Humanities in America in the 1940s and 50s

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Humanities include all those study disciplines that involve the human race but at the same time void of science or scientific origin. Most branches in literature, theology or philosophy studies lie under humanities. Theology and musical and visual arts are also studied in humanities. English among other languages form a strong basis in humanities as a medium of communication. The liberal studies as well as general human artistic works are all encompassed in humanities.

This paper is a reflection on how humanity personalities like Jackson Pollock, the poets and beats of Kerouac and Ginsburg among others responded to the Red Scare which was associated with McCarthyism during the nineteen forties and fifties. This period was characterized by strong campaigns against communism which was emerging to be a serious threat in America.

The United States of America passed an Act governing the registration of aliens on June 29th nineteen forty. This act illegalized any single individual in the United States to push for, encourage or tutor people on the need to topple a government. Equally stated in the legislation was that all foreign residents in the United States above fourteen years were supposed to file detailed documentation of their individual and work status and a written statement of their political ideologies. In a record time of less than five months, a whooping figure of four million, seven hundred and forty one thousand and nine hundred and seventy one non residents had been put on official register (Fried 165).

The purpose of this registration was to demean the Communist Party in America as well as other small political groupings in the United States.

McCarthyism referred to politically driven initiative aimed at accusing people of being traitors or subverting the government without clear proof procedures. This term was categorically associated with the political activities in the United States ranging from nineteen forties to nineteen fifties. It was referred to as the Second Red Scare and was full of fears on how far the Communist Party would affect the American institutions. This terminology is now used frequently to infer reckless behavior, charges which cannot be proved, and also demagogic insults on personalities (Fried 168).

After the Second World War, many Americans were charged of either being communists or abetting communism. Several interrogations were carried out to establish the real culprits. Both the state government and private sector participated. Top in the list of suspects were the entertainment groups, government workers, teachers from different levels and human rights as well as trade union activists (Shrecker 119). There was a lot of credence given to mere guess on who were the real communist sympathizers. Much of the so called evidence was exaggerated and as a result there were massive job losses coupled with career damage and long jail terms.

Senator McCarthy speeches and trial was a water shade in the field of American humanity. All levels were affected by his ideologies which gave rise to a lot of public debate in the United States. His profile rose steadily when he gave a moving speech on nineteenth February nineteen fifty. This was Lincolns Day. There were no audio records to his speech. Therefore, it remained debatable for a long period of time. It is said that he submitted a list which contained the names of communists deployed by the state department. It is believed he said that the state department was infested by communists working for it. He claimed to have a two hundred and five member list all from the Communist Party and who were equally workers and formulating policies on behalf of the state department (Shrecker 156). These were taken to be the real sympathizers of communism and not the innocent employees from the government who were earlier arrested, tried, and sentenced to prison. However, some controversy and dispute ensued later whether McCarthy stated the actual number of people who were on the paper. There were doubts if he quoted two hundred and five or fifty seven. He was referring to the letter written in nineteen forty six by James Byrne. According to Byrne, the State Department Security resolved against permanent employment for two hundred and eighty four. Out of this, seventy nine had been sacked leaving two hundred and five officially on their jobs. During McCarthys speech, about sixty employees who were earlier noted in Byrnes letter were the ones working with the State Department and they were to be screened further for the purpose of security (Belfrage 84). Similarly, at this time when McCarthy delivered his speech, communism was an emerging scare in the United States. The communism threat was aggravated by several factors such as the activities of the Soviet Union, the decline of China, the invention and advancement of atomic bomb courtesy of the Soviet Union. These events coupled with a hearty nature of McCarthy accusation towards the State Department brought closer a massive media interest towards his coverage. He was personally amazed by the extreme press coverage of his speech (Bayley 42). He was condemned of changing his charges as well as the actual number he stated earlier. His speech which went for five hours saw him present those who were loyal to the State Department. McCarthy speech had a very big impact on communism activities and to the government. He continually accused the State Department of harboring Communism at the expense of innocent victims. His protest was that the government had failed to control communism right inside its operations. These comments earned him a lot of public fame and support. He became popular and commanded a higher rating. Herbert Block gave signature to his work entitled Herblock and came up with the terminology McCarthyism in a cartoon piece of work which he drew on twenty ninth March nineteen fifty (Bayley 49). This marked a great revolution in the American field of humanities and on the art of drawing. Again, artists became more creative as events such as the McCarthy speech rolled by. Due to intense public nod, McCarthy went ahead and wrote a book called McCarthyism: The Fight for America. This was yet another development in humanities because his writings gave more scholars the right spirit and motivation to write more scholarly works. These activities by McCarthy led to different responses from different artists like Jackson Pollock.

