Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

2005

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:3 (Summer 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

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?

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