McCarthy Era Transcripts Released

On May 5, 2003, the Senate Committee on Government Affairs released all previously closed transcripts from Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's (R-WI) tenure as Chair (1953–1954) of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy's sensational inquiries into communist infiltration at all levels of government, amounting to 161 transcripts of closed hearings, 9,675 pages and five volumes, is a chillingly contemporary testament to the endangered status of civil liberties in an era of public fear and government excesses.

Perhaps more importantly, these documents record the individual strength of those accused and those who resisted. The voices of prominent witnesses such as Aaron Copeland and Langston Hughes, and those who fought the excesses of the McCarthy era like Senators Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) and Carl Levin (D-MI), speak loudly across the documents. The transcripts of the executive sessions, which were help preliminary to public hearings and were not open to the press or public, show, according to Associate Senate Historian Dr. Donald A. Ritchie, that “anybody who stood up to McCarthy in closed session, and did so articulately, tended not to get called up into the public session … McCarthy was only interested in the people he could browbeat publicly.”

The complete five-volume set is available on the Government Printing Office web site at: www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html. Printed copies of the hearings can be purchased from the GPO at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

“We the People” Initiative Funded

The president, via a videotaped message at the “We the People” Forum on American History, announced that his administration would request $100 million over the next three years to support NEH's “We the People” initiative. FY 2004 sees the first installment, $25 million, of the slotted increase of funding.

The increase must now go to Congress for approval. If approved, the increased funding will support a variety of special projects of interest to political scientists, including: a new grant program for model curriculum projects that will encourage schools to establish or improve course offerings in American history, culture, and civics; social and statewide projects on American history, culture, and civics sponsored by the 56 humanities councils; and enhanced support for American Editions and Reference Works.

Watergate Papers Housed in Texas

The University of Texas at Austin has purchased the archives of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for $5 million. The 75 file box of documents include notebooks, photographs, and documents identifying “Deep Throat.” The documents will be housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and will be made public within a year.⁰⁰