The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson
The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson
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The Lavender Scare
The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

Author: David K. Johnson

Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon

Unabridged: 10 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/10/2019


Synopsis

In Cold War America, Senator Joseph McCarthy enjoyed tremendous support in the fight against what he called atheistic communism. But that support stemmed less from his wild charges about communists than his more substantiated charges that "sex perverts" had infiltrated government agencies. Although now remembered as an attack on suspected disloyalty, McCarthyism introduced "moral values" into the American political arsenal. Warning of a spreading homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies learned how to win votes.

Winner of three book awards, The Lavender Scare masterfully traces the origins of contemporary sexual politics to Cold War hysteria over national security. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with former government officials, historian David Johnson chronicles how the myth that homosexuals threatened national security determined government policy for decades, ruined thousands of lives, and pushed many to suicide. As Johnson shows, this myth not only outlived McCarthy but, by the 1960s, helped launch a new civil rights struggle.

About David K. Johnson

David K. Johnson is associate professor of history at the University of South Florida. He is the author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, which was made into an award-winning documentary.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alok

We must contextualize the Trump administration’s targeting of trans people within the history of state-sanctioned scapegoating of queer people and political subterfuge. “The Lavender Scare” refers to a moral panic in the mid-20th century when gay men and lesbians were deemed a national security risk......more

David K. Johnson's The Lavender Scare looks at the hidden side of the Red Scare, specifically the efforts by the US government to purge gay and lesbian employees. That thousands of bureaucrats and officials saw their careers ruined merely for existing remains a shamefully underreported chapter in Am......more

Goodreads review by Tate

Eye-opening and, at many points, riveting. It left my blood boiling but also inspired me — especially the segments on queer survival and resistance. So much has changed, yet so much is still the same.......more