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Democracy

McCarthyism and American Philosophy

John Capps argues that Senator McCarthy’s anti-Communist purges helped positivism to triumph over pragmatism in American universities in the 1950’s.

The McCarthy era still casts a long shadow over American politics and culture. From 1953 to 1954 Senator Joseph McCarthy summoned hundreds of witnesses before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations with the stated intention of rooting out Communist spies in the U.S. government. Many others were called to testify before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities.

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