McCarthyism Before McCarthy

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Many of us are familiar with Joseph McCarthy and his infamous hearings on Communism in the US government. What we don't know is that McCarthy was far from the first person to use these tactics. In this episode of the Truce Podcast we examine the Rapp-Coudert Committee-- an effort in the New York City school system to root out Communists, Fascists, and Nazis who might be teaching students. In the end, even outspoken Christians participated in this witch hunt, which targeted mostly Jewish teachers and staff.

Discussion Questions:

• Why were Americans so afraid of Communists?
• Was it against the constitution to withhold rights from people because Rapp-Coudert was just a hearing?
• What would you have done if you were accused of being a communist? Would you have named names?
• Why were Jewish people targeted for violence by the Christian Front?
• Do the actions of one part of a group define the entire group? In this episode, some communists advocated for using schools to teach communism. But, to our knowledge, nobody in the district did that. Yet they were accused of having done so.
• Who do we scapegoat today in our society?
• Knowing that the Soviets did have spies working in the US government (like Klaus Fuchs who stole nuclear secrets), what should the government have done to root out spies?

Helpful Links:

• Bad Faith: Teachers, Liberalism, and The Origins of McCarthyism by Andrew Feffer
• Fatty Arbuckle and the MPAA: episode of the Truce Podcast where we talk about how Christians censored the golden age of cinema
• The Santa Clause comic strip from the top of the show
• Smithsonian article about Soviet spies
• Brief article about the House Un-American Activities Committee
• Helpful article about the Communist Control Act

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