Mc Carthyisme

The Causes of McCarthyism

As an individual in the middle of Twentieth century Joseph McCarthy had a rather intense effect on society. He started the movement that bears his name. McCarthyism was the movement that caused many changes in the lives of the people of the 1950's. McCarthy headed the charge against communism in the United States after the second World War. Through his actions many people were accused of being communists and hastilly judged to be so because of the general feeling toward communism. What causes such an incredible uprising. What caused so many people to rally behind, in many cases, unfounded accusations that would ruin other peoples lives unjustly? What caused not just a movement but the movement known as McCarthyism? It is historically proven that a simple action can have many complex causes, while a movement can have immeasurable causes underlying its begining and the momentum that keeps it alive. Leaving the little, but not insignificant causes alone, the major causes of McCarthyism were the attitude of the United States toward communism,...

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...at him..."(Cook p77). Fear was the greatest underlying cause of the McCarthy movement; fear of communism, fear of the loss of freedom, fear of being accused or fear of what would happen if someone challenged the movement.

Works Cited

- Rogin, Paul. The Intellectuals and McCarthy: the Radical

Speaker. The MIT Press, Clinton, Massachusettes. 1967.

- Cook, Fred. The Nightmare Decade. Random House Publishing,

New York, New York. 1971.

- Theoharis, Athan. Seeds of Repression, Quadrangle Books,

Chicago, Illinois. 1971.

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