A Case Poorly Made

The author of this book has a case to make. He argues that the “Palmer raids” and the Red scare of 1919-20 were not an aberration due to World War I and the Russian revolution. Rather, these events stimulated the revival of an old American identification of aliens and subversives—an identification which had it roots in the period of the Alien and Sedition laws and had reappeared in the 1890’s.

Preston argues his case by stressing the persistent popular feeling that ...