Seeing Reds : Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District, 1917-1921

Charles Mccormick

ISBN 10: 082295821X / ISBN 13: 9780822958215

Published by University Of Pittsburgh Press Jul 2003, 2003

About this Item

Neuware - During World War I, fear that a network of German spies was operating on American soil justified the rapid growth of federal intelligence agencies. When that threat proved illusory, these agencies, staffed heavily by corporate managers and anti-union private detectives, targeted antiwar and radical labor groups, particularly the Socialist party and the Industrial Workers of the World. Seeing Reds, based largely on case files from the Bureau of Investigation, Military Intelligence Division, and Office of Naval Intelligence, describes this formative period of federal domestic spying in the Pittsburgh region. McCormick traces the activities of L. M. Wendell, a Bureau of Investigation u201cspecial employeeu201d who infiltrated the IWWu2019s Pittsburgh recruiting branch and the inner circle of anarchist agitator and lawyer Jacob Margolis. Wendell and other Pittsbugh based agents spied on radical organizations from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Camp Lee, Virginia, intervened in the steel and coal strikes of 1919, and carried out the Palmer raids aimed at mass deportation of members of the Union of Russian Workers and the New Communist Party. McCormicku2019s detailed history uses extensive research to add to our understanding of the security state, cold war ideology, labor and immigration history, and the rise of the authoritarian American Left, as well as the career paths of figures as diverse as J. Edgar Hoover and William Z. Foster.

Seller Inventory # 9780822958215

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Seeing Reds : Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District, 1917-1921
• Publisher: University Of Pittsburgh Press Jul 2003
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082295821X
• ISBN 13: 9780822958215
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 233W x 153H x 16D millimeters 233 millimeters width by 153 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 354 grams

About this title

Synopsis

During World War I, fear that a network of German spies was operating on American soil justified the rapid growth of federal intelligence agencies. When that threat proved illusory, these agencies, staffed heavily by corporate managers and anti-union private detectives, targeted antiwar and radical labor groups, particularly the Socialist party and the Industrial Workers of the World.


Seeing Reds, based largely on case files from the Bureau of Investigation, Military Intelligence Division, and Office of Naval Intelligence, describes this formative period of federal domestic spying in the Pittsburgh region. McCormick traces the activities of L. M. Wendell, a Bureau of Investigation \u201cspecial employee\u201d who infiltrated the IWW\u2019s Pittsburgh recruiting branch and the inner circle of anarchist agitator and lawyer Jacob Margolis. Wendell and other Pittsbugh based agents spied on radical organizations from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Camp Lee, Virginia, intervened in the steel and coal strikes of 1919, and carried out the Palmer raids aimed at mass deportation of members of the Union of Russian Workers and the New Communist Party.


McCormick\u2019s detailed history uses extensive research to add to our understanding of the security state, cold war ideology, labor and immigration history, and the rise of the authoritarian American Left, as well as the career paths of figures as diverse as J. Edgar Hoover and William Z. Foster.

About the Author

Charles H. McCormick is professor emeritus of history at Fairmont State College. He is the author of Leisler's Rebellion, 1689-1691, and This Nest of Vipers: McCarthyism and Higher Education in West Virginia, 1951-1952.