An Undervalued Witch-Hunt: Reassessing the Nature and the Impact of the 1930s Struggle against Un-American Activities

Over the last decades, several historians have analyzed the manner in which, throughout the twentieth century, members of several American legislative bodies and US government officials conducted surveillance and repressive activities in order to contain the proliferation of radical political movements. In particular, researchers have focused their attention on two specific moments of the United States history. The first period included the years between 1918 and 1920; the second period covered the years between 1947 and 1957. These periods are commonly known today as the ages of the so-called Red Scares. During the First Red Scare, the targets of political repression were activists of the radical left movements and the leadership of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau, an office that the Soviet regime established in New York to defend the interests of Moscow and improve the relations between the two countries. As for the Second Red Scare—a historical period also known as McCarthyism—a harsh witch-hunt was unleashed against anyone suspected of spreading communist propaganda, including many Hollywood stars. Alleged agents of the Soviet Union had to face a merciless persecution; in 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg became the first civilians in American history to be executed for the crime of espionage. In contrast, the issue of the response of the American institutions to the proliferation of radical movements during the Great Depression era has not been considered by scholars with the same degree of attention. In the book Little ‘Red Scares’: Anti-