The Origins of the Social Movement Red Scare, the Cold War and McCarthyism - Essay Example

Social movements are, for the most part, centered on ideological shifts in society. For instance, the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s came about through fear of radical ideologies emerging from the Soviet Union and around the world.  At this point in history, the Cold War produced fear from Americans, who constantly contemplated the possibility of nuclear war with the philosophically corrupt Soviets: a nation that the United States saw as antithetical to American values like individualism and market economies.

Paired with political pressure to root out Soviet spies in the government, the Red Scare erupted and played out in scenes all over the country. The interaction of this public force with the arts community of Hollywood, however, produced the most interesting social dynamic of the whole Red Scare experience. Politicians for possible affiliations with the socialist cause targeted film directors, playwrights, and other left-leaning artists of the era. This led to a portrayal of American society in a negative light in the artwork of these people, which has since surfaced as valuable and telling about this dark period in American history.

As an example, the playwright Arthur Miller created a play in 1953 about the Salem Witch Trials called The Crucible, solely as an allegory to McCarthyism and as an attack on the Red Scare phenomenon (Blakesley, 1992, p. xv).

Perhaps as influential as Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare period was the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was solely responsible for investigating “alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties” (Black & Hopkins, 2003).

Although created in 1938, a few years before the start of World War II, the HUAC gained most of its influence during the Cold War. The HUAC often wielded its power to subpoena witnesses and hold people in contempt of Congress, and it pressured witnesses to surrender names and other information that could lead to the apprehension of Communists and Communist sympathizers.