Landon R.Y. Storrs - The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left

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

Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

Series Editors

William Chafe, Gary Gerstle, Linda Gordon, and Julian Zelizer

A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book

Landon R. Y. Storrs

Copyright 2013 by Princeton University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Storrs, Landon R. Y.
The second Red Scare and the unmaking of the New Deal left / Landon R.Y. Storrs.
p. cm. (Politics and society in twentieth-century America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-15396-4 (hardcover : acid-free paper) 1. Anti-communist movementsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 2. New Deal, 19331939. 3. ConservatismUnited StatesHistory20th century. 4. LiberalismUnited StatesHistory20th century. 5. United StatesOfficials and employeesBiography. 6. United StatesOfficials and employeesPolitical activityHistory20th century. 7. Criminal investigationPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 8. AllegianceUnited StatesHistory20th century. 9. Internal securityUnited StatesHistory20th centuryJuvenile literature. 10. United StatesPolitics and government19331945. I. Title.
E743.5.S86 2013
973.91dc23 2012014277

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Sabon and Archer

Printed on acid-free paper

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Mason

BERNICE LOTWIN BERNSTEIN, regional director, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE, director of Negro Affairs, National Youth Administration

THOMAS C. BLAISDELL JR., assistant secretary of commerce

ESTHER BRUNAUER, State Department liaison to UNESCO

RALPH BUNCHE, United Nations diplomat

JOHN CARMODY, Federal Works Agency administrator

WILBUR J. COHEN, Social Security official, later secretary of health, education, and welfare

MORDECAI EZEKIEL, New Deal economist and United Nations agricultural expert

ARTHUR TEX GOLDSCHMIDT, public power expert and United Nations development official

LEON KEYSERLING, President Trumans Council of Economic Advisers, chair

MARY DUBLIN KEYSERLING, Commerce Department official, later director of U.S. Womens Bureau

DAVID DEMAREST LLOYD, New Deal lawyer and Truman White House aide

FRIEDA S. MILLER, director of U.S. Womens Bureau

OLIVER A. PETERSON, State Department labor adviser and husband of Esther Peterson, later director of U.S. Womens Bureau and consumer adviser to Presidents Johnson and Carter

PAUL R. PORTER, Economic Cooperation Administration (Marshall Plan) official

CAROLINE F. WARE, consumer agency official, expert on community organization in Latin America

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

The Second Red Scare stunted the development of the American welfare state. In the 1940s and 1950s, conservatives in and out of government used concerns about Soviet espionage to remove from public service many officials who advocated regulatory and redistributive policies intended to strengthen democracy. The crusade against Communists in government had even more casualties than we thought. In addition to its well-known violation of civil liberties and destruction of careers, the Second Red Scare curbed the social democratic potential of the New Deal through its impact on policymakers who sought to mitigate the antidemocratic tendencies of unregulated capitalism.