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“High culture as well as low absorbed the impact of the anticommunist crusade, but the response of the nation’s artists and intellectuals was more complicated and ambiguous. This was not because McCarthyism exerted less pressure or encountered more resistance. The men and women who ran America’s symphony orchestras and universities were just as ready to dismiss and blacklist political undesirables as any movie mogul or advertising executive. And most artists and intellectuals were equally ready to conform their work to the political climate of the era.” — Ellen Schrecker
High culture as well as low absorbed the impact of the anticommunist crusade, but the response of the nation’s artists and intellectuals was more complicated and ambiguous. This was not because McCarthyism exerted less pressure or encountered more resistance. The men and women who ran America’s symphony orchestras and universities were just as ready to dismiss and blacklist political undesirables as any movie mogul or advertising executive. And most artists and intellectuals were equally ready to conform their work to the political climate of the era.