The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower

712 Pages·1978·47.772 MB·English

by  David Caute

DiMD
OVUTE
EEARn
THE ANTl-COMMUNISr
UNDERTRIMN
PURGE
AND EISENHOWER
c
In l\\e Great Fear, David Caute presents a
meticulously researched and fascinating
study of perhaps the greatest crisis that
America has ever suffered in terms of her
liberal and democratic values. Here is the
first comprehensive history of the fearsome
anti-Communist purges that affected almost
every area of American life in the age of
Tniman and Eisenhower.
Drawing on sources not previously
—
explored union personnel files, defense
lawyers' files, private correspondence and
—
unpublished testimony Caute describes
the impact of mounting hysteria on the fed-
eral Civil Service, the State Department, the
armed forces, the universities, the teaching
profession, the press, the ranks of science
and the entertainment industry. He demon-
strates how the purge paralyzed the unions
and forced hundreds of seamen, electrical
workers and other working-class people out
of their jobs.
Caute's study reveals precisely how the
machinery of repression operated: the fed-
eral loyalty boards, the Attorney Generals
list, the loyalty oaths, the legislative commit-
tees of inquiry, the Smith Act prosecutions,
the FBI and its ubiquitous informers, the
(continaed on back flap)
$14.95

Books by David Caute
[
POLITICAL STUDIES
j
Communism and the French Intellectuals, 1914-60
The Left in Europe Since 1789
1
Essential Writings of Karl Marx {Editor) ^
Frantz Fanon
The Fellow-Travellers: a Postscript to the Enlightenment
The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge under Truman and ^
Eisenhower I
;
NOVELS
I
At Fever Pitch
Comrade Jacob |
i
The Decline ofthe West
1
The Occupation
j
OTHERS j
I
The Illusion: An Essav on Politics, Theatre and the Novel
i
The Demonstration, a play
Collisions. Essays and Reviews
Cuba, Yes?
The
The Anti-Communist Purge
\
SIMON AND SCHUSTER NEW YORK
•
Under Truman and Eisenhower
David Caute
©
Copyright j.978byDavidCaute
]
All rights reserved
^
including the rightofreproduction 'J
in wholeor in part in any form
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Library ofCongressCataloging in Publication Data
Caute, David. '
Thegreat fear.
i
Bibliography: p.
Includes index. — ]
1. Anti-commu—nist movements United—States. j\
2. United States Poli—tics and government 1945—-
^953- 3- United States Politics and government
^953-1961. 4. Right and left (Political science). 5.
Eisenhower, Dwight David, Pres. U.S., 1890-1969. ,
6. Truman, Harry S., Pres. U.S., i884-ig72. \'
I. Title. E743.5.C35 S22.4'2 yy-isooo
ISBN0-671-22682-