FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2000
CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119
EXPERT ON SEN. JOSEPH McCARTHY TO SPEAK AT DRAKE
Rutgers University professor David M. Oshinsky will give a speech titled "The McCarthy Years Revisited" on Thursday, April 20, at Drake University as part of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program. The speech, which is free and open to the public, will start at 7:30 p.m. in room 312-13 of Olmsted Center, 29th Street and University Avenue.
Oshinsky, the Board of Governors professor of history at Rutgers, specializes in modern American history, with an emphasis on the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the American South.
The year 2000 marks the 50th anniversary of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's explosive Wheeling speech that dramatically accelerated the domestic Cold War. In that speech, McCarthy said, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 Communists...who are working [in] the State Department."
Oshinsky's speech will focus on Sen. Joseph McCarthy's life as well as his impact on American politics and society in the 1950s. He also will analyze the senator's charges of communist subversion in light of recent disclosures from Russian and American archives pertaining to Soviet penetration of the U.S. government.
Oshinsky has taught history for the past 26 years at Rutgers, where he is chairman of the history department. His books include "Senator Joseph McCarthy and the American Labor Movement" and "A Conspiracy So Immense: the World of Joe McCarthy." He is editor of the Oxford Companion to American History and associate editor of American National Biography.
For more information about Oshinsky's speech at Drake, call (515) 271-3734.