Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition

Red Scare is a vivid oral history of a time when subscribers to the Nation, devotees of foreign films, and even those who supported Franklin Roosevelt's fourth term came under suspicion of being Communists or fellow travelers, a time that Griffin Fariello likens to the Inquisition. The author talks with sources such as retired FBI agent M. Wesley Swearingen, who ferreted out suspected Reds in Chicago for nearly two decades; Harvey Matusow, a Communist who worked as a paid government informant; and blacklisted filmmaker Edward Dmytryk, who went on to direct Raintree County and The Caine Mutiny after enduring a government campaign of harassment.