On the Cover

November / December 2005

Illustration by Michael Mardosa

American radio was in its heyday in the 1940s. In addition to the news and entertainment was a myriad of commentary the likes of which this country has never heard. But the government had a foreign policy agenda that took priority over domestic issues.

When liberal and leftist commentators dared to question the motives of the Cold War, they were labeled Communist and unpatriotic, and forced off the air. Research by University of Maine Professor of History Nathan Godfried sheds a bright light on the pre-McCarthy era, when anticommunism was a way to rid the airways of criticism. The story starts on page 10.