Sailing in the Storm. Anticommunism in the Historiography of the Unites States during the Cold War

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of anti-communism in American historiography during the Cold War. It begins with a historical reconstruction of this political attitude in American society, then analyzes the expansion and characteristics of McCarthyism and, finally, describes its impact on research, teaching and dissemination of the history. As sources, It analyzes the historical works and historians who suffered the burst of anti communism; as well as resolutions and interpretations from the own field of discipline and government agencies legitimized the need to ban and expunge the Marxist influence on the field of culture, education and historical knowledge. The article explains how persecutory practices affected the career of progressive or leftist historians and how impacted on the interpretations of processes and significant events of the past of the great American nation.