Axelbank Reports History and Today

#173: Clay Risen - "Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America"

Evan Axelbank

In "Red Scare," Clay Risen traces the cultural differences in contemporary America to McCarthyism and the disagreements in the 1940s and 50s over how the United States should respond to Russian efforts to influence American society. He shows how the American political system was weaponized against those deemed worthy of suspicion, and how that destroyed the lives of thousands of people. He also shows how disagreements over the New Deal and how to respond to a growing nuclear threat morphed into culture wars that are still present today. 

Clay Risen's website can be found at https://www.clayrisen.com/

Information on his book can be found at https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Red-Scare/Clay-Risen/9781982141806

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