Anti-Communism and the Red Scare

Although the turn of the century made many question the ethics of capitalism and big business, the two world wars equally brought about a new wave of Americanism and by default, pro-capitalist sentiments. 1 The red scare was so influential that religion and capitalism were seen as uniting factors against it, and helped define a sense of Americanism among the growing middle class. 2 

  1. Toy, Eckard V. “Spiritual Mobilization: The Failure of an Ultraconservative Ideal in the 1950’ s.” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 61, no. 2 (1970): 77–86. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40488759. ↩

  2. Toy, Eckard V. “Spiritual Mobilization: The Failure of an Ultraconservative Ideal in the 1950’ s.”↩

This fear of the unknown brought with it a new form of xenophobia, as capitalism was seen as “American” and communism was seen as “foreign”.3 As seen in this illustration, American capitalism was seen as this entity that couldn’t be tainted by risking the entrance of foreigners. The red scare was such an influential phenomenon that it even led to the expulsion of five socialist assemblymen from the New York Legislature. 

  1. KHAIR, TABISH. “Capital and the New Xenophobia.” Economic and Political Weekly 50, no. 46/47 (2015): 44–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44002864.

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Anti-Communism