The Crucible: Context (The Cold War, McCarthyism and HUAC)

[@stephenpalmer2429]

The first photograph is of John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev.

[@jeddle]

Thank you for the correction!

[@mastruction4132]

Thank you so much. You don't know how much this helped me

[@yaelvargaskusnir]

Great way to gather history and fiction in an analysis, I really liked it. I don't know much about the author, but did he say in real life that he took the cold war as inspiration for his work? or that is just a guess

[@jeddle]

Yep, he has explicitly said that it was a key source of inspiration, in particular the McCarthy Trials during the 1950's. Check out Miller's essay on "Why I Wrote The Crucible": www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/10/21/why-i-wrote-the-crucible

[@jeddle]

@wippity wine Fair play.

[@jiminbang5822]

If you want he's particularly famous for once being married to Marilyn Monroe

[@marcnsengimana8845]

Good teacher,you helped me

[@elifferdaerol6736]

thank you so much, this video totally gave me a better understanding of, like, everything lol

[@jeddle]

Thank you so much!

[@bradie3793]

thanks a lot! english paper 1 tomorrow :|

[@DorsalFin_]

cheers, helped with revision for trials

[@jeddle]

Thanks so much, hope it went well!

[@tara0911]

Thanks for the video, but the person is Nikita Khrushchev and not Stalin.

[@crossfire1122]

A summary for homework The video demonstrates the allegory between the Salem with trials and the Cold War/ McCarthyism, and it also shows the flaws of this comparison. It goes into detail about the red scare and the mass hysteria in the country. It is written at the height of this red scare which is why it was very controversial at the time. Hundreds of people are accused in both, however many in McCarthyism were actually communists which shows that in my opinion it is not a very good comparison.

[@jeddle]

Thanks for the comment! It's an interesting observation. Certainly in hindsight you can make the argument that communists were real whilst witches were not, however the relevant detail is that AT THE TIME OF the Salem witch trials (1690's), witches were believed to be JUST AS REAL as communists. So the perceived threat was relatively the same in both periods, hence making it an effective analogy.

[@emilynguyen1964]

thanks this helped with my homework

[@jeddle]

Thanks for your feedback :)

[@gabrielgunakabelen2982]

Thanks so much- warm greetings from Jakarta Indonesia

[@brianagayle6476]

I have question why Arthur Miller present before we ever read a line of the play.

[@Funny_ShortsVIXx]

Thank you soooooooo much🙏🏻💕

[@timwhite794]

Please get the historical information correct. The Russian figure is Nikita Kruschev, and that has a bearing on the context. The uncritical restatement of Cold War propaganda that The United States ( not ‘America’ as that refers to the entirety of both continents,) somehow embodied ‘freedom’ and the Communist countries were universally opposed to it is reductionist and misleading. Also the idea that the war was ‘all talk and no action’ is inaccurate and misleading. Would you tell the people of Cuba who were facing military intervention by the US that there was ‘no action’, or the folk in Czechoslovakia and East Germany there was ‘no action’?

[@jeddle]

Thanks Tim, really appreciate the critical response. It was unfortunate that the image was mischaracterised and so I thank you for the correction. Our hope is that viewers can still take away the general idea of the context, as we are deliberately simplifying things to make them more accessible for students of the text. Understanding the nuance of each contextual detail is of course essential for an in-depth study but in this particular video, we have aimed to provide a useful summary of some of the key aspects of the context that are worth exploring further.

[@hiodom8971]

you're srsly the best

[@sheemie]

amazing

[@chromecable]

English teacher be like: What does the noose represent in the story? Maybe death, or the end? Students: It literally represents a noose.

[@chromecable]

I used a noose because it was a common form of execution during the Salem Witch Trials

[@australianpatriot]

lit af

[@jeddle]

Thanks for watching!

[@snaithobrodie]

thanks, trials tomorrow ;)

[@timothyspool1399]

"All threats and no actions" - Tell that to the millions of people that died as communism spread through Russia, China and other smaller non-Western countries. I'm sure the Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodians would tell you it wasn't merely threats. "...but a very extreme versions of communist" - Pretty much the standard version of communist actually. There is no "totalitarian communism". There is only communism. Please seek out further sources if you want an accurate description of what it really meant for countries that were subjected to communism (and still does in some places). I know the guy in the video claims that it doesn't matter, but to really provide the correct context for the play, you need to have an accurate understanding of what kind of a threat communism was to any free country at that time.

[@spoanyan4809]

The first photo shows JFK and Winston Churchill, not Stalin

[@davidnorris166]

Actually, this is Nikita Khrushchev and is a reference to the Cuban Missle Crisis. See image here for reference: d.newsweek.com/en/full/250734/nikita-khrushchev.jpg

[@MCPEMINOL]

Thats no churcbilll

[@musfirakhurshid]

Justin Pu i worry for you

[@viking_warlordce]

Churchill had nothing to do with the cold war. i don't think he was even in office at that time.

[@christopha1656]

bRO clutch up