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Essay / 1950s Censorship and Its Impacts in America
We hear about censorship of free speech all the time in other countries, but has it ever happened in the United States of America? Few people know that restrictions on free speech and self-expression actually occurred in America, primarily in the 1950s. During this tumultuous period, new fears of threatening outside influences, primarily from political nature, had taken hold, and so the government attempted to protect the American public from these “radical” ideas by resorting to censorship or limiting circulation. information or ideas. Working feverishly to control what they deemed inappropriate, they launched multiple programs to combat these influences. Unfortunately, the government's reasonably good intentions became distorted and changed over time, and ultimately prevented the spread of culture and knowledge in America. This in turn had a lasting impact on the United States, both immediate and long-term. Essentially, the 1950s were a time of fear, despair, and even disorder in the United States of America, as the desire to protect America led to a biased witch hunt, most notably exemplified by the creation of the Committee un-American activities of the House, censorship of literature and censorship of music. The first, and perhaps most striking, example of censorship in 1950s America was the House Un-American Activities Committee. Basically, it was a massive effort to censor communist activities stemming from the Red Scare in America. After World War II, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin struck fear into the hearts of Americans by claiming that 205 communists had infiltrated the United States government (Simkin). While he accused many people of being communists, fear and hysteria reigned over America....... middle of paper ......J:www.courses.unt.edu/ efiga/HistoryAndEthnography/SeddelmeyerPaper.doc+comic+book+censorship+1950s&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari>.Nuzum, Eric. “Censorship Incidents in the 1950s.” Parental Advisory: Music censorship in America. Parental advisory, 2003. Web. November 9, 2009. Ockerbloom, John Mark, ed. “Books banned online”. Books banned online. The online books page, January 1, 2009. Web. November 13, 2009. .Simkin, John. “McCarthyism”. Spartacus International. Spartacus International, 2003. The web. November 13, 2009. “Un-American Activities, House Committee.” Grolier multimedia encyclopedia. Online passport Grolier, 2009. Web. November 8. 2009. .