1
10
9
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Teaching Activity
Objectives
To explore the tension between civil liberties and security during the "Red Scare" of 1919-1920
To use that past experience as the basis for a deeper understanding of present debates over the "war on terrorism"
Materials
1907, 1905, 1903, 1904, 1135, 1906, 1909
Lesson Plan Text
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Have students individually fill out the War, Civil Liberties, and Security Opinion Poll. Then briefly discuss:</p>
<p>• Which questions were hardest to answer and why?</p>
<p>• How do your answers compare with the survey results?</p>
<p>• To what extent should Americans be willing to give up their civil iberties during times of national emergency or war?</p>
<p><strong>Step 2:</strong> Have students select one of the images from the year 1919 and fill out the Image Analysis Worksheet. </p>
<p><strong>Step 3:</strong> Have students read the Timeline of Key Events of the World War I Era Red Scare.</p>
<p><strong>Step 4: </strong>Ask students to pretend they are one of the following characters:</p>
<p>• A character who is pictured or mentioned in their image</p>
<p>• The person who created the image</p>
<p>• A person reading or viewing the image in 1919</p>
<p>Students should use the information in the image and the timeline to write a brief story, diary entry, or letter to the editor from your character's perspective. Make up a name for your character and a date that falls sometime between 1919 and 1920.</p>
<p><strong>Step 5: </strong>Have students swap their images and writing with each other and discuss similarities and differences between the images and the perspectives they represent.</p>
<p><strong>Step 6:</strong> Relate the Red Scare of 1919-1920 to the Constitution by having students read the first and fourth amendments to the Constitution. Ask students to rephrase the amendments into everyday language to gauge their understanding. Ask students which key words seem most open to interpretation.</p>
<p>Discuss Attorney General Palmer's actions in December 1919 and January 1920 (described on the timeline). Did he violate the Constitution? As a group, decide yes or no, then compile three pieces of evidence (from the images, the timeline, and/or the Constitution) to support your position.</p>
<p>Ask students to think back to their initial discussion about the problems of balancing liberty and security in the current "war on terrorism." What is similar about the situation in the United States in 1919-1920 and in the years since September 11, 2001? What is different? How well have citizens and government officials learned from the past?</p>
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Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
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War, Civil Liberties, and Security
Description
An account of the resource
In this activity, students will look at images from 1919 to explore the nature of the "Red Scare" of the World War I era, and think about it the context of current attitudes toward civil liberties since the September 11th attacks.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
2
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011 - 2011
Group Work
Lessons in Looking
Red Scare
-
Timeline
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p><strong>1914</strong> <br /> • <em>June-August</em>: Great Britain, France, and Russia (the Allied powers) go to war against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (the Central powers); U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaims American neutrality. </p>
<p> <br /><strong>1915 <br /> </strong>• <em>May</em>: A German U-Boat (submarine) torpedoes and sinks the British passenger ship Lusitania, killing 1,198 men, women, and children, including 128 U.S. citizens</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>1917</strong> <br />• <em>March</em>: The Russian Revolution overthrows the rule of Czar Nicholas II and replaces it with a liberal-democratic government led by Alexander Karensky</p>
<p>• <em>April 2</em>: President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to approve American entry into the war against Germany </p>
<p>• <em>May</em>: President Wilson signs the Selective Service Act, requiring registration of all males between the ages of twenty and thirty (later changed to eighteen and forty-five) </p>
<p>• <em>June</em>: the Espionage Act bans the sending of treasonous material through the mail; the Post Office uses the Act to shut down socialist publications and others that were critical of U.S. involvement in the war </p>
<p>• <em>November</em>: a second Russian revolution replaces Karensky with a communist government led by Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik party, who vow to lead a worldwide anti-capitalist revolution. Lenin pulls Russia out of the war. </p>
<p><br /><strong>1918 <br /> </strong>• <em>May</em>: Congress passes the Sedition Act, which makes it a crime to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive” language against the government, the Constitution, the flag, and the military uniform. That summer, Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs is sentenced to ten years in prison for delivering a speech against the war and in favor of free speech (He was pardoned and released in 1921.) </p>
<p>• <em>November 11</em>: Germany surrenders, ending World War I </p>
