Bradbury wrote the book during 1950–1953 in Los Angeles, California when Senator McCarthy was up-and-coming. Bradbury may have took inspiration in wanting to write a book in which its protagonist when against the conventional society. McCarthy, much like Bradbury, both seem to have wanted to oust communist or “regulators.” In Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury showed how leaders could be contradictive and deceptive. Surely since Senator McCarthy was an outspoken and influential (he has a whole era named after him!) figure, Bradbury would have seized the chance to somewhat put whatever McCarthy was criticizing in words.
A little background about McCarthy and his crusade; around the 1940s-50s, communism (otherwise known as radical leftism) became widespread and real. That frightened many Americans, and that was when McCarthy came along to reveal the dissenting actions of communism and communists. Thus came along his infamous 1950 speech in which he exposed the spies and members of the communist party. He verbally attacked many officials, and used issues besides communism to do so. Many people spoke in favor of McCarthy’s statements, as they were so frightening.
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Except a lot of McCarthy’s accusations of subversion weren’t always backed up by evidence. McCarthyism was quintessentially a harassment and maltreatment of alleged traitors (which most of the time wasn’t the case). To tie both McCarthy and Bradbury’s works together: book burning and subduing disloyal ideas has made several appearances in history, and more recently in the McCarthy era in which Bradbury wrote a couple of his books