Abstract
This chapter examines how wartime and Red Scare repression expanded into a general cultural war on “Bolshevik” causes, individuals, and organizations targeted by the Anticommunist Spider Web during the 1920s. It considers a combination of federal, state, and local ordinances that effected political repression, suppressed free speech and economic liberty, and promoted Americanization in formal education settings led by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Legion. The chapter demonstrates how this climate of repression also led to the collapse of progressivism and impeded social welfare initiatives, gave rise to an amendment designed to make constitutional change virtually impossible, and resulted in the demise of the Roosevelt administration's Federal Theatre Project (FTP). It shows that the Spider Web members and their supporters created a repressive infrastructure of blacklists, witch hunts, loyalty oaths, and compulsory patriotism. In the process, the Spider Web strengthened its influence not only on the doctrine of anticommunism but also on the nation's political culture.
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