The Crucible - Library Information - Reading - Research Guides at Aquinas College

Introduction

Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 – 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' – and the McCarthyism which gripped America in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.

Britannica: Salem Witch Trials
Salem witch trials, (June 1692–May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted “witches” to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts).
World Book: Salem Witchcraft Trials
Salem witchcraft trials resulted from the largest witch hunt in American history. The trials were held in 1692 in Salem, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Nineteen people, both men and women, were convicted and hanged as witches.
National Geographic: The Salem Witch Trials
Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Fact & Fiction
The Museum of Modern Theatre The Salem Witch Trials vs. The McCarthy Era: similar ideas presented in Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible'

PBS: McCarthyism
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in Eastern Europe and China. Capitalizing on those concerns, a young Senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government.
World Book: McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a term for the widespread accusations and investigations of suspected Communist activities in the United States during the 1950's.
Harvard Crimson - Miller recounts McCarthy ers , origins of The Crucible