"Better Dead Than Red"

[Stephen Goranson]

Google Books claims (accurately or not) That v.3 pt. 2 [which would
beJuly-Dec]
1960 p.57 snippet has:
"Lieber tot als rot" ("Better be dead than red") ? is the infamous watchword
of
the hirelings of reaction alarmed by the growing socialist sympathies
of the ...

Germany Divided: The Legacy of the Nazi Era
By Terence Prittie 1960 p.14
In May 1959...
But he admitted that he himself would "sooner be dead than red." Kurt
Schumacher
, the first postwar leader of the West German Social Democratic Party, ...
Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
Quoting Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>:

> I assume you already have the Google book hit for 1938.  It says "better
> dead than red-white-red."  While it's only a snippet view, the book, an
> Engliish translation of  "The Last Five Hours of Austria"  by Eugen
> Lennhoff, Leigh Farnell, is available at Princeton.  And the date is
> correct.
>
> Sam Clements
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 08:47
> Subject: "Better Dead Than Red"
>
>
>> I would welcome any information about pre-1961 usage of the phrase "better
>> dead than Red."
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org