Revolutions of 1917–1923 Codexery

First Red Scare

A period of intense anti-radical fear in early 20th-century America.

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It was fueled by a series of labor strikes, race riots, and anarchist bombings in 1919.[1][2][3]

Key facts and history

In 1917 and 1918, Congress passed the Espionage Act, Sedition Act, and Immigration Act to counter leftist actions.[4] On January 21, 1919, 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle went on strike for wage increases.[1] The Seattle strike grew into a general strike of 60,000 workers that paralyzed the city.[1] Mayor Ole Hanson claimed credit for ending the five-day strike and later lectured on "domestic bolshevism."[5]

In late April 1919, approximately 36 booby trap bombs were mailed to prominent politicians and businessmen.[2] In June 1919, eight larger bombs exploded simultaneously in several U.S. cities, killing a night watchman and one bomber.[6][7] The Overman Committee investigated Bolshevik propaganda from February to March 1919.[8]

What the research sources say

The Open Library record for ISBN 9780300191721 lists "The Great Rent Wars New York 19171929" as a 495-page book published by Yale University Press in 2013.[9] The Open Library record for ISBN 9780231114028 lists "Urban castles" as a 262-page book published by Columbia University Press in 1999.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray, 58–60; Brecher, 121; Hagedorn, 87; Brecher, 122–124 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Send Death Bombs to 36 U.S. Leaders" Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1919; The Galleanists were radical anarchists and devotees of Luigi Galleani who advocated direct action, i.e. bombing and assassination, against capitalists and repr; Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press (1991), pp. 147: The inclusion of R. W. Finch, a low-ranking BOI agent wh (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "For Action on Race Riot Peril", The New York Times, October 5, 1919 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laws of the United States, Espionage Act of 1917 (Act of June 15, 1917), ch. 30, title I, §3, 40 Stat. 219, amended by Act of May 16, 1918, ch. 75, 40 Stat. 553; Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), pp. 184–5, 218–22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray, 65–66; Hagedorn, 180; Foner, 77n; Noggle, 102–03; Ole Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism (Garden City, New York, 1920), Americanism versus Bolshevism, accessed April 11, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Plotter Here Hid Trail Skillfully; His Victim Was a Night Watchman", The New York Times, June 4, 1919; "Wreck Judge Nott's Home", The New York Times, June 3, 1919; "20 Pounds of Dynamite In Bomb Used in New York", The Washington Post, June 4, 1919 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Plotter Here Hid Trail Skillfully; His Victim Was a Night Watchman", The New York Times, June 4, 1919; "Wreck Judge Nott's Home", The New York Times, June 3, 1919; "Boehner Was Martyr to Duty, Family of Watchman Believes", New York Tribune, June 4, 1919, p. 4; Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (AK Press, 2005) , , p. 496; Avrich, p. 153 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "First Red Scare" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Senate Orders Reds Here Investigated", The New York Times, February 5, 1919; Gómez Fernández, ""Bolshevists are on the rise!". Political cartoon and cinema as ideological means to spread the first red scare.", Anuario Electrónico de Estudios en Comunicación Social "Disertaciones", 18(2, July 2025 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Open Library record, ISBN 9780300191721 ("The Great Rent Wars New York 19171929"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  10. Open Library record, ISBN 9780231114028 ("Urban castles"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article First Red Scare (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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