Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture: Amazon.ca: S. & Barson, M. Heller: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

In detailing the United States' obsession with the Red Menace, Barson and Heller deliver an enticing visual treat of movie poster art, images from comic books and bubble-gum cards (featuring pictures of Mao and Stalin to collect and trade), as well as graphics from political pamphlets, national news magazines, pulp paperbacks and "serious" nonfiction (like J. Edgar Hoover's Masters of Deceit). While the introductions to the book's eight sections and the explanatory text are necessarily brief, the writing is lucid, engaging and historically accurate; additional historical material appears in detailed time lines. But the collection's raison d'ˆtre lies in the myriad iconographic examples of how popular culture was used as a national propaganda tool, while simultaneously reflecting mainstream political and social trends. Ranging from the humorous (a J. Edgar Hoover comic book) to the frightening (a copy of Red Channels, the pamphlet that started the television blacklist) and the ironic (an article entitled "Women: Russia's Second Class Citizens"), these cultural artifacts are stark reminders of how political ideology is promoted and produced in everyday life. Coauthors of Teenage Confidential, Barson (who has a Ph.D. in American culture) and Heller (senior art director at the New York Times) have done a fine job wedding text and visuals to create an illuminating social history that carefully walks the line between conveying the historical and political importance of its subject and our urge to view it as kitsch.

From Library Journal

These two books cover, in very different ways, the Cold War and leftist political activity in post-World War II America. Following their earlier collaborations Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen and Wedding Bell Blues: 100 Years of Our Greatest Romance with Marriage, Barson and Heller here offer a humorous but informative overview of American anti-Communist books, periodicals, comic books, board games, movies, television programs, and other sources of propaganda. The eight chapters proceed from 1848 to the present. A time line of an era's key events opens each chapter, followed by a longer discussion and a synopsis of various anti-Communist materials, which are strengthened by excellent illustrations. While not an academic discussion of the topic, this cultural history nicely hits all of the major themes, works, and authors. An excellent selection for all libraries. Radosh (coauthor, The Rosenberg File) presents a serious memoir of life among the American Left from the late 1950s through 2000. Born to radical New York Jewish parents, he moved in Socialist and Communist circles from primary school through college into the 1960s. During the 1970s, Radosh worked with Michael Harrington's Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee. However, while researching his book on the Rosenberg trial he began questioning his political views. His final break with the American Left was spurred by its unquestioning acceptance of the abuse of the Nicaragua Sandinistas. Mixed with Radosh's political conflicts are his personal conflicts. While this is a now familiar tale, it is well told. Recommended for all libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, Urbana Univ., Urbana, OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
The Russian Revolution of November 7, 1917, may have been greeted with delight by members of the American Left, as most recently dramatized in Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, but for most Americans, that historic moment was far less important than World War I, which we were then in the thick of. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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3.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic look at commie madness, Feb 24 2004

By

Manfred Zeichmann (Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (Paperback)

I bought RED SCARED! several months ago, but idiotically shelved it for a long time. Finally I read it and regreted to have waited for so long reading it, because this book is fun.
RED SCARED! THE COMMIE MENACE IN PROPAGANDA AND POPULAR CULTURE details in an amusing way the troubled USA/USSR relation and the impact the cold war and the communist hysteria had on popular culture.
Beginning with the first red scare in the US in 1919, when a series of bomb explosions led to the deportation of 250 alien radicals, RED SCARED! explores the relation between Soviet Russia and the United States, from the alliance in the second world war to the cold war with its various conflicts. The focus however is on the influence of politics on popular culture and how changes in the political climate were reflected in mass media. Lavishly illustrated, never academic, written in a witty style, RED SCARED! entertains as well as educates.
Movies, TV-shows, novels, comics, pamphlets - all mass media felt the impact of the cold war. You surely know the charming film NINOTCHKA starring Greta GARBO or Stanley KUBRICK's Dr. STRANGELOVE but have you also heard about I MARRIED A COMMUNIST, INVASION USA, THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN or I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI? Or did you know that John WAYNE once played an HUAC investigator, examining red un-American activities on the beautiful island of Hawaii (BIG JIM MCCLAIN, USA 1952)? All the above mentioned films and many more are presented with hugely interesting rare stills, lobby cards and posters. Capsule reviews are provided as well. The authors also discuss the successful TV series I LED THREE LIVES. Debuting in 1953 this 117 episode series about an undercover agent infiltrating a communist cell ran until 1956.
Impressive illustrations feature comics (my favorite being a horror comic titled THE RUSSIAN DEVIL, where a demonic looking kommissar digs a corpse up from a frozen grave, while the balloon above the evil red reads: "Get up, Ivan! You can't escape us by dying! We're not thru with you yet!") and lurid pulp paperback novels (RED RAPE). There's also an excerpt from a trashy Mickey SPILLANE mystery, where private eye Mike HAMMER battles the reds. There were even romance comics concerning the cold war ("THE ROMANTIC CURTAIN")!!! Other chapters revolve around red-baiter and FBI boss J. Edgar HOOVER, the sputnik shock, mind-boggling quotes from political pamphlets and anti-Communist bubble-gum cards (!)

