The Age of AnxietyMcCarthyism to Terrorism

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist revisits the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era and draws bold parallels to our own Age of Anxiety.

For five long years in the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist crusade dominated the American scene, terrified politicians, and destroyed the lives of thousands of our citizens. Haynes Johnson re-creates that time of crisis—of President Eisenhower, who hated McCarthy but would not attack him; of the Republican senators who cynically used McCarthy to win their own elections; of Edward R. Murrow, whose courageous TV broadcast began McCarthy’s downfall; and of mild-mannered lawyer Joseph Welch, who finally shamed McCarthy into silence.

The story is told through the lens of its relevance to our own times, when fear once again affects American behavior and attitudes. His masterful narrative also encompasses the story of his father, journalist Malcolm Johnson, whose articles on terrorism and murder led to the movie On the Waterfront—and whose life was forever changed by charges that he was a communist.