There were two Red Scares that were encountered in the History of America namely the First and the Second Red Scares. Before the First World War, the First Red Scare had been experienced. However, the Second Scare occurred towards the end of 1940s and went along towards the end of 1950s. This was the one referred to as McCarthyism or the Cold War Red scare. The labor Unions started becoming more famous especially after end o f the First World War. This was also the period characterized by Russian Bolshevik Revolution. The main achievement of these unions was seen in the way they were changing the conventional working relationships between the poor and the rich. However, this was during the First Red Scare. After the conclusion of the Second World War in mid 1945, the Second Scare began in earnest. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had full control of some parts of Europe especially towards to the east. China was also under the rule of communism. Fear began to grip Americans over the possibility of Communism spreading to America. It is at this time that Wisconsin Senator by the name Joe McCarthy utilized a congress committee on Un-American Activities to launch complains about the infiltration of communism into the State Department and other senior government offices. McCarthys action was widely seen as a plan to gain public sympathy and support and also political mileage. As a result, there was serious search for communists throughout America. The arts industry suffered a lot as a result of this government action. The suspect list consisted mainly of writers, actors and other artists just to mention a few. For instance, Arthur Mille was arrested and later persecuted (Schweikart, et al 422)

Paul Jackson Pollock was a very popular American born painter and also a key personality in abstract expressionist movement. He gathered significant fame while he was still alive and was perceived as an able artist (Karmel & Varnedoe 68). His character was regarded as volatile as he fought with alcoholism for the better part of his lifetime. The era of McCarthyism which was associated with persecution and random condemnation from government ruined his career as he sank deep into alcohol. His wife, Lee Krasner whom he married in nineteen forty five precipitated his career to admirable level. Her influence was positive. This made Jackson Pollock leave a legacy remembered long after his death at the age of forty four. For example, the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City had a splendid display of his work. The popular approval which Senator Joe McCarthy got despite persistent opposition from the State Department made Pollock to rise in his career as a painter amid alcoholism. Many other in the film industry lost their lives as a result of McCarthysm. Murrow Edward who was a journalist by profession by CBS did not support McCarthyism at all. He aired quite a number of episodes which criticized the government of sacking an air force official who was suspected to be an associate of communists. McCarthy was accused o f being dishonest, untrustworthy and ill-mannered American citizen. This newscast acted negatively towards decline of McCarthyism. Murrow Edward gained much fame as a result of this. Towards the end of 1950s, McCarthyism had gone down dramatically giving more credit to the media efforts against his claims which had brought so much suffering to innocent Americans. John Henry Faulk who was key activist in American Federation of Television and Radio Artists gave a harsh blow to the McCarthyism blacklist. Finally when Richard Rovere of the Supreme Court wrote about McCarthy, the public perception and moreover a major boost to other artists.

The period between nineteen forty seven and nineteen fifty saw the best of Pollocks paintings. His status rose sharply on eighth August nineteen forty nine when an article in the Life magazine inferred him as the most capable living painter in the United States. The article depicted him as an extremely successful painter of his time. This added more fame to his career and several people desired his works. His collections had great demand especially when he turned more commercial in his paintings. An array of legacy can still be seen today resulting from Pollock works. For example, the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is under the administration and custody of Stony Brook Foundation. It does not operate on profit. It is a tourist attraction running from May to October every year. Another legacy associated with Pollock is the Pollock-Krasner Foundation launched in nineteen eighty five. This foundation served as the formal estate for Krasner and his husband. It was also meant to assist upcoming artists who were excellent in their work yet they lacked financial support. As a result, an Artists Rights Society was established to boost the talent of both visual and performing artists. This improved the status of humanities in America whereby many people started to admire art work more than they used before. The American Art archives received his papers courtesy of his wife Lee Krasner. During the same year in nineteen eighty three, Lees papers were also donated to the archive. Some of the papers included photography work, letters, and miscellaneous files. These donations were very significant in American humanities because they later became important reference materials to scholars. Pollocks paintings continued to gain popularity with time. For example in nineteen sixty, the music artist Ornette Coleman produced a song album entitled Free Jazz which prominently highlighted Pollocks painting as its theme image. Surprisingly, even the entertainment industry was already getting the tight grip of his masterpiece paintings. He was being celebrated from far and wide owing to his outstanding ability. This aspect reshaped the previous attitude that study of humanities was just a waste of time. In fact, more artists got attracted as a result of this revolution. The Australian National gallery also bought one of his collections called Blue Poles for a whooping sum of two million US dollars. That was the dearest price ever at that time in exchange for a contemporary painting. The ultra conservative nature of that time could not allow such to happen. Therefore, this was viewed as a scandal from the political point of view. This painting is currently one of the famous displays in the Australian National Gallery and is cherished in all the major world museums and exhibitions.

