In Cold War America, Senator Joseph McCarthy enjoyed tremendous support in the fight what he called atheistic communism. But that support stemmed much less from his crazy fees about communists than his even more substantiated costs that ‘sex perverts’ acquired infiltrated government agencies. Although now remembered as an strike on suspected disloyalty, McCarthyism presented ‘moral values’ into the American politics arsenal. Warning of the distributing homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies learned how to earn votes.

Winner of three book awards, The Lavender Scare masterfully traces the roots of modern sexual politics to Chilly War hysteria over country wide security. Drawing on newly declassified files and interviews with former federal government officials, historian David Johnson chronicles the way the myth that homosexuals threatened nationwide security determined federal government policy for many years, ruined thousands of lives, and forced many to suicide. As Johnson shows, this myth not only outlived McCarthy but, by the 1960s, helped start a new civil rights struggle.