Red Scare Sources
The Red Scare was the time after World War II that lasted until the mid 1950’s. There
was great fear over the threat of the communist party in America, and many people felt
uncomfortable with the idea of communists being in the country. Due to this fear, people in
Congress and other places began to conduct investigations and hearings on people who, they
felt, were communist sympathizers.
This topic relates to the National History Day themes in that the Red Scare was a
reaction or response by certain individuals in the United States and the government to
communists. These sources are a mixture between primary and secondary sources and can be
useful in a variety of ways to help with a project on the Red Scare, especially how it affected the
local area.
Primary
1. Title: Communism: The Satanic Scourge [Anti-Communist propaganda, 1956].
Call number: HX86.M38x
2. Title: Investigation of Communist activities in the Philadelphia area. [by United
States Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1953.]
Call number: HX92.P5 A52
3. Title: Revitalizing of the Communist Party in the Philadelphia area. [Hearings before
the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and
Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States
Senate, Eighty-sixth Congress, first session, October 29 and 30, 1959.]
Call number: HX92.P5 A48
4. Title: George Howard Earle Papers, 1941-1960. This collection documents Earle’s
fanatical anti-communist stance at the very beginning of the Cold War.
Location: Collection #3260
Secondary
1. Author: Philip Jenkins.
Title: The Cold War at Home : the Red Scare in Pennsylvania, 1945-1960
Location: Pennsylvania Room (open stacks).
Call number: UPA F 154.J46 1999