In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday Book

I really enjoyed Arthur Sabin's other book, "Red Scare in Court." This one, which is about how the Supreme Court handled Smith Act prosecutions, is also good though it lacks a certain amount of focus.

Sabin's conclusion about the search for domestic subversion fit with my own: That while the Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs were almost certainly guilty, that doesn't excuse all the other persecutions of the time:

"These espionage prosecutions [like the Rosenbergs'] were not Smith Act cases, nor did they otherwise involve First Amendment issues. In the media and apparently in the minds of Americans, this was too fine a distinction. It was all one: spying for Russia, belonging to the Communist Party, belonging to or supporting civil rights groups, contributing to liberal causes, reading left-wing or liberal papers, associating with nonconformists, refusing as a matter of conscience to sign a loyalty oath, refusing to name names - all were lumped together as subversive, un-American, and thus a danger to the nation."