Revealing the intense interplay between foreign policy, domestic politics, and public opinion, Lisle Rose argues that 1950 was a pivotal year for the nation. Thermonuclear terror brought "a clutching fear of mass death," even as McCarthy's zealous campaign to root out "subversives" destroyed a sense of national community forged in the Great Depression and World War II. The Korean War, with its dramatic oscillations between victory and defeat, put the finishing touches on this national mood of crisis and hysteria.

1.Liberals -- 2. The Red Menace -- 3. Conservatives -- 4. The Bomb -- 5. McCarthyism -- 6. The Guns of Summer -- 7. The Politics of Hysteria -- 8. Hubris -- 9. Disaster.