In 1956, grassroots anti-communist activists based in Southern California who were closely monitoring legislation in Washington encountered a bill proposing funding for the construction of a psychiatric facility in Alaska, which they called “Siberia U.S.A.” Convinced it was part of a plot to create a Russian-style gulag for political prisoners, they issued alerts through their political networks, triggering a wave of letters to Congress opposing the legislation.
Nickerson will discuss this episode as a window into the rise of populist currents within American conservatism after 1950.
She is a professor at Loyola University Chicago, a former Fulbright Scholar and currently serves on the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Committee of Scholars.
Her published works include the edited volume Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region, and Spiritual Criminals: How the Camden 28 Put the Vietnam War on Trial.
