Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
Even though he had humble beginnings, Joseph Raymond McCarthy, a single man, made a profound effect on the entire United States during his career. By following his life and what shaped McCarthy as an individual, a broader picture is brought into the scope of the cause of his false accusations.
In the year 1908, in the northeast region of Wisconsin on a struggling farm, a devout Roman Catholic couple brought a their son, Joseph Raymond, into the world. The McCarthy’s, an Irish-American family, were hard working and industrious on their farm in a rural area of Wisconsin.
Joseph attended a one-room schoolhouse as a boy. He was noted to be a very intelligent child, and finished grade school early. He was observed as an exuberant, outgoing child who was sometimes even intimidating to other children because of his aggressiveness and tendency to pick fights for the fun of it.
Jospeh started his own chicken farm and in no time at all, became very successful in his business. Several years later, however, his luck took a bad turn and he had to give it up. He started working at a grocery store in Appleton, where he moved up to a manager position and was transferred to a store in Manawa, Wisconsin. In Manawa, Joseph made the store a huge success. He brought in all sorts of customers by going around town and all of his attention to his customers. It was shortly after his transfer that he decided to go back to school.
McCarthy put so much effort into his studies that he completed high school in one year, even with extra curricular activities like hiking and basketball and school committies. He continued on to Marquette University in the fall...
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... States Army and lost. He was discredited and Congress took a vote on whether or not to boot McCarthy out of office. He did not lose his seat, but McCarthy's career was on the decline.
After the vote, McCarthy was continually cut by the White House, senatorial committees and the press. Due to lack of the public attention he needed, McCarthy turned to an old habit of his - drinking. Over the summer in 1956, McCarthy was repeatedly hospitalized for detoxification, and in 1957, was admitted once again for liver ailment due to alcohol abuse. At the age of 49, on May 2, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Works Cited
Klingaman, William K., Encyclopedia of the McCarthy Era. New York: Facts on File, c1996.
Reeves, Thomas C., The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: a biography/Thomas C. Reeves. NewYork: Stein and Day, 1982.
Joseph Ridgeway Grundy was born in Camden, New Jersey, on January 13, 1863 ("Grundy Joseph R. 1). As a small boy, Joe had boundless energy and a vast curiosity. A propensity for childish mischief was taxing. Joe was enrolled in the Moravian Family School for Boys at the age of nine to see if it would help (Hutton 57). His pleasure in all types of athletics was reflected in his letters to home, he loved to skate and go coasting. Joe became a champion bowler, or tenpins player as the game was called at the school, a distinction he retained throughout the years. Now at the age of twelve, his family felt that he had quieted down enough to fit into the family pattern at home and was sent to public school for the next two years and his social contacts widened (Hutton 61).
He spent his childhood in Rye, New York, as he was one out of ten children. John’s father was a successful trader of furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities. His mother decided to homeschool him until he was the age of eight, and then his
To get a clear view and understanding of the book, first must review the time period in history. The book was written in the mid 1950's during the cold war. Former General McCarthy, then U.S. Senator started a fire ball of suspicion, suppression, and incarceration. This had a very huge impact on the entrainment industry, which included everyone from playwrights to filmmakers, as well as writers and actors. If anyone in that time period was suspected of being a communist, the government could come and pull them out of their home. At the least a suspected communist would be banned, or put on a black ball list. Printed in the Times, McCarthy's First Slander, "Overnight, his speech sparked a media firestorm that played to the basest fears of Americans swept up in a frightening cold war and triggered loyalty oaths, blacklists and personal betrayals that cost an estimated 10,000 Americans their jobs and some shattered innocents their lives." (Johanna McGeary 28) This happened to a number of actors and film makers during that time period. The black ball list was a list of names of people who were believed to be communist. The people on this list came from the movie industry as well as writers. These people would no longer be able to get work ...
McCarthy simply stresses imagery, setting, and conflict all of which show that effortless decisions can lead to great outcomes.
fond of the idea of him going to a Catholic school, as they themselves were
“The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral,” is one of the many examples throughout McCarthy’s speech of him assuming an overconfident or superior tone. His claim to own a list of 205 names in the State Department of communist sympathizers gave support for this arrogant tone, but when asked McCarthy refused to provide anyone with the aforementioned list. McCarthy also used this tone when he said, “The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation,” expressing the idea that no one but the United States’ own countrymen had the strength to defeat their homeland. McCarthy’s tone throughout the article is one of absolute certainty, and gave his audience the incentive to trust
In the beginning of McCarthy’s political career, he was already walking on thin ice. He launched a series of charges against the government. The first charge was against the communist global apparatus. McCarthy said that the organization had made a sustained attempt to penetrate the United States government and attempt to subvert its foreign policy decisions. The second charge was against the United States government itself. McCarthy said that the official defenses against foreign penetration ranged from weak to nonexistent. The third and final charge was against the government of America, ...
