Mass Phenomena and the McCarthy Trials essays

Mass Phenomena and the McCarthy Trials essays "America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality" wrote Adlai Stevenson, a famous politician of the 1950s. Sadly, during this time, the concepts of freedom, responsible government, and human equality were disregarded. They were deemed secondary to fear, violation of civil rights, and false accusations. Indeed, the McCarthy era was a dark time in American history. Many Asian and European nations had fallen to communism, each nation successively closer to the United States of America. This pattern was alarming to the democracy-loving Americans. To calm the panic, Congress passed the Alien Registration Act (ARA) on June 29th, 1940. This piece of legislation stipulated that it was illegal to "advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government." The sole purpose of this act was to eliminate any threats to the democratic American government while young. The ARA was created especially to eradicate any prominent groups which promoted communism. One such party was the American Communist Party, which had gained recent recognition. Congress also formed the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) under Martin Dies. Essentially, the function of HUAC was to interrogate persons suspected of treacherous behavior. Though it seemed somewhat harmless in the paper, the HUAC was essential in identifying "guilty persons." HUAC targeted Hollywood initially, for information on culpable individuals. By interrogating 41 unidentified people that worked in the motion picture industry, the HUAC accused nineteen people of holding communist beliefs. Ten of these accused nineteen refused to answer any questions. These ten individuals were christened by the press as the Hollywood Ten. Each of these men, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel ...