It is no easy task bringing new life to an era already as dissected
as the McCarthy era, yet this is what Schrecker (History/Yeshiva
Univ.; No Ivory Tower, 1986, etc.) accomplishes in a magnificent
study of how and why McCarthyism happened and how its shadow still
darkens our lives. McCarthyism, for the author, was no historical
anomaly, nor was it the latest version of American populist
anti-intellectualism, as the liberal explanation at the time would
have it. It was, rather, a right-wing conspiracy, and a
particularly effective one: "the most widespread and longest
lasting wave of political repression in American history." This
disparate group of persons and organizations included, among
others, ambitious politicians (think Nixon), the American Legion,
former Communists, anti-union business leaders, Catholic
trade-union activists, and (connecting and coordinating it all)
Hoover and the FBI. Together, they were able to create and
propagate an image of American Communists as not merely dissenters
but as a dangerous monolithic presence whose very existence
threatened the safety and security of the US. Convinced of American
Communism's absolute evil - a stereotype based in part on the
party's very real proclivities for secrecy, prevarication, and
fealty to Moscow - any repression could be seen as necessary. Most
provocative is Schrecker's analysis of the legacy of McCarthyism.
Quite simply, she notes, "McCarthyism destroyed the left."
Organized labor was tamed, dissenting voices on foreign policy were
silenced, scholarship was rendered obedient to the prevailing
political winds, popular culture became vapid and monochromatic.
But the deepest loss was of an American tradition in which activism
and outrage were a vigorous part of the political culture. When a
new left did emerge in the 1960s, it had no immediate predecessors
to learn from, for a whole generation of activists had been lost.
This is a marvelous and chilling work; it reminds us how easily
democratic processes can be jettisoned in the name of national
security. (Kirkus Reviews)
The McCarthy era was a bad time for freedom in America.
Encompassing far more than the brief career of Senator Joseph
McCarthy, it was the most widespread episode of political
repression in the history of the United States. In the name of
National Security, most Americans--liberal and conservative
alike--supported the anti-Communist crusade that ruined so many
careers, marriages, and even lives. Now Ellen Schrecker gives us
the first complete post-Cold War account of McCarthyism. "Many Are
the Crimes" is a frightening history of an era that still resonates
with us today.
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