overview of the anti-communist phenomenon that includes diverse viewpoints. This leaves much room to weigh the historical record and reach own conclusions. The purpose of dividing book on two sections implies some causes and consequences. Author attempts to look on that period through eyes of witnesses, and though she avoids subjective opinions throughout a book, separation gives truly objective picture of that age. Furthermore, such dividing eludes reader from passive observation and following after narration, it enforces him to meditate on risen issues much deeper, while comparing both parts of book. In conclusion, with this book we know much more about this particular aspect of the American communist experience, which clearly served as a rationale for the political repression. Most American communists “had nothing to do with this espionage; they usually joined the party to fight against home-grown injustices or the very real international threat of fascism.
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Yet they were linked with the Soviet monolith in the public mind, and many of them paid a high price for their ideals.” (Barrett).
Schrecker certainly develops a theme that may be challenged by many others. Author provides an account that is both readable and balanced concerning revisionist interpretation of communism and anti-communism, with the notion that both were products to some degree of America’s own political history. I think author accomplished her stated goal to see the era through the eyes of those who lived through it.
Bibliography:
Schrecker, Ellen. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents, second edition, by New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2002 Barrett, Jim. “Review of Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents,” H-Labor, H-Net Reviews, April, 1996 .
