Ted Morgan

Author Event: Ted Morgan
Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth Century America
February 11, 2004

Pulitzer prize-winning author, Ted Morgan spoke about his book, Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth Century America, at the Eisenhower Institute on February 11, 2004.  Using Senator Joseph McCarthy's previously unavailable private papers and recently released transcripts of closed hearings, Morgan provided new insights into the senator's methods and motives.

BookTV, a program which regularly airs on C-SPAN2, covered Morgan's address. This was the first author event to be nationally broadcasted in the Institute's history.  

Morgan's book also provides an analysis of the rise of the communist movement in America, from its roots after World War I to McCarthyism and the 1950s and 1960s. Morgan noted that much of his book addresses the era prior to McCarthy but, in his talk, focused on the response to the threat of left-wing extremism in the context of the Eisenhower administration and the 1950s.

Morgan also addressed how McCarthy polarized the Republican Party into two separate camps, the Eisenhower and pro-McCarthy groups. In the end, the Eisenhower camp prevailed, able to get its message across to the American people by relying not upon the fear and baseless accusations McCarthy was known for, but rather by being honest and open with the American public.

Morgan is the author of FDR; Churchill (a finalist for the Pulitzer); Somerset Maugham (a finalist for the National Book Award); and two epic narratives of America.