DiscoverOur American StoriesInside the First Red Scare: How the Palmer Raids Redefined “Radical”
Inside the First Red Scare: How the Palmer Raids Redefined “Radical”

Inside the First Red Scare: How the Palmer Raids Redefined “Radical”

Update: 2025-12-18
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On this episode of Our American Stories, every country has moments it would rather not rewatch, and the Palmer Raids sit high on America’s list. What began as scattered bomb scares and loud political rhetoric slowly slid into mass arrests, borderless investigations, and a government convinced that civil liberties were optional when the stakes felt high enough. Larry Reed unpacks how fear, politics, and a restless Justice Department collided in nineteen twenty, turning a national anxiety spike into one of the clearest case studies of how the rule of law can warp under pressure.

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Inside the First Red Scare: How the Palmer Raids Redefined “Radical”

Inside the First Red Scare: How the Palmer Raids Redefined “Radical”

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