McCarthyism
What McCarthyism means in History A-Level, as defined for AQA, Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of McCarthyism
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Reference: AQA
A virulent anti-communist witch-hunt orchestrated in the USA by Senator McCarthy, which influenced Britain and Europe and strained transatlantic relations.
A climate of fear created from 1950 when Senator Joseph McCarthy made unsubstantiated accusations of communist infiltration that ruined careers.
The Second Red Scare created a climate of fear, targeting suspected communists and exploiting Cold War anxieties to suppress political dissent.
Anti-communist hysteria that heavily influenced domestic policy and political discourse during the era of Truman and Eisenhower.
Topics that use McCarthyism
- 1K The making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 – The Superpower, 1945–1975 (A-level only) (AQA A-Level)
- 2R The Cold War, c1945–1991 – The Widening of the Cold War, 1949–1955 (AQA A-Level)
- The transformation of the USA, 1945–55 (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- anti-communism
- civil rights
- Civil rights and desegregation
- Civil rights and equality
- Cold War and popular culture
- Consumer culture and mass consumption
- domino theory
- Dynamic conservatism
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