Summary: Primary document set from the National Archives with analysis questions exploring the popularity of comic books and the manifestation of fear that culminated in Senate hearings in 1954. Though 80 to 100 million comic books were sold every week in the late 1940s and early 1950s, many Americans saw comics as a threat to youth and not unlike communism. Boycott campaigns, book burnings and local ordinances limiting sales grew to a national movement and Senate investigation confronting fundamental questions about official and unofficial censorship.
Overarching Questions:
- CIVICS: How well does the government balance individual rights and the common good, including the need to maintain order, safety and a healthy environment, during this time period?
- ECONOMICS: How has technology (e.g., ships, canals, railroads, newspapers, telegraphs, radio, television, the internet and social media) spread ideas and influenced public opinion, the economy and/or the government? Did the changes strengthen or weaken democratic institutions?
NJ Student Learning Standards for Social Studies
- 6.1.12.HistoryUP.13.a: Determine the extent to which suburban living and television supported conformity and stereotyping during this time period, while new music, art, and literature acted as catalysts for the counterculture movement.
- 6.1.12.HistoryCC.12.c: Analyze efforts to eliminate communism, such as McCarthyism, and their impact on individual civil liberties.
Link to Lesson: Congress Investigates: Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency Investigates Comic Books in the 1950
Links to Supplemental Materials:
- Policing the Comics - Congressional Quarterly Press
- 1955 CONFIDENTIAL FILE - "Horror Comic Books" - Estes Kefauver
- Crisis of Innocence
Compare with concern about internet and social media today?