Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective

by Richard M. Fried

Book Overview

According to newspaper headlines and television pundits, the cold war ended many months ago; the age of Big Two confrontation is over. But forty years ago, Americans were experiencing the beginnings of another era--of the fevered anti-communism that came to be known as McCarthyism. During this period, the Cincinnati Reds felt compelled to rename themselves briefly the "Redlegs" to avoid confusion with the other reds, and one citizen in Indiana campaigned...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195043618
• ISBN13: 9780195043617
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A very good review of an era

This is an extensive history of the era that shaped McCarthyism. The author traces the origins of anti-communism and America's struggle against radicalism. It starts with the first world war and ends with the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy. Those who are looking mainly for information about McCarthy will be disappointed, since he is not the main focus of this book.

Reviews by Nan Kilar and Bobby Miller

A well-written book about an American tragedy. Anyone with an ounce of compassion will suffer along with these Americans who were needlessly subjected to incomprehensible heartaches. Joseph Raymond McCarthy is still alive and well. Never has there been one more like this Republican Senator from Wisconsin than this Republican President from Connecticut, George W. Bush. There was no limit to the amount of lies McCarthy was willing to tell or the heart-wrenching pain and shame he was willing to subject others to so he could lord over them and feel superior. Then two men with guts came along-a journalist named Edward R. Murrow, who was very different than the over-paid invertebrates whose voices and faces come into our homes today. The other was Joseph N. Welch, chief attorney for the Army who simply said to McCarthy, "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?" Those words stripped McCarthy naked; and low and behold, there stood a frightened, pithy alcoholic who would die at the age of 49. It is easy to understand power hungry egomaniacs like McCarthy and Bush, but how they can attract such a large base among the rank and file is not easy to comprehend. I think Dr. King explains it best: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

THE REVIEW

I felt that the book was not as objective as i would have liked it to be. I felt that opinions should have been kept out.