h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There were actually quite few battles during the cold war. Vietnam, Afganistan and Korea come to mind.

Marines should be capitalizaed in the second paragraph. I don't think captain or senator should be.

In the third paragraph, Senator McCarthy was acting as a senator rather than a general, if indeed he was one.

What was the pledge?

In Hollywood and Blacklisting, 'blacklisting' should be capitalised.

I think it's pretty clear why the media was targetted. Actors and Hollywood elite are notoriously liberal and they have the ability to influence public opinion. You go on to show how the blacklisted authors tried to fight the system by using their influence in Hollywood.

You can list the links in a tag.

I think the h2g2 server was having problems with the traffic last week. It was having a hard time finding some links. My Space was shut down several times, and so were some of my entries. I doubt it had anything to do with what you wrote. Even though it would be sort of ironic.

I like the entry. It has a good format and layout, and McCarthyism is an important thing to discuss. I do have a few problems with it, however.

1. It concentrates on the Hollywood aspect and omits discussion of some of the other communities that were deeply affected by McCarthyism. For instance, the scientific community. Oppenheimer lost his security clearance due to the Red Scare, and quantum theorist David Bohm was on the Mc Carthy blacklist. Bohm lost his job, was indicted for contempt of congress (later cleared) and left the country.

2. No review of McCarthyism is complete without mention of the Edward R. Murrow's show "See It Now" . This had a huge effect on public perception of McCarthyism. Before that show, many americans just assumed that he was right.

3. It has to be pointed out that some of the people he identified either were communist or had been in the past. Of course, that doesn't mean they were 'unamerican.'

4. You might want to explain the meaning of the term McCarthyism, as opposed to a discussion of HUAC, a bio of McCarthy, or discussion of the red scare in general. As I understand it, McCarthyism has come to mean the ability to control simply by accusation. This is why intellectuals, jews, homosexuals, labour unions and virtually everyone else associated with the left were worried. They knew that if they spoke out, they could just be labeled communist. Under McCarthyism, to defend the accused implies that you may also be guilty. This is also a reason why McCarthy lost it when he started to attack the army. Even to a rightwing zealot at the height of the Red Scare, defending the Armed Forces wasn't seen as pro-communist.

I was confusing him with general MacArthur.

OK I've sorted out most of the problems bar the one about scientists; because that'll take a longer time than I've got right now, so I'll do it at the weekend. As for "See it now", I've never heard of it. Could you give me some hints about a good link where I can read up on it?

If anyone wants co-author credit you'll have to ask for it because I never know when to give it.

Dastardly, I've just done a search on 'Edward R. Murrow', and I strongly recommend that you do likewise. AlienTourist is quite right - the story about Murrow and McCarthy is very interesting indeed! If you're on ICQ, please contact me on 51545899 and I'll send you the URL of one particularly useful document I found.

yes, the murrow program was critical to the end of mcarthy's power.

In fact, the murrow program is well documented in the biopic of murrow's life. It is also a really great example of a sucessfull "white mutiny".

note: for those of you unfamiliar with the term, a white mutiny works by using the inherent stupidity of tinpot little tyrants against them, by obeying their instructions to the letter. as their instuctions are often illegal and/or self contradictory, they soon drop themselves in it.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'McCarthyism'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Good work Dastardly, just dropping by to say that the nice Towers people have accepted my recommendation and this entry will one day not too long in the future debut on the front page.
I suspect you know enough now about the editing process for me to not have to expand wny further.



Orcus

That's great! It would be good to get the Edward R. Murrow stuff in, though. There should still be time to make some additions over the weekend, shouldn't there?

I wouldn't worry about including discussion of the scientists. It would take a long time and for the most part, they were "collateral damage." For instance, Oppenheimer's hearing was actually conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, and although sources are sketchy on this, I believe that Bohm was blacklisted because he refused to testify against his artist/writer friends, not scientists. I've been unable to find detailed information on other scientists who were affected, such as Philip Morrisson and Bernard Peters. Linus Pauling had his passport revoked because of his refusal to cooperate with HUAC, but I don't know if McCarthy was directly involved.

I think you did a good job with the changes.

Yay, all round I should think. Or if you prefer.
I haven't got ICQ so I can't contact you thus, but I'll do a search later. Tonight if possible but if not then tomorrow.

That was supposed to be .

Congrats, Dastardly!

I look forward to seeing this on the front page soon!

Something worth mentioning is how Atheism was also seen as being connected with communism. Aparently, the words 'Under God' were added to the Pledge in 1954, and on the money (paper money anyway) the words 'In god we trust', in 1957.

I don't know the details about this, but searching for 'In God we trust' gives you quite a bit of information on the subject of the money.

Overall, though, I think you have covered the subject well. I am glad that this has been recommended.

I'm glad it's been Recommended too.

Dastardly, if you want to contact me, please do so on [email protected]

The words were on coins since 1864 or so, thanks to the efforts of Salmon P. Chase, who also graces the face of the $10000 bill I think. You're correct about the paper money dates though, and it's true that the phrase "Godless communism" was bandied around a lot in those days.

Murrow's in

Well done, Dastardly! That long quote from Murrow is just brilliant!

There are a few typos in the new section. The most important comes shortly before the quote, where you have this sentence: "...during which he the 'leader of the jackal pack'." There's obviously a word or two missing there. Should it be something like "...during which he called Murrow 'the leader of the jackal pack'"?

The other typos that I've spotted are (in order of appearance) 'hiw' for 'his', 'fedthuring' for 'featuring', 'Murrows' for 'Murrow's' and 'enought' for 'enough'. But those mistakes aside, the Murrow material works very well.

I wonder who gave me the long quote...

Hmm. Disgraceful amount of typos for one paragraph, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Thanks for pointing them out

One possible problem: I've just noticed that an Edited version of the Entry has already been prepared, on http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A637841 .
However, if you leave a message for Sam (the sub-editor concerned) hopefully the updates can be added.

Sam has overlooked my writing credit, too! This happened with another Entry I co-wrote, and can be changed back if you mention it to the Eds.

I asked Sam here http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F31065?thread=143981 a week ago, and I've just this minute asked Cafram, who's now editing it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F15987?thread=145692&post=1384272#p1384272 Hopefully it should be sorted out soon.