Still on the music arena, a Jazz CD by the title Jackson Pollock Jazz stormed the entertainment industry in nineteen ninety nine. It had a total of seventy tracks all under his inspiration. However, the CD was banned forthwith. The film industry also had its own share of Pollocks influence. The year two thousand saw the release of a film by the title Pollock. It won because o f the positive image it created of Lee Krasner. Three years later, his paintings had traversed a long distance and were traced in a Wainscot New York Locker although there is still a raging debate if these works really belonged to Pollock. It has not been easy to establish the true origin of these paintings.

Pollocks work number five of nineteen forty eight became the dearest painting in the world in the year two thousand and six. It is believed that this painting was later sold to an unknown person for a very high price of one hundred and forty million dollars. David Geffen owned this painting earlier. He is a musician. The anxiety and interests that Pollocks paintings created in artists mind was unbelievable. His popular masterworks revolutionized humanities during and even after his death. This was a remarkable change bearing in mind that humanities were not taken seriously right from the beginning. People used to cherish science oriented subjects of which careers such as medicine, dentistry, and surgery were pursued.

The Beat generation referred to a time period during the nineteen fifties when some American authors became popular as a result of their writing activities on cultural matters and generally on humanity field of study. The beat generation was characterized by new point of views deviating from conventional ways of life. This generation was also best known as the unsatisfied, the unhappy lot. Soon after McCarthysm era, most artists were left in a very bad state o f the mind with a feeling of rejection especially from the government side. They had been wrongly arrested, prosecuted and even persecuted of condoning communism. Allen Ginsburg was a classic example. H e lamented more to do with government segregation on some groups. These created a deeper feeling and urge to do things differently or have a unique perspective to life. The sense of the Beat Generation was to deviate from this norm and conformity which had put the entertainment industry into jeopardy.

There was resentment to traditional norms as well as exploring and putting drugs to taste. Also associated with this time was the desire to experiment on optional sexual life and liking towards Eastern religion (De Bary &Tu 79). The main architects to the writings of the beat were Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. For example, Ginsberg written work of nineteen fifty six entitled Howl and Naked Lunch written by Burroughs were all about offensive or dirty attempts to transform peoples thinking. Kerouac authored On the Road which completely changed Neal Cassady into a young adult. These authors had to be all creative to their new born ideas. Their ideologies were shared by many who accepted not to conform to the old cultural ways but rather transform into new think tanks. The beat writers shared the same mind as the patrons of San Francisco Renaissance. They shared a lot in terms of the new era and new thinking. This culture grew very fast during the nineteen sixties. It transformed both in terms of its naming and level of operation. The individual lives of these artists were also affected in a variety of ways. Jackson Pollock, the painter went into alcoholism, an attitude he might have developed as a result o f the Second Red Scare.

After the Second World War, the dominating cultural norm was passionately eager to visualize a promising order in place just to bring everything back to its original state. However, hidden intellectual power was controlling so much by this time. Intellectuals wanted everything to move at its own pace and time without any form of affirmative action. They felt that a more disorderly characteristic would work. The beats were a proof of these hidden forces pushing for change. Self realization was being pursued by other artists especially in the Jazz music. The message of free life and free style was rife. Artists like Charlie Parker greatly affected the beat culture (Russell 273).

There was a very close comparison between Jackson Pollock and Kerouac opinion points. The Abstract Expressionism members shared a common stand with the Beat Generation members. For instance, they both belonged to such groups like the New York School of Poetry. Another notorious known group was The Black Mountain School. There are those artists who had negated restrain measures and decided to equally act like those in the Beat Generation. At this point in history, the conformist attitude was fast eroding away. It was not easy to bring these different groups under one control because their influence to the young generation was notably prominent. Confessional poetry which was founded by Lowell Robert was full of emotions as he deviated from the conventional norms. Together with the beat generation, they generated controversy which remained a big bother to those championing the old values.

Use of drugs was also a common phenomenon with the beat generation. Alcohol was in common use even before the onset of the Beat. Americans in general were used to alcohol consumption and therefore it did not trigger a lot of controversy. However, the issue in question was the unwarranted consumption of marijuana, morphine, and Benzedrine. Most of the members began to use more complicated drugs as time progressed. They were doing so not because they knew the possible impacts of those, but rather experimenting on it. To some of them, they had their own intellectual theories as to why they were using them while others wanted to pursue personal urge to intoxicate the mind and feel abnormal (Russell 288). The drugs could be taken in different forms like inhalers or through drinking. Drug use grew very fast and it became like the norm of the day. Those who argued in favor of these drugs claimed that they could promote productivity, improve eyesight or their creativity. They also believed that these drugs were the key drivers to daily processes in their lives.

