The Center for Fiction welcomed back Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at the New York Times, to celebrate the release of his book, Red Scare, a deep dive into the political hysteria of McCarthyism.
Beginning with the origins of the McCarthy era after World War I and continuing through its conclusion in 1957, Red Scare offers a broader view of what the country endured during a time marked by perceived threats, moral questioning, and intense distrust. Risen uses newly declassified documents to uncover an all-too-familiar pattern of conspiracy and fear-mongering, crafting a narrative that remains strikingly relevant to the divisiveness of today. Joining Risen in conversation was political commentator, journalist, and host of the podcast Fast Politics, Molly Jong-Fast.
Featured Book
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Red Scare
By Clay Risen
Published by Scribner/Simon & Schuster
The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare presents a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. The cultural phenomenon, most often referred to as McCarthyism, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, coupled with the terrifying onset of the Cold War. This defining moment in American history, unlike any that preceded it, was marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.
Beginning with the origins of the era after WWI through to its conclusion in 1957, Risen brings to life the politics, patriotism, opportunism, courage, and delirium of those years through the lives and experiences of a cast of towering historical figures, including President Eisenhower, Roy Cohn, Paul Robeson, Robert Oppenheimer, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Richard Nixon, and many more individuals known and unknown. Red Scare takes us beyond the familiar story of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists to a fuller understanding of what the country went through at a time of moral questioning and perceived threat from the left, and what we were capable of doing to each other as a result.
An urgent, accessible, and important history, Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment.
In Conversation
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Clay Risen
Clay Risen
Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at the New York Times, is the author of The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Prize in Military History. He is a member of the Society of American Historians and a fellow at the Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the author of two other acclaimed books on American history, A Nation on Fire and The Bill of the Century, as well as his most recent book on McCarthyism, Red Scare. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two young children.
Photo Credit: Kate Milford
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Molly Jong-Fast
Molly Jong-Fast
MSNBC political analyst, host of the Fast Politics podcast, and Vanity Fair Special Correspondent. Molly Jong-Fast is an American writer, journalist, author, political commentator and podcaster. Jong-Fast is the author of three books and her memoir How To Lose Your Mother will be coming out from Viking in the June of 2025. You can find her on threads/x/ instagram as mollyjongfast.
Photo Credit: Marilyn Minter
