American Hysteria Summary

What does it mean to be an American? There is no definitive response to this question, but one thing holds true—the reply is linked to what that particular person believes is the national identity of the United States. Andrew Burt’s thesis of political hysteria and how it is linked through national identity is illustrated through the politicized episode of the Red Scare in his book, American Hysteria: The Untold Story of Mass Political Extremism in the United States.

Political hysteria is a phenomenon under the social science discipline of politics/government. Burt uses the term political hysteria to describe recurring events in American history where, based on a shared sense of threat from others, a movement of national politics takes center

The similarities between the events taking place in Europe and the strikes in Seattle alarmed the public and brought fear of revolution within the United States as Americans began to associate immigrant strikers with Bolshevism. Both the media and the mayor of Seattle exacerbated these fears. Other political figureheads, such as Democratic senator Lee Overman for instance, began to politicize anti-Bolshevism. According to Burt, Overman conducted an investigation into suspected Bolsheviks and released a report that was full of anti-Bolshevik propaganda (Burt 82). The report also called for laws to be put into effect that would allow for the incarceration and expulsion of anyone associated with the Bolsheviks. American anxieties increased with the continual threats that included bombs being mailed to prominent members of government; the American public demanded government action against these

Mitchell Palmer took leadership of the movement. The catalyst to the political hysteria occurred when anarchist, Carlo Valdinoci’s explosives went off in front of Palmer’s home killing Valdinoci, and damaging Palmer’s home. This incident drove Palmer to use all of his available resources and authority in government to create the General Intelligence Division in order to investigate, and subsequently deport Bolsheviks (Burt 86). Another series of strikes, coupled with public pressure, pushed Palmer into action. Palmer raided offices of suspected Bolsheviks on several occasions and violated their rights. Palmer’s actions were not questioned, but instead demanded by the public, as the fear of anarchy superseded the constitutional rights of these agitators. In order to propel his anti-Bolshevik crusade, Palmer distributed fear-inducing propaganda and used the media to further stoke the fears of an impending threat to the American way of life. The exploitation of fear can be seen as Burt quotes Palmer’s letter to the media, “My one desire is to acquaint people like you with the real menace of evil-thinking which is the foundation of the Red movement” (Burt 86). One can see here how Palmer politicized the Red Scare through the use of these tactics to gain momentum and notoriety in an attempt to achieve his goal of candidacy for president of the United