Right-wing Hysteria, Fifties Fanaticism, and Their Legacy in Texas (Essay Sample)

Red Scare:
Right-wing Hysteria, Fifties Fanaticism, and Their Legacy in Texas
Student Name
Class
February 17, 2016
Introduction
Don Carleton’s book “Red Scare: Right-wing Hysteria, Fifties Fanaticism, and Their Legacy in Texas” (1985) explains that the perceived notion of the status of communism in Houston, Texas was different from the actual position of communism in that society. According to Carleton, communism was portrayed to be a negative impediment to the modern way of life and to progressive community development through the use of Red scare hysteria. Red scare hysteria was a term used by Carleton to denote the irrational fear and aversion to the communist way of life despite the fact that it posed no major threat to the existing ideologies, and to the American way of life because a very small fraction of the population had actually embraced communism in Houston, Texas as well as in the entire country. Carleton’s purpose in the book was to point out the misconception Red Scare created in the minds of Houstonians in order to jolt his audience’s awareness into similarly created biases in their minds and how to interrogate information in order to obtain a clear picture of matters. Carleton is writing to an educated audience trying to understand America’s history with communism and how this affects the nation’s past and present situation.
Red Scare