The American Nightmare

Résumé du livre

"ln the early years of the 1950s the United States saw the rise of one of the most colorful, powerful and dangerous demagogues this country has ever known; a man who so successfully manipulated the fears and frustrations of millions with his lies, bullying, and charges of high treason that he was able to utterly disrupt the processes of government, to cow congressmen, senators, cabinet officers and presidents, to demoralize the armed forces, and to impose a reign of terror on many thousands of innocent private citizens. So pervasive was the influence of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy on the national scene that he gave his name to an entire era of recent American history. Yet "Tail-Gunner Joe" (as his campaign posters called him) was a paradox. For behind his blustering threats lurked a lack of confidence, a neurotic craving for love. Nor did the junior senator from Wisconsin entirely create his times; rather he was shaped by them. They were troubled times of rapid and far-reaching change; times when traditional American values were sacrificed on the altar of mass paranoia; times when our public life seemed informed by ignorance and fear. THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE recreates the tensions and high drama of those years. It brings to life the personalities and the times and seeks to understand the basic causes of an ugly era in American history, an era of national and international blundering for which we are still paying."--Dust jacket.