<p><strong>1919 </strong></p>
<p>• <em>February 6</em>: 60,000 workers walk off the job in a four-day “General Strike” in Seattle. There is little or no violence, but Mayor Ole Hanson calls in federal troops to patrol and maintain order. </p>
<p>• <em>Spring</em>: In <em>Schenck v. U.S.</em>, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Espionage Act, ruling unanimously that the First Amendment can be restricted in time of war if speech creates a “clear and present danger.” “Free speech,” writes Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, “would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing panic.” </p>
<p>• <em>April 28-29</em>: The mayor of Seattle receives a bomb in the mail; he is not hurt. The next day, a mail bomb blows the hands off the maid of a Georgia senator. </p>
<p>• <em>June 2</em>: Bombs go off in eight cities, killing two people. One bomb destroys part of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s home in Washington, D.C. Soon after, Palmer strengthens the Justice Department’s “Bureau of Investigation” (forerunner to the F.B.I.) by creating a new “anti-radical” unit called the General Intelligence Division. The new division is headed by a young man named J. Edgar Hoover. </p>
<p>• <em>September</em>: Boston policemen go on strike, leading to rioting and looting. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge calls out National Guard to restore order and fires the entire police force. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 steel workers go on a nationwide strike. Coal miners also threaten to strike; mine owners claim the strike is being ordered and financed by Soviet Russia. </p>
<p>• <em>October</em>: The U.S. Senate discovers that most of the 54 alien radicals arrested during the Seattle general strike have not been deported. The Senate demands that Attorney General Palmer explain why not. </p>
<p>• <em>December</em>: Attorney General Palmer and the U.S. Justice Department deport 249 illegal aliens to the Soviet Union aboard the Army transport ship Buford, nicknamed the “Soviet Ark.” </p>
<p><br /><strong>1920 <br /> </strong>• <em>January 2</em>: Directed by Attorney General Palmer and using information gathered by J. Edgar Hoover, federal agents break into the homes and meeting places of thousands of suspected revolutionaries in thirty-three cities. The agents, expecting to find evidence that radicals were arming for revolution, uncover a few pistols and no explosives. Still, they arrest 4,000 people, mostly non-citizens. </p>
<p>• <em>January</em>: The steel strike collapses.</p>
<p>• <em>May</em>: Palmer’s prediction of a May Day radical uprising fails to come true; public approval for his methods declines. </p>
<p>• <em>September</em>: A bomb explodes on Wall Street, killing thirty and injuring over 300; most see it as the work of a lone fanatic rather than a large conspiracy.</p>
Dublin Core
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Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
A name given to the resource
Timeline of Key Events of the World War I Era Red Scare, 1914-1920
Description
An account of the resource
This timeline shows the major events of U.S. involvement in World War I and the anti-radical hysteria, known as the “Red Scare,†that also occurred at this time.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
2
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1914 - 1920
Red Scare
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/ye_opprest_9df56b461f.png
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Dublin Core
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Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
A name given to the resource
"Come Unto Me, Ye Opprest!"
Description
An account of the resource
During the World War I era, the U.S. experienced a “Red Scare,†or national hysteria about the dangers of communists and radicals. The Red Scare was influenced by wartime patriotism, immigration from eastern Europe, and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and fueled by newspaper editorials and cartoons. This cartoon by James P. Alley features a “European Anarchist†sneaking up on the Statue of Liberty. At that time, anarchist was the term for people who wanted to overthrow the government.
Creator
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James P. Alley
Source
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James P. Alley, “Come Unto Me, Ye Opprest!,” originally published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal; reprinted in the Literary Digest, July 5, 1919, at Red Scare (1918-1921), http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/redscare/HTMLCODE/CHRON/RS017.HTM
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Red Scare
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/boosting_761d13bb42.png
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Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
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"Boosting Him Up"
Description
An account of the resource
During the World War I era, the U.S. experienced a “Red Scare,†or national hysteria about the dangers of communists and radicals. The Red Scare was influenced by wartime patriotism, immigration from eastern Europe, and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and fueled by newspaper editorials and cartoons. This cartoon by Fred Morgan links labor strikes with anarchists who want to overthrow the government.
