Skip to content

How a post-World War II ‘Red Scare’ resonates in modern America

Fights over how American history is taught. Labels of “communist” and “socialist” used to smear. Civil rights gains seen as a loss for the “real” America. While all that might sound like last week’s headlines, those battles and the hysteria surrounding them are nothing new. In the book “Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America,” Clay Risen details how the conspiracy-mongering and cultural backlash of that post-World War II period speak to the divisiveness of today. The award-winning historian and New York Times editor joins Equal Time.

Recent Stories

A Massachusetts primary tests Democrats’ appetite to ‘change the culture’

Trump creates beef with ranchers over new import plan

White House ballroom construction can proceed, SCOTUS says

HHS seeks input on kids vaccination changes called for by Trump

Trump tries to shrug off opponents’ rush to define him as lame duck

Progressive Aisha Wahab wins California special election for Swalwell’s seat