Materials

• Internet access
• Cartoon analysis worksheet (See step 2 below.)

Instructional Activities

1. Explain that when the Soviets tested their atomic bomb in 1949, Americans became gravely concerned about nuclear war and Soviet aggression. Many Americans began to fear communist infiltration of the U.S. government. Senator Joseph McCarthy started an effort to hunt down American communists within the government and the entertainment industry. Anti-communist hysteria, known as McCarthyism, was fueled by books and movies, and it swept across the United States. Many U.S. citizens were unjustly labeled communists and blacklisted, and their careers were destroyed.
   
   
2. Have students work in small groups to examine a set of political cartoons. A cartoon analysis worksheet designed by the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration and found at <http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/cartoon_analysis_worksheet.pdf> may be helpful to students as they evaluate the cartoons. A set of political cartoons that addresses these subjects can be found at Herblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium at <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/intro-jhb.html>. The cartoons in the group “Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock” deal with the threat of atomic warfare after WWII. The cartoons in the group “Fire!” address anti-communist hysteria in post-WWII America.