Creator
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Fred Morgan
Source
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Fred Morgan, “Boosting Him Up,” originally published in the <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em>, reprinted in <em>Literary Digest</em> June 14, 1919 at <em>Red Scare (1918-1921)</em>, http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/redscare/HTMLCODE/CHRON/RS063.HTM
Primary
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1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Red Scare
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/palmer_bombing_e327677245.png
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Photograph
Original Caption
These attacks will only increase the activities of our crime-detecting forces," declares Attorney-General Palmer, whose Washington home, shown above, was damaged by a bomb-explosion on June 2.
Dublin Core
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Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
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"Bombing at the Home of Attorney General Palmer"
Description
An account of the resource
During the spring of 1919, a group of anarchists (known as Galleanists because they were followers of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani) sent a series of mail bombs to U.S. government officials and judges. On June 2, 1919, one of these bombs exploded at the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, and he and his family barely escaped death. Later that year, Palmer launched a series of police actions that became known as the Palmer Raids. Federal agents supported by local police rounded up large groups of suspected radicals, often based on membership in a political group rather than any action taken. Thousands were arrested and hundreds deported.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
<em>Literary Digest</em>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
“Bombing at the Home of Attorney General Palmer, <em>Literary Digest</em>, June 14, 1919http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/redscare/HTMLCODE/CHRON/RS003.HTM
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Red Scare
-
Government Document
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p>In late February 1954, the employee was working in a clerical capacity as a substitute postal employee. He performed no supervisory duties. His tasks were routine in nature. One year prior to the initiation of proceedings, the employee had resigned from his position as an executive officer of a local union whose parent union had been expelled from the CIO in 1949 as Communist dominated. . . .
</p>
<p> [The employee immediately answered the first set of charges against him only to be suspended without pay at the end of March on the following charges.]</p>
<p> 3. In January 1948, your name appeared on a general mailing list of the Spanish Refugee Appeal of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee . . .</p>
<p> 5. Your wife was a member of the Club of the Young Communist League [a Communist party youth organization from the 1920s to the 1940s]</p>
<p> 6. In 1950, Communist literature was observed in the bookshelves and Communist art was seen on the walls of your residence in ------- </p>
<p> . . . Before the employee testified, he submitted a nine-page autobiography to the Hearing Board [that] set forth in some detail the employee’s activities as an officer of his local union, and discussed particularly his role therein as an anti-Communist, and his opposition to the pro-Communist policies of the National Organization with which his local was affiliated. . . .</p>
<p> With respect to the third charge against the employee . . . the employee reiterated his denial of any knowledge concerning it, and . . . testified further that he had no recollection of ever having received any mail from the organization involved. . . .</p>
<p> With respect to charge No. 5 . . . He testified that he had no independent recollection that his wife was ever a member of said organization. In addition, the employee testified that he had never lived in the neighborhood in which the organization was alleged to have existed, and that he had never heard of said organization. . .</p>
<p> The Chairman then read charge No. 6 in which it was alleged that Communist literature was observed in the employee’s bookshelves at home and Communist art was seen on the walls of his residence in 1950 . . .Counsel for the employee then questioned him concerning his courses in college, and the books which he was there required to read for those courses. . . .The employee responded that certain books had been recommended by his instructors, that Das Kapital was one, and that he had bought the Modern Library Giant Edition of Das Kapital . . . the employee testified that he had not read Das Kapital in its entirety, that he had been required to read ‘a chapter or two for class work,’ and that ‘he had found it a little dull and tedious.” . . .</p>
<p> Counsel then asked the employee whether, in 1950, he had reproductions of paintings by great painters hanging on the walls of his home, and following the employee’s answer in the affirmative, counsel asked him to name some of the artists whose reproductions were hanging on the walls of the employee’s home. The employee named Picasso, Renoir, and Modigliani.</p>
<p> Counsel then asked the employee whether pictures by those artists were hanging in museums, including in the largest museum in the city in which the employee resides, and following the employee’s answer in the affirmative, counsel asked whether there was ‘any relationship between the art and the Communist Party.’ The employee responded that he had ‘no idea of what any relationship there might be that exists there at all.’ . . . </p>
<p> </p>
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Government Document
Title
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A Postal Worker Testifies Before the Loyalty-Security Program
Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
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Executive Order 9835, signed by President Truman on March 21, 1947, established a loyalty-security program for the executive branch of the federal government. Federal employees were required to take a political test to identify "subversive" affiliations or tendencies. Past or present members of the Communist Party as well as anyone with a "sympathetic association" with it or any other "subversive" organizations or individuals were disqualified or dismissed. These terms were often deliberately vague; the charges against this postal worker included owning "Communist literature and art." The employee was dismissed from his job, and his appeals to the Civil Service Commission resulted in rulings upholding the dismissal. The FBI's often secretive handling of the program's investigations (despite the Executive Order's relegating of that duty to the Civil Service Commission) ensured that successful appeals of this kind were nearly impossible.
