The Logic of Persecution: Free Expression and the McCarthy Era

This book demonstrates that neither the current liberal nor conservative positions on the McCarthy era provide the basis for a normative perspective. Examining the era through the lens of the theory of free expression, it becomes apparent that both sides have basically missed the key point. While recently declassified documents demonstrate widespread participation by American Communists in conducting or facilitating espionage, much of the negative treatment they received had little or nothing to do with such activity. From the perspective of the First Amendment right of free speech, there exists a significant difference between speech that advocates conduct, on the one hand, and speech that itself is part of a nonspeech criminal act, such as espionage, on the other. By helping to separate protected speech from unprotected speech-acts, First Amendment theory can do much to distinguish between the legitimate governmental responses to American Communism and those that contravened basic notions of communicative freedom protected by the Constitution. At the same time, by focusing the First Amendment inquiry on the McCarthy era, one should be able to glean insights about the broader implications of free speech protection.