Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York
Phillip Deery
Abstract
Set against a backdrop of mounting anticommunism, Red Apple documents the personal, physical, and psychological effects of McCarthyism on six political activists with ties to New York City. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, McCarthyism disfigured the American political landscape. Under the altar of anticommunism, domestic Cold War crusaders undermined civil liberties, curtailed equality before the law, and tarnished the ideals of American democracy. In order to preserve freedom, they jettisoned some of its tenets. Congressional committees worked in tandem, although not necessarily in coll ... More
Set against a backdrop of mounting anticommunism, Red Apple documents the personal, physical, and psychological effects of McCarthyism on six political activists with ties to New York City. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, McCarthyism disfigured the American political landscape. Under the altar of anticommunism, domestic Cold War crusaders undermined civil liberties, curtailed equality before the law, and tarnished the ideals of American democracy. In order to preserve freedom, they jettisoned some of its tenets. Congressional committees worked in tandem, although not necessarily in collusion, with the FBI, law firms, university administrations, publishing houses, television networks, movie studios, and a legion of government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels to target “subversive” individuals. By examining real-life experiences at the “ground level,” Red Apple illuminates the human consequences of the widespread paranoia that gripped a nation. It explores how these six activists experienced, responded to, and suffered from one of the most savage assaults on civil liberties in American history. Their collective stories reveal the personal costs of holding dissident political beliefs in the face of intolerance and moral panic that is as relevant today as it was seventy years ago.
Keywords:
Cold War,
New York City,
McCarthyism,
Political activism,
civil liberties,
anticommunism,
Congressional committees,
FBI
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780823253685 |
| Published to University Press Scholarship Online: September 2014 |
DOI:10.5422/fordham/9780823253685.001.0001 |
