Mccartyhism

McCarthyism was more than just McCarthy




'McCarthy gave his name to an age, but there was far more to McCarthyism than McCarthy'
Do you agree?

McCarthy may have given his name to an era but there was much more to McCarthyism than just one man. In this essay the argument will be that there were many factors leading up to the McCarthy era both internal and external and that McCarthy found a platform in anticommunist fear, as it was popular issue at the time. And his fall from grace in 1954 may also be attributed to both internal and external factors that appeared to alleviate the anticommunist threat.

Today we call it the McCarthy era. While convenient, the tribute is not without reason. McCarthy’s villainy was so plain that his name became a curse in the year of his control. Characterised as ‘crass and unprincipled, an unimaginative opportunist, and a distinctly second rate politician’, McCarthy was also a ‘shrewd judge of public attitudes and temper’ . This bl...