Ellen Schrecker is the preeminent historian of McCarthyism and The Red Scare in America and we had a really great conversation with her about the resurgence of political repression today. Professor Schrecker argues that what we’re seeing right now under the Trump administration, especially the attack on Palestine advocates on campuses, is already worse than the early Cold War years.
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We discussed how the two periods compare: what the motivation was (charges of communism and anti-semitism); the ways in which targeted groups, such as universities and unions, purged themselves before the government had to do it; how the resistance today is so much larger than it was in the 1950s; and what we can do to combat it.
Bio//
Ellen Schrecker is professor emerita at Yeshiva University and has published extensively on McCarthyism in America, especially the red scare and the universities.
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