Little ’Red Scares’: Anti-Communism and Political Repression in the United States, 1921-1946

381 Pages·2014·2.91 MB·English

by  Robert Justin Goldstein

LittLe ‘Red ScaReS’
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Little ‘Red Scares’
anti-communism and Political Repression
in the United States, 1921–1946
edited by
RobeRt JUStin GoLdStein
University of Michigan at ann arbor, USa
© Robert Justin Goldstein and the contributors 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-
tem or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, re-
cording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Robert Justin Goldstein has asserted his right under the copyright, designs and Patents act,
1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing company
Wey court east 110 cherry Street
Union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham burlington, Vt 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7Pt USa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the british Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Little “red scares” : anti-communism and political repression in the United States, 1921-1946 /
edited by Robert J. Goldstein.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSbn 978-1-4094-1091-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSbn 978-1-4724-1377-2 (ebook) — iSbn
978-1-4724-1378-9 (ePUb) 1. anti-communist movements—United States—History—20th
century. 2. Political persecution—United States—History—20th century. 3. Social conflict—
United States—History—20th century. 4. United States—Politics and government—1921-1923.
5. United States—Politics and government—1923-1929. 6. United States—Politics and
government—1929-1933. 7. United States—Politics and government—1933-1945. i. Goldstein,
Robert Justin.
e743.5.L56 2013
973.91—dc23
2013005597
iSbn 9781409410911 (hbk)
iSbn 9781472413772 (ebk-PdF)
iSbn 9781472413789 (ebk-ePUb)
IV
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface by Robert Justin Goldstein xiii
1 After the Red Scare: Civil Liberties in the Era of Harding
and Coolidge 1
Ernest Freeberg
2 The FBI and the Politics of Anti-Communism, 1920–1945:
A Prelude to Power 23
Athan Theoharis
3 Citizens versus Outsiders: Anti-Communism at State and
Local Levels, 1921–1946 45
M.J. Heale
4 Red Herrings? The Fish Committee
and Anti-Communism in the Early Depression Years 71
Alex Goodall
5 Little Red Schoolhouses? Anti-Communists and Education
in an “Age of Conflicts” 105
Timothy Reese Cain
6 Fighting the “Red Danger”: Employers and Anti-Communism 135
Chad Pearson
7 Leftward Ramparts: Labor and Anticommunism
between the World Wars 165
Markku Ruotsila
8 Premature McCarthyism: Spanish Republican Aid
and the Origins of Cold War Anti-Communism 195
Eric Smith
vi Little ‘Red Scares’
9 Laying the Foundations for the Post-World War II
Red Scare: Investigating the Left-Feminist Consumer
Movement 213
Landon R.Y. Storrs
10 The Dies Committee v. the New Deal: Real Americans
and the Unending Search for Un-Americans 237
Kenneth O’Reilly
11 The Long Black and Red Scare: Anti-Communism
and the African American Freedom Struggle 261
Robbie Lieberman
12 Shooting Rabid Dogs: New York’s Rapp–Coudert Attack
on Teachers Unions 289
Stephen Leberstein
13 The History of the Smith Act and the Hatch Act:
Anti-Communism and the Rise of the Conservative
Coalition in Congress 315
Rebecca Hill
Index 347
List of Figures
12.1 ‘Mr. Schoenchen, principal …’ poster. Courtesy of Tamiment
Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives 298
12.2 Local 537 members marching in the May Day Parade,
Union Square, NYC, circa 1940. Courtesy of New York
State Archives 301
12.3 “Good Morning Dear Teacher … ,” in the Philadelphia Inquirer,
March 23, 1940. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer 304
12.4 James Egleson, in Committee for Defense of Public Education,
Winter Soldiers: The Story of a Conspiracy Against
the Schools (1941) 308
12.5 Schappes teaching a class at the School for Democracy, where many
of those dismissed from City and Brooklyn. Colleges taught in the
mid-1940s. Courtesy of Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner
Labor Archives 310
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Notes on Contributors
Robert Justin Goldstein is professor emeritus of political science at Oakland
University, Rochester, Michigan, and research associate at the Center for Russian
and East European Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is
the author/editor of over a dozen books dealing with the history of civil liberties
struggles in modern American and nineteenth-century European history,
including Political Repression in Modern America (2nd edn, Urbana, 2001),
American Blacklist: The Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations
(Lawrence, 2008), Burning the Flag: The Great 1989–90 American Flag
Desecration Controversy (Kent, 1995) and (ed.) The Frightful Stage: Political
Censorship of the Theater in Nineteenth-Century Europe (New York, 2009, 2011).
Timothy Reese Cain is associate professor in the Institute of Higher Education
at the University of Georgia. He serves as a Senior Scholar at the National
Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment and directs the Ethnography of
the University Initiatives. His historical research examining academic freedom,
faculty unionization, campus speech and related issues has recently appeared
in Labor History, History of Education, Perspectives on the History of Higher
Education, American Journalism and other journals. He is an associate editor
and the book review editor of the History of Education Quarterly and the author
of Establishing Academic Freedom: Politics, Principles and the Development of
Core Values (New York, 2012).
Ernest Freeberg teaches history at the University of Tennessee. He is the
author of Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, The Great War, and the Right
to Dissent (Cambridge, MA, 2008), which explores the World War I trial and
imprisonment of socialist leader Debs for making an anti-war speech, and the
role this controversy played in promoting a civil liberties movement in post-
WWI America. The book has been awarded the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in
American Legal History and the Eli Oboler Award from the American Library
Association’s Intellectual Freedom Roundtable. In 2013 he will publish The Age
of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America (New York).

Alex Goodall is a lecturer in Modern History at the University of York (England).
He focuses on the modern history of the Americas, with a particular focus on