About Us!

As a group, we have a very strong knowledge base in both Russian history and American Cold-War era history, especially with regards to McCarthyism. In addition, we have conducted some research in order to better understand the political climate during the 1930s and the 1950s. We have also used more casual language in our writing in order to establish a rapport with the audience of our blog, which is comprised of English 101 students, who likely have similar speech patterns to ours.

Our blog aims to explore the differences between a Scot Tissue ad from the interwar period and a Timken Roller Company ad from the height of the Second Red Scare in the 1950s. We believe that the change in American attitudes between the two time periods is most visible in the appeals to pathos presented in both pieces. The Scot Tissue ad does not use strongly charged language in the way that the Timken ad nearly abuses such language.

In order to clarify the differences between the two pieces, we felt that it would be appropriate to discuss the Scot Tissue ad first and the Timken ad second. Beyond the basic halfway split, we didn’t have too much of an internal structure, mainly because each of us felt differently about which of the rhetorical appeals (secondary to kairos) was the most prominent in the two ads. It also lent us flexibility to be inspired by each other’s posts and ideas.

            Our texts both existed during a period of extreme fear of communism, particularly the Timken ad. The fear during this period turned into severe legislation, profiling, protest, and chaos. There is a similar political-turned-racial fear that exists today with respect to the national attitude towards terrorism. The media today would have us believe that a terrorist is anyone that follows (or appears that they might follow) the Muslim religion. Furthermore, the fear-mongering in present media creates the idea that Americans need to act to prevent terrorism through acts of racism and profiling. This environment of fear-based journalism in which we live today was also prominent during the second Red Scare, as is evident in the Timken ad.

            As far as appealing to pathos, our blog uses visual cues and humor in order to invoke a lightheartedness that invokes the humor with which we view the propaganda aspect of the Red Scare. However, it is important to remember that the Red Scare imprisoned many innocent people and made it acceptable to stereotype other Americans based on their political views.