A nostalgic look at the golden years of Russiaphobia, red-baiting, and other Commie madness. Both amusing and a sobering reminder of the way we were, this book showcases America reveling in the golden age of Russiaphobia, an age in which our patriotic passions -- and naivet} -- were never stronger. But a unique kind of national fear also ran high -- in ways that now seem nearly unbelievable, but which forever altered attitudes and lives. An enlightening, startling, and often hilarious selection of the day's magazines, editorials, films, ads, paperback novels, comic books, TV shows, and even bubble gum cards, exemplifying America's xenophobia at its greatest excess.

"Red Scared! offers valuable lessons from the vault on how to identify Communists, media reports on the jolly side of Stalin, guidelines for bomb shelter chic, and much more. As they did in their other lively pop-culture histories, Teenage Confidential and Wedding Bell Blues, Michael Barson and Steven Heller once again bring the nearly forgotten details of American culture into full relief with Red Scared!"--BOOK JACKET.

Title and statement of responsibility from cover.

A New York Times Editors' Choice "[T]he stuff of great literature." —The New York Times | "Red or Dead is a winner." —The Washington Post The place where the swinging sixties started – Liverpool, England, birthplace of the Beatles – wasn’t so swinging. Amid industrial blight and a bad economy, the port town’s shipping industry was going bust and there was widespread unemployment, with no assistance from a government tightening its belt. Even the Beatles moved to London. Into these hard times walked Bill Shankly, a former Scottish coal miner who took over the city’s perpetually last-place soccer team. He had a straightforward work ethic and a favorite song – a silly pop song done by a local band, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Soon he would have entire stadiums singing along, tens of thousands of people all dressed in the team color red . . . as Liverpool began to win . . . And soon, too, there was something else those thousands of people would chant as one: Shank-lee, Shank-lee . . . In Red or Dead, the acclaimed writer David Peace tells the stirring story of the real-life working-class hero who lifted the spirits of an entire city in turbulent times. But Red or Dead is more than a fictional biography of a real man, and more than a thrilling novel about sports. It is an epic novel that transcends those categories, until there’s nothing left to call it but – as many of the world’s leading newspapers already have – a masterpiece.

Taking a new look at two controversial topics, American anti-Communism and the Cold War, this book reveals the little known history of anti-Communism in the US from the point of view of ethnic refugee/émigré groups, and also offers insight into the lives of minority groups that have hitherto not received scholarly attention.

Bill Hughes recounts the quirky, humorous stories of his life in I'd Rather be Dead Than Red on the Head. From the intimidating rides on the Greyhound bus to visit his college-age daughter, to nearly capsizing in a canoe with his less than capable canoe mates, Hughes shows us that it is during the difficult and memorable times of our lives that we must remember that God is the one in control, no matter how hard we try to claim it ourselves.