RED SCARED! is an hugely entertaining time capsule ride. However it is not without flaws: Author Michael BARSON wrote a similar book in 1992 (BETTER DEAD THAN RED! A NOSTALGIC LOOK AT THE GOLDEN YEARS OF RUSSIAPHOBIA, RED-BAITING, AND OTHER COMMIE MADNESS) and he uses some of the material again. Several of the illustrations and stories looked quite familiar to me.
I also found it disappointing that several topics are only briefly touched upon or barely mentioned. For instance I would have liked to read more about the HUAC investigations of Hollywood.
Nonetheless is RED SCARED! essential reading for history buffs and people with interest in popular culture.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting compilation of anti-Communist propaganda, Mar 12 2003

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Bobby Dillard (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (Paperback)

As the title suggests, this book deals with propaganda aimed at fighting the "Red Menace" (i.e. communism). Starting with the beginning of the Soviet state and going all through the Cold War, the authors, using a tongue-in-cheek style, show the variety methods used in the US to get the anti-communist message across. These methods ranged from pamphlets and posters to magazine articles and comic books. The book's only serious problem is the downplaying of how much of a menace the communist world was (and still is in the case of North Korea and the other Red holdouts).

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3.0 out of 5 stars Trivializes the Real Dangers of Communism, Mar 5 2003

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Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (Paperback)

The political cartoons published here would make this book worth five points. The political analysis given would make it worth zero. Hence the average is 3. As is the case with most liberals, the author Barson is blind to the nature of Communism and only condemns what he considers the "hysteria" produced by anti-Communism. This is rather like warning people to be afraid of firefighters and firetrucks while saying nothing about the dangers of house fires with people inside. Barson even asserts that the fear of Communism almost destroyed American free speech. That is utter nonsense. And, far from being a time of hysteria, the Fifties were a relatively quiet time in US history. Anyway, since when is fear of a mortal enemy a form of hysteria? Typical of liberals, Barson has more concern about McCarthyism, under which not a single person died than he does of Communism, under which tens of millions were murdered. And the involvement of Communists (mostly covert ones) in the US is well documented. The Hollywood Left is well known to this day. And it was the extensive network of Communists and fellow travelers in Roosevelt's administration that allowed Roosevelt to call Stalin "Uncle Joe" and to subject Poland and the other eastern European nations to a half-century of servitude under the Soviet Union. The chief flaw of McCarthyism was the fact that it came at least twenty years too late. One of the cartoons shows Nikita Kruschev saying "We will bury you." Does Barson suppose that Kruschev was only kidding? After all, to Barson, the threat of Communism was only imaginary.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Explain the Gulag
This text is a concerted effort to trivialize the opposition to the ruthless totalitarian system that took more than 100 million lives. Read more

Published on Aug 4 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars One of My Favorite Books of All Time
Red Scared! is a visually stunning, humorous nostalgia tour back to a time of red baiting, missile gaps and his-and-her executions (the Rosenbergs). Red Scared! Read more

Published on Nov 23 2001 by William D. Geerhart