McCarthyism/Red Scare

Post date: Apr 09, 2012 4:23:53 PM

I will host a live class at 1:00 pm MT on Wed, 4-11 to go over the topic of McCarthyism and the 2nd Red Scare. The years, 1946-1953: The US is being transformed by the most rapid economic expansion it has ever seen, but postwar Europe and Asia are experiencing economic chaos and instability. The massive Soviet monolith has emerged from WWII as a superpower and has closed off half of Europe behind an "Iron Curtain" of communism, and this ideology antithetical to our own is expanding into more nations. Add to this mix the Soviet acquisition of the Atomic Bomb in 1949, the fall of China to the Communists in 1950, and the stalemate of the Korean War in 1953, and you have a healthy fear of Communism and nuclear war in the US. Into this atmosphere, the demagogue Joseph McCarthy waved his lists of "known communists" at every speech he made, beginning an era of communist hunting in our nation later dubbed "McCarthyism". We will go over some of the main events of this era, giving students an understanding of this phenomenon that is another part of America's 45-year long "cold war" with the USSR. Project Credit: Attendance in this live class will fulfill the requirements of your live class assignment for this unit. To get into this class please click the following link: Trehal's Office/Live Classroom. Hope to see you in class.

If you were unable to attend the live version of this class you may still earn credit by watching the recording and answering the following question: How do I say actor Kirk Douglas helped end the era of McCarthyism in 1960? To get credit, submit your answer to this question and the date you watched the recording into your unit live class assignment. You can watch the recording by clicking on the following link: View the Blackboard Collaborate recording

Trehal

This class applies to the following courses:

US History Foundations to Present B, Unit 3

US Government B, Unit 3

US History Reconstruction to Present B, Unit 1

World History B, Unit 4