Mccarthyism In The Crucible

The Second Red Scare, which took place from the 1940s through 1950s, was instigated by Wisconsin senator Joseph Mccarthy when he claimed in a speech that 205 communists had infiltrated the State Department. Mccarthyism resulted from a group panic over fear of Communism, and the ulterior motives of influential conservative figures, who hoped to limit liberals’ influence. Hundreds of Hollywood artists were accused of harboring Communist sympathies. Among the people implicated was Arthur Miller, whose experiences and observations during Mccarthyism inspired him to write his famous 1953 play, The Crucible, which takes place in 1692 during the infamous Salem witch trials. The play follows farmer John Proctor as he attempts to mend his strained marriage

Mccarthyism and the Cold War are broad and extensively researched topics, and there was an overwhelming amount of sources to choose from. Another challenge I encountered was that because Mccarthyism was born out of panic, it was hard to find sources that examined the rationale behind the event that were written closer or during the time when Mccarthyism was taking place. For example, one source I looked at that, but did not use, was written in 1951, however, because the source was written so close to Mccarthyism, the situation was normalized, and the author was wrapped up in the hysteria. In other sources written long after Mccarthyism, the documents were more thorough with clearer opinions regarding why Mccarthyism happened. In this case, distance in time helped to strengthen the perspective. Another challenge I encountered was that I had idealized sources in my mind that would have helped my argument, but in some cases they did not exist or were not accessible. I wanted a chance to examine Miller’s court conviction and hoped to find a transcript, however, I could not find it. I was so caught up in trying to find this one source that I imagined, that I ended up wasting time that could have been spent examining other sources or writing my IA. I ended up using a New York Times article that covered the conviction, and had useful information on the trial that proved very helpful, although it was not exactly what I had in