“A blot upon liberty”: McCarthyism, Dr Barsky and the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee
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DownloadDeery, Phillip (2009) “A blot upon liberty”: McCarthyism, Dr Barsky and the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. American Communist History, 8 (2). pp. 167-196. ISSN 1474-3892
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to use the assault on the JAFRC, and Barsky’s individual story within that, to illuminate the mechanisms of political repression during the early Cold War. The JAFRC was the first to be subpoenaed by HUAC, the first to challenge its legitimacy, and the first to set the pattern for Cold War inquisitions. In 1950, after three years of unsuccessful legal appeals, the Committee’s entire Executive Board was jailed. Barsky received the most severe sentence. It was the biggest single incarceration of political prisoners in America during the early Cold War. Upon release, Barsky lost his right to practise medicine. By early 1955, the JAFRC had dissolved: like Barsky’s career, it had been crippled by McCarthyism.
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| Item type | Article |
| URI | https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/15464 |
| DOI | 10.1080/14743890903335948 |
| Subjects | Historical > SEO Classification > 970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology Historical > FOR Classification > 2103 Historical Studies Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Social Sciences and Psychology Historical > RFCD Classification > 430000 History and Archaeology |
| Keywords | JAFRC, repression, cold war |
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