Many people conflate the anti-communist Red Scare of post-World War II America with the Hollywood blacklists portrayed in movies and TV shows or, particularly in Wisconsin, with McCarthyism. Today, guest host Christina Lieffring speaks with Clay Risen about his new book, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America, in which he shows that the movement was much bigger than one industry or one man. The Red Scare was the first time there was a large-scale conspiratorial fear of the federal government such that progressive ideas became un-American.

Risen says that far-left activism has deep roots in America, even before the founding of the American Communist Party. But the communist movement took off in the 1920s and grew to its height in the 30s and 40s. Though the socialist movement was more popular, the communists drew attention because of their connection to the Soviet Union. The movement found early engagement in the Midwest among agricultural and industrial workers, and by the 30s had broadened its base to folks in cities. 

At its core, the Red Scare was a response to two ideas circulating in America; the idea of a New America, built around strong governments and social supports, embodied in the New Deal, and an isolationist, Protestant nation with limited government. They also discuss key figures in this history, from big political figures like J. Edgar Hoover and Henry Wallace to everyday folk like the antifascist Helen Reid Bryan who got caught up on the Red Scare and labor leader Harry Bridges who signed an anti-communist oath and was still kicked out of his union. 

Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at The New York Times, is the author of The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Prize in Military History. He is a member of the Society of American Historians and a fellow at the Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the author of two other acclaimed books on American history, A Nation on Fire and The Bill of the Century, as well as his most recent book on McCarthyism, Red Scare. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two young children.

Featured image: the cover of Red Scare by Clay Risen. 

The post When progressive ideas about government became anti-American appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.