The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

A new edition of a classic work of history, revealing the anti—homosexual purges of midcentury Washington.

In The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson tells the frightening story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered as dangerous a threat to national security as Communists. Charges that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were havens for homosexuals proved a potent political weapon, sparking a “Lavender Scare” more vehement and long—lasting than Joseph McCarthy’s Red Sca...