American Anti-Communism: Combating the Enemy Within, 1830-1970

by M.J. Heale

Book Overview

Although the term anticommunism is relatively new, the phenomenon it described has deep historical roots in the United States. Even before publication of the Communist Manifesto, Heale explains, many Americans were already forming an idealized image of their country as a Christain republic of self-reliant white men--hardly fertile ground for Marxist socialism. Heale shows how fears of foreigh ideologies and suspicion on nineteenth-century...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801840511
• ISBN13: 9780801840517
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

An Objective Historical Overview of Fear and Repression in America

I read this book as part of my research into the origins and causes of right-wing repression in American history. In my opinion, this book is primarily for graduate students in the fields of history and political science. I must confess that I found this book a bit of a difficult read (hence only four stars), in part due to the author's dry academic style, his complex syntax and the breadth of scope; this book covers such a broad time-period that no particular episode is dealt with in-depth. Fair enough, as this work is clearly intended as a broad historical overview of the subject. Having said that, I highly recommend this book for those who seek an objective, insightful and comprehensive examination of the anti-communist impulse in American history. The authors' strong-suit is his remarkable facility for synthesis and generalization, bringing together seemingly disparate strands into stark relief. Patterns of continuity and change are clearly deliniated, as are the causal factors which underlie these patterns. The author has also done a very good job of organizing the material into chapters which are both meaningful and relevant. For me, the greatest revelation (and there were many) was the fundamental shift in the late-1940s from identifying the principal communist threat in the form of archetypal immigrant blue-collar leftist, to the archetypal bureaucrat intellectual within the federal government itself. This shift had more to do with Republican frustrations at being out of office for twelve-years (coupled with Soviet gains in the post-war era) than any wide-spread threat from within. The bibliographical essay at the end is excellent -- a must for all serious students of American history. I will definitely read Heale's book on American history from 1750 to 1850.