The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left

by Landon R.Y. Storrs

How Red Scare politics undermined the reform potential of the New Deal

In the name of protecting Americans from Soviet espionage, the post-1945 Red Scare curtailed the reform agenda of the New Deal. The crisis of the Great Depression had brought into government a group of policy experts who argued that saving democracy required attacking economic and social inequalities. The influence of these men and women within the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, and their alliances with progressive social movements, elicited a powerful reaction from conservatives, who accused them of being subversives. Landon Storrs draws on newly declassified records of the federal employee loyalty program―created in response to claims that Communists were infiltrating the U.S. government―to reveal how disloyalty charges were used to silence these New Dealers and discredit their policies.

Because loyalty investigators rarely distinguished between Communists and other leftists, many noncommunist leftists were forced to leave government or deny their political views. Storrs finds that loyalty defendants were more numerous at higher ranks of the civil service than previously thought, and that many were women, or men with accomplished leftist wives. Uncovering a forceful left-feminist presence in the New Deal, she also shows how opponents on the Right exploited popular hostility to powerful women and their supposedly effeminate spouses. The loyalty program not only destroyed many promising careers, it prohibited discussion of social democratic policy ideas in government circles, narrowing the scope of political discourse to this day.

Through a gripping narrative based on remarkable new sources, Storrs demonstrates how the Second Red Scare repressed political debate and constrained U.S. policymaking in fields such as public assistance, national health insurance, labor and consumer protection, civil rights, and international aid.

Genres: History, Politics, American History, Nonfiction, Grad School, The United States Of America, Economics

424 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2012

About the author

Landon Storrs specializes in twentieth-century U.S. social and political history, particularly in the history of women, social movements, and public policy.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't particularly well-organized, and as a result, it's a bit of a slog to read. The various stories of suppression of leftists in the government end up feeling repetitive, and Storrs doesn't give nearly a clear enough picture of how they might have affected American policy in the long run. That said, I do think this research is valuable, and the argument Storrs makes is genuinely important and provocative. But I really don't see that much value for the average person in reading past the introduction, which sums up the book's argument pretty well - unless you're a historian, you can probably skip the rest.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading in the US and for those studying US politics. Absent in the Cold War United States was a genuine leftist movement because conservatives successfully targeted those on the left and removed them from government, using tactics conservatives still attempt to use today - white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, and scare tactics against vague and undefined "unamerican" values. This book really informs an understanding of today's United States.

[Eli Maczuzak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry and meandering at times. I think someone could get a lot of value out of just reading the thesis, but digging into the details really demonstrates how many ways the red scare was weaponized beyond common understanding and the horrible treatment suffered by victims of loyalty investigations. Parallels to modern conservatism and political moral panics feel particularly relevant right now.

[Riley Sutherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished discussing this for class, which was so impactful right now especially--intersections of McCarthyism, gender, and sexual panic. Only wish I had read it sooner.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed with all these guys soooooooo in love with their socialist career activist wives