ary in this comparison to consider some events and actions all along the continuum. Further, because the greatest intensity of action in the Red Scares of both the 1920s and the 1950s were much shorter than the full decades indicated by their designations, it is necessary in this comparison to place a greater emphasis on the events and actions of the 1919-1920 and the 1950-1954 periods than on most other periods along the continuum.
Alien ideas had caused trouble for American throughout their history (Bennett, 1988). For most Americans, however, the greatest trouble was perceived to be alien people, as opposed to alien ideas. The success of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the worldwide rise of communism in 1919, however, brought the fear of alien ideas to the forefront of American consciousness. The fear of an alien ideaùcommunismùin 1919 coincided conveniently with a rebirth of American concerns with alien people (Bennett, 1988). The resurgence of nativism in the United States between 1915 and 1920, spurred by the arrival of tens of thousands of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, had spawned the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. The fact that many of these peopleùthe eastern Europeans especiallyùalso brought along the concepts of socialism and communism added fuel to the nativist fire. The news media labeled the newcomers as Bolsheviks, anarchists, and terrorists, all of whom were collectively, if somewhat incorrectly, referred to as Reds. For those attacking the Reds, the end justified the means, regardless of the cost to the American Constitution, because alien "ideas, like alien peoples, were so dangerous that they must be checked no matter what the costs" (Barkley, 1920, p. 136).
The economy had collapsed in post-First World War America, and thousands of people were out of jobs. On the one hand, the socialists and communists attempted to organize working class Americans to fight an unfair system, while, o...