McCarthyism and the Academic Mind
This is a scholarly article in The Chicago Review from 1954, written about “McCarthyism,” a name given to communist hysteria because Joseph McCarthy pedaled that hysteria. The article is a level headed look at American society at the time. It notes that freedom of speech is important, and a danger to freedom of speech is taking it for granted. McCarthy and those on his side would advocate for restrictions on freedom of speech to prevent the spread of communism. The author opposes the hysteria, saying that purges of socialists in past, such as the New York State Legislature purge after World War I, have not accomplished anything good for the country. Meanwhile, the fear of socialism has caused the oppression of labor unions “often mounting to the extremes of brutality and murder.” His final point is to not believe that it is just the lower classes that have become McCarthyists, but it has infected the top intellectuals of the country as well.