Many Are the Crimes

Ellen Schrecker is Professor of History at Yeshiva University. She has taught at Harvard and Princeton and has authored numerous books including the award-winning No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities and The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents. She currently edits Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors.

"If the national memory is ever to reach closure on this tragic episode, Schrecker's analysis is a significant and compelling contribution."--William J. Preston, Jr., Los Angeles Times "[Schrecker's] thoughtful and earnest new study, Many Are the Crimes, offers the most comprehensive view yet of the process that turned a legal, political, economic, and cultural crusade into 'the home front of the Cold War.'"--Henry Mayer, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle "A valuable contribution for anyone who would understand the dynamics of the domestic cold war. [Schrecker] has provided an alternative framework that does much to put McCarthyism in America in perspective."--Victor Navasky, The Nation "Nothing could be more welcome to students and scholars of United States history than the appearance in paperback of Ellen Schrecker's history of the anti-Communist mania which disgraced America in the 1940's and 50's...Schrecker's book is distinguished from its forerunners by its comprehensive scholarship (soundly based in archival research), lucid exposition and calm intelligence."--Hugh Brogan, Time Literary Supplement "The book's great value is that it brings together recent work on McCarthyism and wonderfully illuminates the relationships between the component parts of that protean culture, and its own extensive original research enhances its authority. It is a true work of scholarship. The depth of Ellen Schreckert's research, her careful analysis and her elegant prose command respect."--M.J. Heale, American Studies

• Preface to the Paperback Edition ix Introduction xi PART ONE: ANTECEDENTS Chapter 1: "We Were Sitting Ducks": The World of American Communism 3 Chapter 2: "Red-Baiters, Inc.": The Development of an Anticommunist Network 42 Chapter 3: "In the Interest of National Security": Anticommunism and the Roosevelt Administration 86 PART TWO: REPRESENTATIONS Chapter 4: "They Are Everywhere": The Communist Image 119 Chapter 5: "A Great and Total Danger": The Nature of the Communist Threat 154 PART THREE: INSTRUMENTS Chapter 6: "A Job for Professionals": The FBI and Anticommunism 203 Chapter 7: "In the Gutter": The Anticommunism of Joe McCarthy 240 Chapter 8: "A Badge of Infamy": Anticommunist Economic Sanctions and Political Dismissals 266 PART FOUR: INTERCONNECTIONS Chapter 9: "How Red Is a Valley": Clinton Jencks and His Union 309 Chapter 10: "A Good Deal of Trauma": The Impact of McCarthyism 359 Acknowledgments 417 Abbreviations 419 Sources 421 Notes 431 Index 551