Antedating of "McCarthyism"

[Fred Shapiro]

The term _McCarthyism_ is usually said to have been coined by the
cartoonist Herblock in a _Washington Post_ cartoon, 29 Mar. 1950.  A
ProQuest search, however, turns it up one day earlier in another
newspaper:

1950 _Christian Science Monitor_ 28 Mar. 20 (ProQuest)  But at the moment
the primary responsibility rests on those leaders.  Their little spree
with McCarthyism is no aid to consultation.  They cannot call the
Secretary of State a "security risk" one day and become his confidantes
the next.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------