The second Red Scare and the unmaking of the New Deal left / Landon R.Y. Storrs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Storrs, Landon R. Y.

Series:

Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

Politics and society in twentieth-century America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anti-communist movements--United States--History--20th century.

Anti-communist movements.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

Conservatism--United States--History--20th century.

Conservatism.

Liberalism--United States--History--20th century.

Liberalism.

Criminal investigation--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Criminal investigation.

Allegiance--United States--History--20th century.

Allegiance.

Internal security--United States--History--20th century.

Internal security.

United States--Officials and employees--Biography.

United States.

United States--Officials and employees--Political activity--History--20th century.

United States--Politics and government--1933-1945.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (423 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2012, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the name of protecting Americans from Soviet espionage, the post-1945 Red Scare curtailed the reform agenda of the New Deal. The crisis of the Great Depression had brought into government a group of policy experts who argued that saving democracy required attacking economic and social inequalities. The influence of these men and women within the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, and their alliances with progressive social movements, elicited a powerful reaction from conservatives, who accused them of being subversives. Landon Storrs draws on newly declassified records of the federal employee loyalty program-created in response to claims that Communists were infiltrating the U.S. government-to reveal how disloyalty charges were used to silence these New Dealers and discredit their policies. Because loyalty investigators rarely distinguished between Communists and other leftists, many noncommunist leftists were forced to leave government or deny their political views. Storrs finds that loyalty defendants were more numerous at higher ranks of the civil service than previously thought, and that many were women, or men with accomplished leftist wives. Uncovering a forceful left-feminist presence in the New Deal, she also shows how opponents on the Right exploited popular hostility to powerful women and their supposedly effeminate spouses. The loyalty program not only destroyed many promising careers, it prohibited discussion of social democratic policy ideas in government circles, narrowing the scope of political discourse to this day. Through a gripping narrative based on remarkable new sources, Storrs demonstrates how the Second Red Scare repressed political debate and constrained U.S. policymaking in fields such as public assistance, national health insurance, labor and consumer protection, civil rights, and international aid.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Selected Government Officials Investigated under the Federal Loyalty Program

The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left

Introduction

Chapter 1. When the Old Left Was Young . . . and Went to Washington

Chapter 2. Allegations of Disloyalty at Labor and Consumer Agencies, 1939-43

Chapter 3. "Pinks in Minks": The Antifeminism of the Old Right

Chapter 4. The Loyalty Investigations of Mary Dublin Keyserling and Leon Keyserling

Chapter 5. Secrets and Self-Reinvention: The Making of Cold War Liberalism

Chapter 6. "A Soul-Searing Process": Trauma in the Civil Service

Chapter 7. Loyalty Investigations and the "End of Reform"

Conclusion

Appendix 1. Loyalty Case Records and Selection

Appendix 2. Case Summaries

Appendix 3. Chronology of the Federal Loyalty-Security Program

Appendix 4. Statistics of the Federal Loyalty-Security Program

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography of Primary Sources

Index

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9786613906823

9781283594370

1283594374

9781400845255

1400845254

OCLC:

816041966