Apart from drug use, the beat generation worked together in many ways. For instance, Ginsberg promoted several literary works from the Beat Generation group. He thought that it was his responsibility to boost the works of others of whom he shared same ideas with. For instance, he played a leading role in publishing Burroughs book by the title Junkie. In fact, Ginsberg is the one who motivated Burroughs to engage in writing. He even worked up to the final draft of Naked Lunch. Later on, both Ginsberg and Burroughs worked together to produce the book The Yale Letters while Kerouac and Burroughs worked on the fiction story And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. This element of co-operation led to a host of literary works (all in humanities) being produced. Their writings were also widely read by the general public.

A very notable aspect in their collaboration was that they frequently provided headings for each others piece of work. This meant that they worked very closely to the benefit of all of them. They did not just provide titles for each other; they also supplied content whenever it was necessary. For instance, the members contributed much towards poems written by Ginsberg. He, on the other hand, dedicated his popular poetic work, Howl to Solomon Carl. Both Cassady and Solomon are cited in the poem. The poem Pull My Daisy was co-authored by Cassady, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. Also a part of this poem.

The bebop artists played a significant role in transforming Jazz from a dance pop music to a less dance. They completely separated themselves from soft dance and engaging more in what could be referred to as simple art. The commercial value of Jazz music was also lost because bebop was best listened to rather than danced. Other changes were also introduced in Jazz that counteracted the earlier version. A good example was the drumming pattern which became more erratic. These differences led to mixed responses from the original Jazz lovers. However, by the nineteen fifties, there was general acceptance to bebop from the conservative side. Its influence had infiltrated so deep into the society that it became part and parcel of it. Bebop musicians such as Charlie Parker took the centre stage in this jazz transformation. To a larger extent, other types of musical instruments were used alongside drum beats. Examples of musical instruments used were pianos, trumpets, and saxophones. The new jazz vocabulary was also widely used as compared to the conservative nature of the mainstream jazz. There was general low speed and calmness in the new form of jazz music. This was later referred to as cool jazz because of its smooth nature. Towards the end of nineteen forties and the beginning of nineteen fifties, bebop had already found its roots as far as New York. As it can be seen, the transformation of jazz music into bebop was first met with friction. As time went by and with continuous influence it impacted to the American society, it was finally adopted as one of the genres in music. Humanities also had a new face lift with this new form of music crafted from original jazz. The change in musical terms used in bebop was also a water shade in the entertainment industry.

This reflection on how humanities changed in America with the rise of Joe McCarthy gives a real picture why the other artists reacted in a more volatile manner. Jackson Pollock and the beat generation artists were a vivid example of the devastating effects of government failure how any given society is not static but rather dynamic. Also, some artists gained public support and their activities hastened the decline of McCarthyism. Communism was a big threat in United States of America during the times of McCarthy. According to his claims, communists had been deployed by the State Department and the same government had failed to control it within its own ranks. His speeches had great influence to the American society, which eventually affected humanities in general. Poets like Ginsberg and Kerouac during the beat generation emerged with new way of thinking and doing things as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction towards McCarthy claims which led to suffering of innocent humanity victims. The rampant use and abuse of drugs was also witnessed as a response to McCarthyism. The Jazz music transformed into fewer dances and was referred to as bebop. This change from mainstream jazz was met with denial from the ultra conservatives. As time went by, bebop became part of music genre accepted for entertainment. However, it was more of music tracks to be listened to with no dance. In the overall, humanities faced a gradual but permanent change from the nineteen forties to fifties. Peoples perception also shifted from the normal way of doing things to more challenging and sometimes controversial approaches.

References

Bayley, Edwin. Joe McCarthy and the Press. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981. Print

Belfrage, Cedric. The American Inquisition, 1945-1960: A Profile of the McCarthy Era. New York: Thunders Mouth Press.1989. Print

De Bary William Theodore & Tu, Weiming. Confucianism and Human Rights. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Print

Fried, Albert. McCarthyism, the Great American red scare: A documentary history. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print

Karmel, Pepe, and Varnedoe, Kirk. Jackson Pollock: Essays, Chronology, and Bibliography. Exhibition catalog, New York, 1999. Print

Russell, Ross. Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, New York: Charterhouse, 1973. Print

Schweikart, Larry and Allen, Michael Patrick. A Patriots History of the United States Sentinel. 2004. Print

Shrecker, Ellen. Many are The Crimes, McCarthyism in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Print

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Humanities in America in the 1940s and 50s

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