Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America

Jay Feldman

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Aug 23, 2011 - History - 432 pages

A vital, engaging, and sometimes troubling story of modern America’s struggle to live up to its ideals.
 
In this ambitious and wide-ranging history, Jay Feldman takes us from the run-up to World War I and its anti-German hysteria through the September 11 attacks and Arizona’s current anti-immigration movement. What we see is a striking pattern of elected officials and private citizens alike using the American people’s fears and prejudices to isolate minorities (ethnic, racial, political, religious, or sexual), silence dissent, and stem the growth of civil rights and liberties.
 
Whether it’s the post–World War I persecution of radicals; the Depression-era deportations of Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans; the World War II internment of 112,000 ethnic Japanese along with thousands of German and Italian aliens; the Cold War campaigns against Communists, gays, and civil-rights activists; or the Vietnam-era COINTELPRO operations, we see how economic, military, and political crises have been used to curtail the rights of supposedly subversive minorities.
 
Much of the story can be laid at the feet of J. Edgar Hoover, but Feldman goes deeper to show how these tendencies have been part of a continuous vein that runs through American life. Rather than treating this history as a series of discrete moments, Feldman considers the entire programmatic sweep on a scale no one has yet approached. In doing so, he gives us a potent reminder of how, even in America, democracy and civil liberties are never guaranteed.

Contents

• The Fine Gold of Untainted Americanism: 3
• A Democracy Gone Mad: 17
• The Heel of the Government: 34
• A Peculiar Sort of Mental Hysteria: 50
• The Gravest Menace to the Country: 66
• A Skimming of the Great American MeltingPot: 85
• A Lawless Government: 106
• Grave Abuses and Unnecessary Hardships: 129
• The Utmost Degree of Secrecy: 147
• A Jap Is a Jap: 164
• Scare Hell Out of the Country: 186
• A Neurotic Nightmare: 208
• There Were Many Wrecked Lives: 236
• There Are No Rules: 253
• We Never Gave It a Thought: 275
• An Aggressive Assault on Civil Liberties: 299
• Notes: 311
• Bibliography: 339
• Acknowledgments: 355
• Index: 357

About the author

Jay Feldman is also the author of the critically acclaimed When the Mississippi Ran Backwards. He is a widely published freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Smithsonian, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Gourmet, The New York Times, and many other national, regional, and local publications. He has written for television and the stage, and is the author of the novel Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream. His Web site is www.jfeldman.com.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America
• Author: Jay Feldman
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011
• ISBN: 0307379868, 9780307379863
• Length: 432 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / Civil Rights; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism