McCarthyism is a term that was named after Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a prominent public figure in the early 1950's. At that time, known as the Red Scare, people were afraid that communism was going to take over the world. McCarthy gained attention by claiming that he had a list of Soviet spies in the United States government. However, he never provided any evidence for his accusations. For a few years, he continued to accuse people of being communist without giving any evidence. Despite this, many people believed him. Some of the accused were imprisoned, but even those who were not suffered. No one wanted to hire a communist, so many people accused lost their jobs and had their careers destroyed. McCarthy mainly targeted government employees, union activists, educators, and those in the movie industry. In 1954 McCarthy accused the army of being communist, which led to a highly publicized case about it. This made McCarthy lose support and popularity.
Since then, the term has expanded to envelop more than simply the actions of Joseph McCarthy. It can also be used to describe other unjustified accusations of communism during the 1950's. For example, the House Committee on Un-American Activities formed a Hollywood blacklist, which listed all of the Hollywood actors who they suspected were communist.
Today, McCarthyism is used in an even more general way. It can be used to describe many actions, from making badly supported accusations to questioning a person's patriotism to accusing someone of being disloyal in order to pressure them to conform.
~By Erin M
The organization of the information in chronological order makes the posting easier to read.
ReplyDeleteIt was very informative. I think it was unreasonable that people were so afraid of communism that they listened to McCarthy's claims without much evidence (at first). Good job.
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