Lesson
Joseph McCarthy and Irresponsibility
Founding Principles
Virtues
Guiding questions
Essential Question
- How can irresponsibility create an unhealthy civic culture of fear and distrust?
Guiding Questions
- What kind of actions can lead to failing the trust of others?
- What happens when one acts irresponsibly and “lets down” another?
Learning Objectives
- Students will analyze the story of Joseph McCarthy to identify his actions as examples of irresponsibility in his leadership.
- Students will recognize the ways that they can be responsible for themselves and for their communities.
- Students will know the differences between acting responsibly and irresponsibly while describing how acting irresponsibly can fail the trust others have in you.
Materials
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
- Analysis Questions
- Virtue in Action
- Journal Activity
- Sources for Further Reading
- Virtue Across the Curriculum
Lesson Components
Lesson plan
Key Terms
- Irresponsibility
- Acting on poor judgment or failing the trust others place in you.
- Fascists
- A follower of a fascist regime, which is a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control, and being extremely proud of country and race, and in which political opposition is not allowed.
- Communism
- A political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
- Subversive
- A person who attempts to weaken or destroy a political system or government.
More Information
Procedures
- The following lesson introduces students to the civic vice of irresponsibility. Acting responsibly for oneself and others is essential to the health of one’s community. However, individuals can act with poor judgment and fail the trust of others. Students will learn that irresponsibility can damage the health of civic culture with fear and distrust.
- Students will engage with the story of Joseph McCarthy as they consider the question: How can irresponsibility create an unhealthy civic culture of fear and distrust?
- The main activity of this lesson requires students to analyze the story and actions of Joseph McCarthy. Students may work individually, in pairs, or in small groups as best fits your classroom. The analysis questions provided can be used to help students comprehend and think critically about the content. As the teacher, you can decide which questions best fit your students’ needs and time restraints.
- Lastly, the lesson includes sources used in this lesson for further reading and suggestions for cross-curricular connections.
Standards
Related materials
Use this lesson with The Postwar Red Scare Narrative to discuss the impact McCarthy and widespread fear of Communism had during the 1950s. This Lesson can also be used with the Cold War Spy Cases Narrative and the George Kennan ("Mr. X"), "Sources of Soviet Conduct," July 1947 Primary Source.
How did anti-communist behaviors characterized American public life following World War II?
Our latest Homework Help Evidence of History video tells the story of the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a fierce partisan and demagogue whose battles against Communism in early 1950s America utilized the new medium of television to garner public attention. Preying upon the public's fear of communism within the U.S. government, he hurled accusations against numerous political enemies often with little or no evidence, and with scant regard to the principles of due process, free speech, and liberty. The new medium of television, which helped his meteoric political rise, would ultimately play a key role in his undoing.