Joseph McCarthy

Joseph P. McCarthy (1908-1957) was a Wisconsin senator who became infamous for his aggressive investigation and claims of Communist infiltration in the United States of America. In one 1950 lecture at a Republican Women's Club meeting, McCarthy claimed that "I have here in my hand a list..." of known Communists working in the Senate (the precise number has been lost to time). The subsequent House of Unamerican Activities Committee hearings, which resulted in the blacklisting of countless performers, writers, and average citizens often with nebulous past ties to Socialism or merely to "liberal" causes in general, and the general "Red Scare" which resulted has often been described collectively as thge "McCarthy era," and "McCarthyism" has been used to describe intimidation and other political tactics associated with the senator. By 1954, following the televised Army-McCarthy hearings and a broadcast by Edward R. Murrow attacking his methods, McCarthy had fallen out of favor, though he would remain in office for two more years. Decades after his death, McCarthy remains a significant but controversial figure in American politics.