ABSTRACT
The history of American political repression is as long as the nation's history, but peak periods have centered roughly on the years surrounding the two world wars. In World War I, it involved attacks on the Socialist Party and the IWW and a postwar "red scare" that targeted moderate as well as radical labor activities. The second period began in the late 1930s, waned during World War II, and peaked during the cold war and especially during the Korean war. Before the war, only New York and Tennessee had sedition laws, though in neither case had they been used. In 1919 alone, sixteen states passed criminal syndicalist laws, and twelve passed anarchy and sedition laws. The postwar decade saw not only the triumph of the Republican Party but the virtual demise of Debs's Socialist Party. During the early months of the war, mass Socialist meetings evoked supportive public response but an increasingly hostile response from public officials and vigilantes.
