When her son left for a year abroad, she felt desolate. (Definition of âdesolateâ from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary Â© Cambridge University Press) Blogs about desolate
Instigating this fear was Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a Republican senator from Wisconsin and was the leader behind the ethos of McCarthyism. The term was created in 1950 by Washington Post writer Herbert Block.
McCarthyism refers to the metaphorical witch hunt which took place  in the 1950s, where innocent people were made to go before a  government committee to prove they were notâ¦ communists. It was  caused by the Cold War and the fear of the spread of communism to  democratic countries.