Isabelle Cowan

AP US History
27 August, 2019

Value of middle class in America:

“The American ideal of what Henry Clay had called ‘self-made men’ in 1832 is so central to the national
mythology that there is often a missing character in the story Americans like to tell about the American
prosperity: government, which frequently helped create the conditions for the making of those men.”
“We often approve of government’s role when we benefit from it and disapprove when others seem to be
getting something we aren’t.” (180)

HUAC influence and significance in the post WWII era

“‘There was an atmosphere throughout the land [in the early 1950s] of suspicion, intolerance, and fear
that puzzled me.’ William L. Shirer, who had covered Nazi Germany, wrote on returning home.” (183)
‘I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were made known to the secretary of state as being members of
the Communist Party and two, nevertheless, or still working in shaping the policy in the state department.’
(186)

International impact and reactions to McCarthyism

“‘McCarthy’s methods, to me, look like Hitler’s’ Eleanor Roosevelt remarked.” (187)
“‘I think the greatest asset that the Kremlin has is Senator McCarthy’ Truman said.” (188)
‘Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too
frequently those who, by their own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:
The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent
thought.’ -Margaret Smith, 1952 (190-191)
“At Dartmouth College in 1953, Eisenhower alluded to the controversy. ‘Don’t join the book-burners,’ he
said. ‘Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be
afraid to go into your library and read every book as long as that document does not offend our own ideas
of decency. That should be the only censorship. How will we defeat communism unless we know what it
is, and what it teaches, and why does it have such appeal for men, why are so many people swearing
allegiance to it?’” (199)

McCarthyism’s effect on the media

“He had the headlines; ‘MCCARTHY’ was becoming a more and more familiar arrangement of the type
and was engraved more and more deeply on the American mind.” (195)
“Palmer Hoyt, the editor and publisher of​ The Denver Post,​ thought McCarthyism required a new way of
reporting. In a memorandum to his staff, Hoyt suggested the neutrality was not the highest virtue-- truth
was. Reporters should ‘apply any reasonable doubt they might have to the treatment of the story.’” (196)