Historical background on the McCarthy era. The McCarthy era : an overview / Joseph Patterson Hyder ; President Truman orders a loyalty check / Times (London) correspondent ; The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg / Guardian ; A look into one day of the McCarthy-Army hearings / Washington Post ; McCarthy remains popular with many voters / Al L. Otten, David O. Ives, and William A. Otark -- Controversies surrounding the McCarthy era. The loyalty program will protect individuals' freedoms / Harry S. Truman ; The loyalty program does not safeguard individuals' freedoms / Chester E. Holifield ; McCarthy claims Communist Party member hold government jobs / Joseph McCarthy ; The politics of fear must end / Margaret Chase Smith ; The Rosenbergs did not get a fair trial / National Committee to reopen the Rosenberg case ; McCarthy has been unfairly condemned / Ray Wannall ; McCarthyism was not about Soviet spies / William Pfaff ; A new McCarthyism is on the rise / People for the American way ; Not all criticism is McCarthyism / Jonathan Danzig -- Personal Narratives. A scientist and his wife speak out about being falsely accused / Jerry Manheim and Sylvia Manheim, interviewed by Griffin Farfiello ; An environmentalist recalls the McCarthy period / Hazel Wolf ; A scholar remembers going one-on-one with McCarthy / William Mandel ; A teen supports Ethel and Julius Rosenberg's innocence / Dorothy M Zellner ; A writer recounts growing up with left-wing parents / Patricia Lynden.

Discusses the anti-Communist movement in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy, and examines the controversies surrounding the era and personal narrative of the time.