1. McCarthyism NOTES
Use the chart provided to take notes on the following slides! This information will be on The Crucible Unit Test!

2. McCarthyism
The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.

3. Joseph McCarthy
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin gained power by accusing others of subversion. (Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy.)
In February 1950, a few months after the USSR detonated its first atomic device, McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 Communists who worked in the State Department.
Although his accusations remained unsupported and a Senate committee labeled them “a fraud and a hoax,” McCarthy won a national following.

4. Communism
A system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state, dominated by a single and self- perpetuating political party.
An example of communism is the governing system in Cuba where the government controls everything and doles out benefits such as money, health care and food.

5. Cold War
A state of political tension that stops short of full- scale war.
At the end of World War II, the United States and the USSR emerged as the world’s major powers. They also became involved in the Cold War, a state of hostility (short of direct military conflict) between the two nations.
Many Americans feared not only Communism around the world but also disloyalty at home. Suspicion about Communist infiltration of the government was feared.

6. American communism Party
The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was a Moscow-controlled Marxist-Leninist party in the United States.
Membership in the CPUSA was a high maintenance commitment--the Party demanded full control of people's ideas, friendships, jobs and activities. There were repeated in- depth investigations, humiliating interrogations, forced confessions, and purges. Many sympathizers (or "fellow travelers") supported Communist goals but refused to become members. Of those who did join turnover in membership was very high, with most people staying less than a year before they quit in disgust with the intellectual and social regimentation of the party and its structure as a top-down dictatorship that took orders from Moscow. The CPUSA did not execute anyone, but many--probably most--of the American Communists who traveled to Russia were killed there.

7. Senate Permanent Subcommittee for Investigation
In the 83rd Congress, under its new chairman, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, the subcommittee (now known as the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations or PSI) greatly increased the number of investigations and number of witnesses called.
His subcommittee held 169 hearings throughout 1953 and Of the 653 people called by the Committee during a 15 month period, 83 refused to answer questions about espionage and subversive activities on constitutional grounds and their names were made public. Nine additional witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment in executive session, and their names were not made public. Some of the 83 were working or had worked for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the Government Printing Office, the US Treasury Department, the Office of War Information, the Office of Strategic Services, and the Veterans Administration.

8. HUAC
Congress began to investigate suspicions of disloyalty. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) sought to expose Communist influence in American life.
Beginning in the late 1940s, the committee called witnesses and investigated the entertainment industry. Prominent film directors and screenwriters who refused to cooperate were imprisoned on contempt charges.
As a result of the HUAC investigations, the entertainment industry blacklisted, or refused to hire, artists and writers suspected of being Communists.

9. Arthur Miller- Blacklisted
One of the Hollywood Ten
Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, admitted to the HUAC that he had attended meetings, but denied that he was a Communist.
He had attended, among others, four or five writer's meetings sponsored by the Communist Party in 1947, supported a Peace Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, and signed many appeals and protests.
Refusing to name others who had associated with leftist or suspected Communist groups, Miller was cited for contempt of Congress.

10. The End of McCarthyism
McCarthy’s influence continued until 1954, when the Senate censured him for abusing his colleagues. His career collapsed.
Fears of subversion continued. Communities banned books; teachers, academics, civil servants, and entertainers lost jobs; unwarranted attacks ruined lives.

11. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
Miller wrote The Crucible not simply as a straight historical play detailing the Salem witch trials, but as a parable* for the McCarthy era, in which similar “witch hunts” occurred targeting citizens as communists rather than disciples of the devil.
*Parable: A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.

12. Color Terminology Red – communist
Red scare – widespread fears of Communist influence on U.S. society and Communist infiltration of the U.S. government
Blacklisted – a list of persons or organizations that have incurred disapproval or suspicion and are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized.
Yellow – cowardly
Pinko – communist sympathizer