Oscar Shaftel and the Menace of McCarthyism

Assault

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II had major domestic consequences. From the late 1940s through the mid 1950s, federal, state, and city officials launched a series of investigations of communist influence in the government, the military, Hollywood, and schools. The repression of civil liberties and the loss of jobs that followed came to be known as "the McCarthy period" as Joseph McCarthy, a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin, was a leader of anti-communism efforts at the national level. Many institutions were affected, including the nation's universities and colleges. Queens College - with its liberal first president, Paul Klapper, activist student body, and independent faculty - became a focal point for hostile critics. The Borough of Queens had conservative political leaders, as well as right wing veterans' organizations, anti-communist church groups, and conservative newspapers. Some Queens residents had not wanted the college established to begin with. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under director Jay Edgar Hoover, instigated the first assault on academic freedom at Queens College. 
 

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