An Overview of McCarthyism and the McCarthy Era

An Overview of McCarthyism and the McCarthy Era

This is the first definition ever of the word McCarthyism, first published in 1954. The basis of this definition is the life of lawyer, judge, and senator of the United States of America, Joseph R. McCarthy. If one takes a look at the actions of this man, it is not very hard to understand where this definition comes from.

Joeseph McCarthy was a master of media and public manipulation for the purpose of his own notoriety. Throughout his career as a politician, he used many issues to gain him attention, the most well known, of course, being his anti-communist crusade/witch hunt during the early 1950, of which he was the leading spokesperson. McCarthy’s record at every stagae of his life and career has been one of failure and ridicule, of lies and half-truths, yet somehow he managed to pull enough media strings to gain him a positive reputation with the American people through his antics.

McCarthy’s first political position was as judge of the tenth circuit court. While he was in this position, he was cited numerous times for “highly improper” behavior, such as destroying records and rushing through cases just to clear the backlog, with no particular regard to seeing that actual justice was done. He also destroyed records of cases that could show him as negligent for the purpose of destroying evidence that could be used against him. Ironically enough, the slogan under which McCarthy won this position was “Justice is Truth in Action.” The next step for Joseph was his short war career. Although he saw almost no real battle time, he did not allow this to keep him out of the media. He went so far to attract attention as to unnecessarily fire of...

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... Senate, and on December 2, 1954, the state voted to remove McCarthy for abuse of power and contempt. This was the end of McCarthy’s luck.

The McCarthy era, as this period in time is referred to, is a very good example of how an individual relates to a society. Joseph R. McCarthy singlehandedly occupied the whole nation and the government with his accusations. It has been said that his lies and destructive antics had more impact upon American political affairs in the 1950's that any other public figure. One man or woman can make a difference, be it for better or worse, and Joseph R. McCarthy is a perfect example of one man influencing the policies of a whole nation for the worse.

Works Cited

1. Klingman, William K. Encyclopedia of the McCarthy Era.

New York: Facts on File, 1996

2. "McCarthy, Joseph." Encyclopedia Brittanica. 1993