If we want to understand how we arrived in this authoritarian moment in 2025, we need to understand one of the central pathways that brought us here: McCarthyism. In his firsthand account of the 1949 ...

Since Donald Trump retook office on January 20, he’s weaponized the federal government to execute his war on “woke,” targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, LGBTQ+ rights, and higher ...

Fascism wasn’t always a bad word in the U.S. In the 1940s and 1950s, one of the charges levied by the House Un-American Activities Committee was “premature antifascism.” Largely directed at people who ...

Clay Risen discusses his new book "Red Scare." The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was passed amid anti-communist fears during the early Cold War. That period of history is the focus of the ...

Guest: Chris Finan is an author and historian. He worked as a free speech activist for over 40 years and led several groups, including the National Coalition Against Censorship. He is the author of ...

“I was struck this summer when [now Vice President] JD Vance was talking about these Haitian immigrants in Ohio who are supposedly eating pets,” says Nashville native Risen, a historian and editor at ...

Early in “Red Scare,” Clay Risen’s thorough, impassioned but even-handed study of Cold War hysteria in the U.S., the author makes a point of explaining what his subject is — and isn’t. “There is a ...

HARI SREENIVASAN: Bianna, thanks. Clay Risen, thanks so much for joining us. First, I guess for our audience that might not have paid attention in history class, the Red Scare. Why did it happen? What ...