Creator
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Bureau of National Affairs
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Adam Yarmolinsky, ed., <em>Case Studies in Personnel Security</em>, (Washington, DC: Bureau of National Affairs, 1955), in Ellen Schrecker, ed., <em>McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents</em> (New York: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2002), 178-182.
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1
Date
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1954 - 1955
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Postwar America (1946-1975)
Cold War
Red Scare
-
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634
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900
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Cartoon
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Cartoon
Title
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An Anti-Communist Comic Book Warns of "The Red Iceberg"
Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
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This 1960 comic book warns young readers of the dangers ahead should Uncle Sam fail to steer clear of the "Red Iceberg." Published by <em>Impact</em>, an imprint of the anti-communist Catholic Catechetical Guild, the comic was distributed to thousands of Catholic school children during the Cold War.
Creator
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Unknown
Source
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"The Red Iceberg," (St. Paul, MN: Impact Publishing, 1960).
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1960
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Postwar America (1946-1975)
Cold War
Red Scare
-
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Omeka Image File
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499
Height
568
Bit Depth
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Cartoon
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Type
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Cartoon
Title
A name given to the resource
A "Red Scare" Leads to Backlash Against Immigrants
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
After World War I a "Red Scare" broke out as anxieties about political extremists and radicals led to widespread demonization and political persecution of leftists and immigrants. A series of high-profile events from the late-nineteenth century on, such as the Haymarket Square bombing and the assassination of President McKinley by Leon Czolgosz, had cemented the connection of radical politics and violence in the public mind, with the image of the "anarchist" in particular becoming synonymous with the bomb-throwing terrorist. Since many of the leading exponents of anarchism, as well the defendants in the notorious Sacco and Vanzetti case and President McKinley's assassin were Italian, Russian, or Eastern European, these groups in particular were stigmatized as the stereotypical "anarchists," bent on violent revolution and the destruction of America's institutions. This stereotype, suggested by the bomb-wielding, dark-featured "European Anarchist" of the cartoon, became a leading justification for the passage of quota laws which severely limited immigration from Italy, Russia, and other regions of Southern and Eastern Europe.
Creator
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James P. Alley
Source
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James P. Alley, "Come Unto Me, Ye Opprest!", <em>Memphis Commercial Appeal</em>, 5 July 1919.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Italian Immigration
Jewish Immigration
Red Scare
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/bookseh_29c49b6693.png
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URL
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/fire.html
Original Caption
"You read books, eh?"
Dublin Core
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Cartoon
Title
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A Cartoonist Spoofs Anti-Communist Crusaders
Language
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English
Publisher
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American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
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This 1949 Herb Block cartoon highlights the dangers to civil liberty and intellectual freedoms many Americans saw posed by overzealous and anti-Communist crusaders in the early years of the Cold War. Such fears were not unfounded: during the postwar years, hundreds of elementary and high school teachers lost their jobs as a result of such investigations, which often involved "blacklists" compiled by anti-Communist groups and individuals.
Creator
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Herb Block
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Herb Block, "You read books, eh?," (Washington: <em>Washington Post</em>, 24 April 1949, from the Library of Congress, <em>Herb Block's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millenium</em>, http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/fire.html.
Primary
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1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1949
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Postwar America (1946-1975)
Cold War
Red Scare