Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2005
Abstract
Few people are aware that the McCarthyite "Red Scare" of the fifties was paralleled by a "Lavender Scare" that led to a purge of gay men and lesbians employed by federal agencies. But David Johnson, in his admirably researched new study, tells us that three-quarters of the 25,000 letters received by Senator Joseph McCarthy expressed concern with homosexuals in government rather than Communists. How did that come about?
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:3 (Summer 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.