McCarthy, J. (1950, February 09). Speech at wheeling, west virginia. Retrieved December 02, 2013 from http://teachamericanhistory.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/mccarthy_wheeling_speech.pdf
McCarthy was elected senate after becoming a lawyer in his sate of Wisconsin. During the first few years of his term nothing major really happened until 1950. In a speech to the Women’s club of wheeling in West Virginia he stated that he had a list in his hand of about 205 known members of the communist party working for the United States department. President Harry Truman had signed an executive order that said that all communists or fascists could not obtain a United States government job. The FBI played a big role in the investigation of this list McCarthy contained. McCarthy’s friend j. Edgar Hoover, which was a violent ant-communist in the federal government, could not wait to expose the people McCarthy accused of being communists. McCarthy’s list created a nationwide scar among the people of the United States. Everything McCarthy said was a lie and he had no evidence to show that the people he accused were really communist but, because of the start of the Korean War and the arrest of two American soldiers accused of spying on the Soviet Union American citizen...
being a Communist, with the only source being a report on how his father reads a Serbian newspaper. (Clooney) Without genuine evidence from a credible source, an argument is as good as a blatant claim. McCarthy’s “evidence” is in fact unsubstantiated in itself. Therefore, his accusations contain no basis, and lack the foundation needed to provide solid and subs...
Senator Joseph McCarthy went from a farm boy in Wisconsin to a famous politician during the Cold War era. His meteoric rise to fame was attributed to his patriotic views and fighting against communism in the name of democracy. McCarthy stated that many communists were attempting to infiltrate and sabotage the United States government, specifically the State Department. He slandered communists as god-hating terrorists of whom people should be cautious towards. McCarthy’s crusade against communism led to many hearings held by the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) where alleged communists were interrogated and bullied into confessions. Many accused communists were American citizens whose rights had been stripped away in the name of national security. McCarthy’s claims of widespread communist infiltration into American society proved to be fictitious political smears and was later ridiculed out of politics. However, the lies and fear mongering accompanying McCarthyism stripped Americans of their civil liberties. This brings up the question, how did you United States allow for this gross civil injustice, surely this an anomaly as the United States is the “land of the free.” Unfortunately, this i...
You can read his story in Genesis, Chapters 37-50. The first note of him concerns his ability to dream and interpret dreams. Joseph was a dreamer and he had a dream. His dream took at least two forms. In one version of his dream he was a sheave of wheat and his family were also sheaves of wheat that had been gathered at harvest and were waiting to be carried in to be stored. In Joseph’s dream, all the other bundles of wheat bowed down to his. In another version of his dream he was a star. Again, his family were also stars and heavenly bodies. Again, all the other stars and heavenly bodies bowed down to his star in his dream.
And in the interview, when the host Winfrey asks a question about “where did this apocalyptic dream come from?” And McCarthy responded to her by mentioning his son John, and McCarthy says about one night, he checked in a hotel with his son John, and John fell to sleep. He felt this town is nothing moving, but he could hear the trains going through. And he came up an image of what this town might look like in 50 or 100 years, then he thought a lot about his son John, and 4 years later, he finished the novel “The Road.” In the late of the interview, McCarthy said: My son practically convert to this book and without him, this book would not come
The Movie “good night good luck” is incredibly historically accurate. The Movie uses authentic clips that show McCarthy and many speeches Murrow used. World War ended in 1945 leaving a broken Europe and a communist block behind. The United States quickly receded back to the red scare that had existed before WWII. The United States quickly set an anti-communist stance and prepared for a war against the communists. While the war never came some enterprising individuals placed themselves in powerful positions using the paranoia created. Among these individuals one came forward and began one of the most controversial historical programs. Joe McCarthy a nobody Wisconsin’s junior senator made his name when he gave a speech claiming his empty briefcase held the names of 205 communists. The movie “Good Night and Good Luck” tells the story how media ended Joseph McCarthy’s commy hunt and his political career.
McCarthy’s novel clarifies the affects isolation made for the traveler’s in the story. In particular to the son, isolation affected him in a more discrete way than the father. Everything he sees and experiences goes into great affect in what makes