Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture

Not long ago, Communists seemed to be everywhere: among our politicians, neighbors, favorite actors--even in our drinking water. Red Scared! is a wry tour of the frosty decades of Soviet and American adversity, when anti-Communist hysteria produced fairly hysterical pop-culture items. The voluminous propaganda that the United States produced to combat the Red Menace--not only officially, but in books, films, magazines, games, and more--is explored and vibrantly reproduced here. With a colorful text that serves as a useful historical overview, daring tales from government agents, plot synopses and lurid covers of unintentionally funny pulp novels, and much more, Red Scared! brings the Cold War back home again--this time around with humor (and relief)

Michael Barson is the author of Better Dead Than Red!; Lost, Lonely and Vicious; and Born to Be Bad. He lives in New York.

Steven Heller is the art director of the New York Times Book Review. He is the author of over ninety books on graphic design, popular art, and satiric art. He lives in New York City.