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.
Even during the height of McCarthy's power, a few members of the U.S. Senate had opposed him. The first was Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine and the only woman in the Senate at the time. Smith issued a declaration of conscience speech in June 1950, which identified McCarthy without naming him.