Nightmare in Red by Richard M. Fried (1991, Paperback, Reprint)

Richard Fried's Nightmare in Red is a traditional synthesis that makes use of the abundant modern scholarship on the subject. Fried provides an overview of McCarthyism that traces from its roots to the latter 1950s. The book does not focus on Joseph McCarthy. Senator McCarthy does not even appear until the latter part of the book. Fried discusses the effect anti-communism had on American society in the decades before, and after, McCarthy. Fried cites many primary and secondary documents coming from a wide range of sources. He also uses endnotes and a bibliographical essay on his sources rather than footnote citation in Nightmare in Red.
Fried tries to be both comprehensive and balanced. He covers famous cases such as, Alger Hiss, the Hollywood Ten, Oppenheimer, and the Rosenbergs. Fried also brings in lesser-known victims, such as the three hundred teachers in New York City who lost their jobs because of McCarthyism. Over all, Fried gives a good sense of the scope of the McCarthyism purges in government and the private sector.
Fried holds to the thesis that McCarthyism's was more than 'just' Senator Joe McCarthy. In addition, he says the roots of McCarthyism trace to the First Red Scare following WWI. To show this, Fried's first two chapters detail some of the events that occur during the first red scare and the 1930s. For example, Fried discusses the Industrial Workers of the World, a socialist union on the west coast. The Federal government arrested IWW members, guarded job sites to protect them from the union, and even created a fake union consisting of 10,000 American solders to counter-act the IWW.
The bulk of the book covers events that transpired prior to Senator McCarthy's bursting on the scene. Among other things, Fried talks about the Dies panel, and the accusations that communist influenced, or controlled, New Deal programs. He also points out that HUAC started in the 1930s. Of course, HUAC was a House of Representatives committee, and McCarthy did not arrive until 1950, and was a member of the Senate, not the House. Today these events are all considered examples of McCarthyism. The final two chapters discuss some of the McCarthyism's that transpire after McCarthy's death. Fired covers the FBI's continued infiltration of the CP and other 'suspect' organizations, the treatment of homosexuals, and the continued racial tensions, to name but a few.
In, Nightmare in Red, Fried does a good job at showing that McCarthyism was a wide spread phenomenon that existed well before Joe McCarthy. He even shows that McCarthyism actually peaked after McCarthy's death. Nevertheless, the claim of continuity between the first scare in the 1920s and McCarthyism in the 1950s is a bit weak. There are substantial differences between the two events. The first scare involved mostly immigrant anarchists. It featured bombings, mob violence, both by and against the anarchists, the Palmer raids, strict immigration restrictions, and mass deportations. The second scare focused on American 'spies', suspected Communists, and fellow travelers. It featured witch-hunts, people invoking the Fifth Amendment, teachers, screenwriters, and government employees. There were only 302 immigrants blocked from entering the country, and only 163 deported, because of legislation pertaining to McCarthyism. The political and social differences between the two scares outweigh the similarities. The first scare did not wrap the American public