Reading Blog

In the early 20th century, Americans were very much against the ideas of communism, as it was seen to be against the American philosophy. In fact, according to Jacoby in the beginning of the fourth chapter, "...the Soviet Union, became a superpower and America's chief international rival" (82). Over the years, however, it appeared that many more Americans were taking to the ideas of communism, and after a time, no one really knew who was a communist and who was not. During this time in American history, the Great Depression had taken place, and many people were looking for changes to make life better. In looking for changes, some people became communists, hoping that they would find the changes they were looking for. When it comes to the words "liberalism" and "intellectualism", it appears that if a person is a liberal, they are also an intellectual. On the bottom of page 91 in her book, Jacoby seems to imply that any person who gave up on liberalism were clearly not intellectuals because it could not be possible.