Red Scare

Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America

By: Clay Risen

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews

From an award-winning historian and New York Times reporter comes the timely story about McCarthyism that both “lays out the many mechanisms of repression that made the Red Scare possible…[and] describes how something that once seemed so terrifying and interminable did, in fact, come to an end” (The New Yorker)—based in part on newly declassified sources.

Now, for the first time in a generation, Clay Risen delivers a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. This period, known as the Red Scare, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, and the terrifying onset of the Cold War. Marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria, this was a defining moment in American history, completely unlike any that preceded it. Drawing upon newly declassified documents and with “scenes are so vivid that you can almost feel yourself sweating along with the witnesses” (The New York Times Book Review), journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.

Beginning with the origins of the era after WWI through to its conclusion in 1957, Risen brings to life the politics, patriotism, courage, and delirium of those years. Red Scare takes us beyond the familiar story of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists and toward a fuller understanding of what the country went through at a time of moral questioning and perceived threat from the Left, and what we were capable of doing to each other as a result.

“Thorough, impassioned...detailed, [and] tension-packed” (Los Angeles Times), Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment.

Critic reviews

"Kevin R. Free narrates this fact-filled, occasionally opinionated, history of the post-WWII period when the U.S. targeted communists, trade unionists, homosexuals, progressives, and Soviet sympathizers for removal from civic life. Prodded by influential men like FBI head J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy, the government conducted intense surveillance. The House Un-American Activities Committee encouraged neighbors and colleagues to inform on each other and held hearings, often rife with overblown accusations and innuendo. Blacklists, book purges, and firings became commonplace. Free occasionally mimics the speech of well-known figures. Mostly, however, his conversational delivery is like that of a friend who is recounting a national crisis. The author doesn’t draw comparisons with our current era—but listeners may."

Learning about the present through history

Thank you for this important work. It helped me understand many things about past and present. Well done!

A game changer

Clay Risen’s book provides a historical context to the political scene we are experiencing now. The stories are enthralling, I couldn’t put this down and didn’t want it to end. I’ve recommended this book to everyone.

Whitewashed History of Anti-progressivism

This book’s focus is to justify the actions of fanatically anti-leftist politicians and leaders every chance it gets and demonizing the left.

The history presented is very dry and uninteresting as well.

Very disappointing narrator

In the Hundreds and Hundreds of times the text says “HUAC” the narrator spells it out “H” “U” “A” “C”….instead of the well- known shortened pronunciation of “Hyoo-ack”. Why the producer and narrator chose to do this is beyond me and it becomes more and more irritating.
Also, the narrator’s choice of word emphasis and, frankly, his lack of gravitas, brings the whole experience way below par. Not a good choice for this material.

So maybe just read the book.